What was claimed
As a former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be entitled to a pension of £115,000 a year for the rest of his life.
Our verdict
This is misleading. The £115,000 figure is not a “pension”—it’s the maximum amount ex-PMs can be reimbursed each year to cover costs associated with duties undertaken in their role as former prime ministers.
Following his resignation announcement on Monday morning we’ve seen several claims on social media that the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, will be entitled to £115,000 a year “for the rest of his life”.
Some have described this annual amount as his “salary” or “pension”, but that’s not what it is.
The £115,000 figure refers to the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA)—an allowance that can be used by former PMs to reimburse expenses “for necessary administrative costs arising from their special position in public life”, such as managing an office, dealing with correspondence and covering the costs of appearing at events in their capacity as an ex-Prime Minister.
It is not paid automatically—£115,000 is the maximum amount they can claim in a year once costs have been incurred.
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Former Prime Ministers can also claim a ‘pension allowance’ on top of this to contribute towards their staff’s pension costs, limited to a maximum of 10% of the PDCA.
The most recent government figures show that in 2024/25 of the eight living former PMs, five claimed the maximum or close to the maximum £115,000 entitlement. David Cameron did not claim the full amount and was not entitled to claim the PDCA for part of this financial year while serving as foreign secretary, while Liz Truss also did not claim the full amount. Rishi Sunak MP has said that he does not intend to claim the PDCA.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen misleading claims about the PDCA following the resignation of a Prime Minister—we wrote in more detail about this and other entitlements available to former PMs back in 2024.
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