April State Pension paid early to avoid increase?

Hal17

MikeJXE said:

I got paid Thursday which is normal at Easter time.

Plus it was my new rate with the 10.1% increase 

That was good news. What day do you normally get paid your state pension? I got mine on Thursday but at the old rate! Normally get mine on a Monday.

jem16

Hal17 said:

MikeJXE said:

I got paid Thursday which is normal at Easter time.

Plus it was my new rate with the 10.1% increase 

That was good news. What day do you normally get paid your state pension? I got mine on Thursday but at the old rate! Normally get mine on a Monday.

Yes but yours is probably a week in arrears whereas the other person is a week in advance.

NedS

JGB1955 said:

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

It's the same system as for other legacy weekly benefits such as ESA and JSA (well, JSA signing day although payment was typically received 3 working days later).

WRT the issue of moving from weekly (or 4 weekly) to monthly payments, UC (which is a monthly system) gets around this by offering 'more frequent' payments where half the monthly payment is made after 2 weeks and the other half on the regular monthly payment date, which may be a little over two weeks.

Shedman

p00hsticks said:

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.....

I don't remember the queues at the post office but around here it was the number of the blue rinse brigade having a meal in the local pub on a Thursday once they'd collected their pensions.   We always used to try and avoid Thursdays when we went for pub lunch at work..

Flugelhorn

Nelliegrace said:

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

why would it make a difference? 

dealyboy

@Flugelhorn said:

@Nelliegrace said:

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

why would it make a difference? 

... indeed it confused me for a while (well I am old). I have a Nationwide FlexDirect which needs £1,000 paid in monthly to continue its 5% credit interest. My SP doesn't cut it so I do a shuffle on the day of receipt.

So if the SP is paid 4-weekly, there will never be a month when it is not received ... or is that still true if the DWP change payment dates to accommodate public holidays?

MikeJXE

Hal17 said:

MikeJXE said:

I got paid Thursday which is normal at Easter time.

Plus it was my new rate with the 10.1% increase 

That was good news. What day do you normally get paid your state pension? I got mine on Thursday but at the old rate! Normally get mine on a Monday.

I normally get paid on Monday which doesn't sync with Your Payment Day mentioned earlier as the last 2 digits of my national insurance number are 66

badmemory

dealyboy said:

? 

... indeed it confused me for a while (well I am old). I have a Nationwide FlexDirect which needs £1,000 paid in monthly to continue its 5% credit interest. My SP doesn't cut it so I do a shuffle on the day of receipt.

So if the SP is paid 4-weekly, there will never be a month when it is not received ... or is that still true if the DWP change payment dates to accommodate public holidays?

I'm not sure if you are saying this tongue in cheek so...  This cannot happen if it is a 31 day month.  For example if the Monday pay day was the 3rd & a BH then it would be paid on the last day of the previous month.  But the next payment would be due on the 31st of the same month.  The same would apply for 30 day months for payments due on the 1st or 2nd.  And there are no BHs in February.  So the only months you need to worry about are April & the occasional year we get one in June, as there are none in September or November.  If you are worrying about August don't because if the 1st BH payment gets moved forwards then so will the 2nd.  So basically the only problem should be Easter.

zagfles

badmemory said:

dealyboy said:

? 

... indeed it confused me for a while (well I am old). I have a Nationwide FlexDirect which needs £1,000 paid in monthly to continue its 5% credit interest. My SP doesn't cut it so I do a shuffle on the day of receipt.

So if the SP is paid 4-weekly, there will never be a month when it is not received ... or is that still true if the DWP change payment dates to accommodate public holidays?

I'm not sure if you are saying this tongue in cheek so...  This cannot happen if it is a 31 day month.  For example if the Monday pay day was the 3rd & a BH then it would be paid on the last day of the previous month.  But the next payment would be due on the 31st of the same month.  The same would apply for 30 day months for payments due on the 1st or 2nd.  And there are no BHs in February.  So the only months you need to worry about are April & the occasional year we get one in June, as there are none in September or November.  If you are worrying about August don't because if the 1st BH payment gets moved forwards then so will the 2nd.  So basically the only problem should be Easter.

Even Easter shouldn't be a problem with the way English bank holidays usually work. If Easter Mon is on 3rd or 4th April and you're due a payment on that date it'll be moved back to March. But the next payment due date would be 1st or 2nd May, which as first Mon in May is also usually a bank holiday, so it would be moved back to April.

Don't know how it works in Scotland, whether DWP use English or Scottish bank hols, but they have 2 bank hols at the start of Jan which could be issue eg last year 3rd and 4th Jan were bank hols.

dealyboy

@badmemory said:

dealyboy said:

? 

... indeed it confused me for a while (well I am old). I have a Nationwide FlexDirect which needs £1,000 paid in monthly to continue its 5% credit interest. My SP doesn't cut it so I do a shuffle on the day of receipt.

So if the SP is paid 4-weekly, there will never be a month when it is not received ... or is that still true if the DWP change payment dates to accommodate public holidays?

I'm not sure if you are saying this tongue in cheek so...  This cannot happen if it is a 31 day month.  For example if the Monday pay day was the 3rd & a BH then it would be paid on the last day of the previous month.  But the next payment would be due on the 31st of the same month.  The same would apply for 30 day months for payments due on the 1st or 2nd.  And there are no BHs in February.  So the only months you need to worry about are April & the occasional year we get one in June, as there are none in September or November.  If you are worrying about August don't because if the 1st BH payment gets moved forwards then so will the 2nd.  So basically the only problem should be Easter.

... not this time ... it was just a thought ... thanks to you and @zagfles.