when do you get your state pension?

jull_2
jull_2 Posts: 24 Forumite
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  • david39
    david39 Posts: 1,968 Forumite
    I started to query this point after my 65th birthday and my state pension did not arrive when I was expecting it.

    The complex ruling is as follows :

    Your "pay day" falls on the same weekday every time it is due and that weekday is dependent on the digits in your NI number - this is so that everyone does not get paid on the same day of the week and that the selection of that day is arbitrary. This is to avoid the entire senior citizen population without a bank account all queuing at the post office on the same day.

    Your pension starts, not on your retirement day (as one would expect) but on the first payday after that. You are then paid for the first time, in arrears, on the following payday.

    This means that if you are unlucky with the allocation of your payday then you can go for 6 days after your retirement date with no pension earned at all. You then have to wait a further month (if you are paid by BACS) for receipt of your first payment.
  • moonrakerz
    moonrakerz Posts: 8,650
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    Depends on how you elect to have it paid, either weekly or 4 weekly. The actual day does vary, may be affected by any other state payments.

    I will be 65 in a few weeks on a Friday, I have elected to be paid weekly and have been told first payment will be the following Tuesday.
  • Last two numbers of National Insurance number correspond to pay week ending days as follows:

    00 to 19 Monday
    20 to 39 Tuesday
    40 to 59 Wednesday
    60 to 79 Thursday
    80 to 99 Friday
  • Wanted to re-open this thread - as it's just happening to me right now.

    The problem is not with the pay-day itself, but with the start date of the pension. My birthday was 25th December (yes, I know). I have been informed that my pension begins on 31st of December and my 1st payment will be 27th January. In other words I have lost out on 1 week's pension.

    My wife paid the married women's NI contribution throughout, so she does not have a pension in her own right, but has a pension based on my contributions (it's 3/5th the full pension). However, the Pensions Department, nevertheless, deal with us separately, and she has been told that her pension STARTS on the 26th December, and she has just received her first (in arrears) payment today (20th January).

    Varying the date on which the payments are made is one thing, but varying the actual start date of the pension is something else entirely - especially when it's the same pension contributions that generate both my wife's and my entitlement!
    (Note also that, in our case, both our payments are made on the same day of the week - it's just that I lose out on one week's money compared with my wife.

    When I queried this just now with the Pensions department, I was told that this [variation of start date with NI number] was legislation. Is this a case where a perfectly sensible arrangement to spead out payment dates has been over-interpreted to mean that the pension start date can be delayed. They could easily, in my case, have kept the 1st payment date as stated, but paid me 5 weeks money.

    Anybody know the answer to this?

    bluebridge
  • le_loup
    le_loup Posts: 4,047 Forumite
    bluebridge wrote: »
    In other words I have lost out on 1 week's pension.
    No you haven't. You get it at the other end! Just arrange your death on the right date and you will be fine.
  • david39
    david39 Posts: 1,968 Forumite
    In other words I have lost out on 1 week's pension.


    Yes, you have (so did I) but that's the way the legislation was enacted so if you feel so strongly about it, you need to talk to your MP and get the legislation altered for future pensioners.

    Unfortunately for you and me, it's too late. They will not pass an amendment to the act that backdates such a change.

    I found there was an even larger loss on my employment pension because that was calculated over a monthly period, not a week.

    Personally, I intend living so long that one week's state pension will be peanuts compared with the total sum I receive.
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