What does SP mean o n a bank statement? 14 March at 12:01PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 7 replies 371 views

mrsyardbroom

Today I logged on to my bank account expecting to see the usual lack of money, but instead I found a sum of money had been paid in by the DWP and it was followed by the letters SP.  I applied for pension credits last July but never heard anything. I haven't had any paperwork yet from the DWP but can anyone tell me what the SP means please. I've put the money safely into my ISA in case it's a mistake.

TadleyBaggie

Usually means it’s a  State Pension payment. 

mrsyardbroom

TadleyBaggie said:

Usually means it’s a  State Pension payment. 

Thank you. That's what I thought but I've just spoken to a friend who checked her bank statement and had the same thing a little while ago. Apparently it's a back payment for pension credits. They're taking a long time to process claims, but when they do they pay a lump sum for the back payment. She had DWP SP on the statement and in this case we think it means special payment. Hers was followed by a smaller payment and  this had PC on it for the pension credit, and this was the amount payable each week. I hope they haven't made a mistake but if they do it's tucked away safely...or maybe I'll say, 'You're not having that back.' It was quite a lot of money. I hope this helps someone else.

Ayr_Rage

If it has been paid in error you will have to pay it back.

retiringtoosoon

Hah, good luck refusing to pay back a payment in error from DWP

mrsyardbroom

It was a joke. I underpaid council tax once and it turned out to be non recoverable. That was a relief as it was their mistake. I just forked out what they told me.

p00hsticks

mrsyardbroom said:

TadleyBaggie said:

Usually means it’s a  State Pension payment. 

Thank you. That's what I thought but I've just spoken to a friend who checked her bank statement and had the same thing a little while ago. Apparently it's a back payment for pension credits. They're taking a long time to process claims, but when they do they pay a lump sum for the back payment. She had DWP SP on the statement and in this case we think it means special payment. Hers was followed by a smaller payment and  this had PC on it for the pension credit, and this was the amount payable each week. I hope they haven't made a mistake but if they do it's tucked away safely...or maybe I'll say, 'You're not having that back.' It was quite a lot of money. I hope this helps someone else.

It may well be that when a one-off payment is keyed manually into the system its given the 'SP' descriptor rather than 'PC' as the two benefits are handled by the same computer system - I know others over on the benefits board have reported that a similar thing happens when a one-off payment for ESA is made, as it is tagged with the 'JSA' identifier instead. 

mrsyardbroom

I hope the post has given a little beacon of hope to those waiting a long time for their pension credit claims to be processed. I rang them once during the long wait (8 months) and I could understand absolutely what was going on. I've worked in a government office where we suddenly sank in an avalanche of work. We worked our socks off to get it done and people were working all night. There wasn't enough room to employ more staff. Eventually we got it all done.