Benefit payment dates/help please !

spottyscarf

Can anyone offer advice ?

I receive DLA,Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit and Incapacity Benefit(I've been on it for 17 years with an ongoing deteriorating condition).
I find it impossible to manage my finances because they are all paid on differing dates every four weeks.

For example, one week I only have my DLA of £76.
My bills are all monthly (on the 1st)
Can I ask for my benefits to be paid on the same day as each other ?

I would find it so much easier to budget with a single amount to deal with rather than a little for a week then nothing for 2 weeks etc etc.

I used to be able to borrow the full amount from my Mum and pay her back as I got "paid" and this worked really well for me.

Is there a reputable organisation that would do the same ?
many thanks for any help/advice, have a good weekend
spottyscarf

murtle1981

You could set up standing orders rather than direct debits for your bills so that YOU are in control of when things get paid. I pay my bills every 4 weeks by standing order rather than calendar monthly by direct debit. I get Income support fortnightly, child tax and child benefit weekly and my partner gets his DLA every 4 weeks. I have set my standing orders up so that my bills always come out on an Income Support payment day. I pay our car insurance and our DMP plus TV licence and internet. My water rates are taken directly from my benefits so i dont have to worry about those. We pay gas/elec weekly as weve got prepayment meters, pay as you go phone.
May be worth thinking about..

KimYeovil

You are not supposed to take it all out the day it goes in. You should have plenty of contingency funds and buffers. Why is there a problem? What is it you need to buy that makes it impossible to behave sensibly?

zagfles

No you can't - this is such a PITA. The financial clock ticks on a monthly basis in virtually all walks of life, except government. I think they're planning on making the new universal credit monthly but that's years off...

spottyscarf

KimYeovil wrote: »

You are not supposed to take it all out the day it goes in. You should have plenty of contingency funds and buffers. Why is there a problem? What is it you need to buy that makes it impossible to behave sensibly?

Your post makes no sense .. what do you mean "take it all out the day it goes in " ?
Plenty of contingency funds and buffers ? From where exactly ?
I suggest you try being disabled and bringing up 3 kids on your own.
Two are teenagers and eat and dress like adults, so that's 3 adults and one child on a single income.

spottyscarf

murtle1981 wrote: »

You could set up standing orders rather than direct debits for your bills so that YOU are in control of when things get paid. I pay my bills every 4 weeks by standing order rather than calendar monthly by direct debit. I get Income support fortnightly, child tax and child benefit weekly and my partner gets his DLA every 4 weeks. I have set my standing orders up so that my bills always come out on an Income Support payment day. I pay our car insurance and our DMP plus TV licence and internet. My water rates are taken directly from my benefits so i dont have to worry about those. We pay gas/elec weekly as weve got prepayment meters, pay as you go phone.
May be worth thinking about..

I do that as far as possible now, once the big bils (gas,elec,water, petrol) have gone it takes a big chunk.
Thanks for taking the time,much appreciated

spottyscarf

zagfles wrote: »

No you can't - this is such a PITA. The financial clock ticks on a monthly basis in virtually all walks of life, except government. I think they're planning on making the new universal credit monthly but that's years off...

Thought so - but always worth asking, thanks for taking the time to reply

MrsBartolozzi

While she was quite blunt about it, I think Kim has a point.

To manage a monthly budget when your incomings are at different times can be a bit confusing but really it's not too difficult to get your head around.
Start by listing all your incomes and the dates you get them (maybe mark them on a calendar ifthat helps to "see" their frequency). Then work out your budget - after direct debits, petrol, other usual payments etc how much are you left with for food, spending and savings (if any?).
Now you can use a spreadsheet to sort this through, but I'm rubbish at these so do it all on paper. So you now have an idea of which weeks will be lean and which will have more than your budget allows for a week. You can ask to change the dates of direct debits if it will help you to spread the burden over the month - maybe by the 15th you'd have enough to pay the main direct debits, so maybe change them to that day. If you worked out that you have £80 per week for food etc then never spend more than that in a week and any extra will be available to add to the next week where your income is less. Have I made this clear at all - or am I confusing you?lol

I get paid 4-weekly, my ctc is weekly, cb 4 weekly and child maintenance monthly so I know all about things coming at different times! My direct debits come out on the 1st, 10th, 15th and 20th so I never have a huge payment to come out on any one day which makes things easier to budget. If you need any more help you could maybe post some more specific money/dates info I'm sure someone could suggest helpful solutions.

karenx

When I was on income support as a single parent I added up all outgoings and divided it by a weekly equal amount which then went to a seperate account by standing order. Then I set up all the direct debits to come out that account. And everything left in my other account weekly was for food etc

spottyscarf

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

While she was quite blunt about it, I think Kim has a point.

To manage a monthly budget when your incomings are at different times can be a bit confusing but really it's not too difficult to get your head around.
Start by listing all your incomes and the dates you get them (maybe mark them on a calendar ifthat helps to "see" their frequency). Then work out your budget - after direct debits, petrol, other usual payments etc how much are you left with for food, spending and savings (if any?).
Now you can use a spreadsheet to sort this through, but I'm rubbish at these so do it all on paper. So you now have an idea of which weeks will be lean and which will have more than your budget allows for a week. You can ask to change the dates of direct debits if it will help you to spread the burden over the month - maybe by the 15th you'd have enough to pay the main direct debits, so maybe change them to that day. If you worked out that you have £80 per week for food etc then never spend more than that in a week and any extra will be available to add to the next week where your income is less. Have I made this clear at all - or am I confusing you?lol

I get paid 4-weekly, my ctc is weekly, cb 4 weekly and child maintenance monthly so I know all about things coming at different times! My direct debits come out on the 1st, 10th, 15th and 20th so I never have a huge payment to come out on any one day which makes things easier to budget. If you need any more help you could maybe post some more specific money/dates info I'm sure someone could suggest helpful solutions.

I pay all my direct debits and bigger bills when I have the most in my account, when I have two "paydays" near each other.
I took exception to Kim's comments because she seems to think there is some sort of slush fund of money I'm not using properly.
I'm not the 'typical mum on benefits' generally portrayed in the media..no 40in plasma screen here (my last tv cost £35 from Ebay !) and the kids and I haven't had a holiday for 10 years.
Thanks for your advice, appreciate you taking the time

spottyscarf

karenx wrote: »

When I was on income support as a single parent I added up all outgoings and divided it by a weekly equal amount which then went to a seperate account by standing order. Then I set up all the direct debits to come out that account. And everything left in my other account weekly was for food etc

Thanks for the idea, I appreciate you taking the time