April State Pension paid early to avoid increase?

MikeJXE

I got paid Thursday which is normal at Easter time.

Plus it was my new rate with the 10.1% increase 

xylophone

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-11942633/State-pension-rises-10-1-starting-Monday-10-April-need-know.html

MikeyPGT

MikeyPGT said:

Sarahspangles said:

My favourite bit of the state pension system is that using the NI number I was issued at 16, I can tell which day of the week my pension will be paid when I’m 67!

Really? How?  I must have missed that day when they taught it at school!

Seems I'm a Thursday's pensioner - good old wikipaedia!

Sarahspangles

MikeyPGT said:

Sarahspangles said:

My favourite bit of the state pension system is that using the NI number I was issued at 16, I can tell which day of the week my pension will be paid when I’m 67!

Really? How?  I must have missed that day when they taught it at school!

It's here, part way down the page https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get.  

I was born on a Sunday, will turn 67 on a Sunday (hopefully I will get there...) and my pension will be paid on a Friday although there's no guarantee about which Friday!

I think spreading the payments across the week in this way is a new thing.  It used to be Mondays or Thursdays, also known as 'Post Office Queue Days'

badmemory

If you have been paid 4 weekly then the NI No thing has applied for a long time, certainly over 20 years as my mother was paid on a Friday.  Not that she had an 80-99 number but hers was affected by my father.  Mine also is paid on a friday even though it ends with 40-59, but this I believe is because I deferred it.  I don't think they do it with the new state pension though.  Would be interesting to find out.

JGB1955

MikeyPGT said:

Sarahspangles said:

My favourite bit of the state pension system is that using the NI number I was issued at 16, I can tell which day of the week my pension will be paid when I’m 67!

Really? How?  I must have missed that day when they taught it at school!

Your payment day

The day your pension is paid depends on your National Insurance number.

You might be paid earlier if your normal payment day is a bank holiday.

Last 2 digits of your National Insurance number	Payment day of the week
00 to 19	Monday
20 to 39	Tuesday
40 to 59	Wednesday
60 to 79	Thursday
80 to 99	Friday

Sarahspangles

badmemory said:

If you have been paid 4 weekly then the NI No thing has applied for a long time, certainly over 20 years as my mother was paid on a Friday.  Not that she had an 80-99 number but hers was affected by my father.  Mine also is paid on a friday even though it ends with 40-59, but this I believe is because I deferred it.  I don't think they do it with the new state pension though.  Would be interesting to find out.

I found the reference on a page for the New State Pension so I think it's now the default.   When I said that payments being spread across the week was a 'new thing' that's in the context of the pace of change for pension systems which seems to be measured in decades.... 

p00hsticks

Sarahspangles said:

badmemory said:

If you have been paid 4 weekly then the NI No thing has applied for a long time, certainly over 20 years as my mother was paid on a Friday.  Not that she had an 80-99 number but hers was affected by my father.  Mine also is paid on a friday even though it ends with 40-59, but this I believe is because I deferred it.  I don't think they do it with the new state pension though.  Would be interesting to find out.

I found the reference on a page for the New State Pension so I think it's now the default.   When I said that payments being spread across the week was a 'new thing' that's in the context of the pace of change for pension systems which seems to be measured in decades.... 

I think it probably started when being paid directly into bank accounts became a thing, probably about the same time that the original (and I suspect still going) DWP computer systems were developed in the 1980s. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one on these boards who can remember from my childhood walking past a Post Office just before 9am on a Thursday  morning and seeing the queue of pensioners outside with their pension books waiting to get their weekly cash payment.....

Nelliegrace

The problem with being paid four weekly is that you have to shuffle money around some months to avoid bank account fees.

p00hsticks

Nelliegrace said:

The problem with being paid four weekly is that you have to shuffle money around some months to avoid bank account fees.

As I've said earlier up the thread. If it really causes a budgeting problem and the person is able to open another bank account just to get the pension paid into, then they could do so and then set up a standing order to move the pension amount over to their main account on the same day each month.
 
The only downside is that for the first year doing that they'll need to make the four weekly  payment last a month, but once the thirteenth payment of the year arrives they'll have enough leeway to increase the standing order to reflect a full months pension equivalent  amount.