State Pension

Brie

xylophone said:

Makes budgeting impossible for some. 

Could you explain how?

For you and @BikingBud

It's easy to forget that a lot of people are not money savvy.  Some can't even add and subtract.  So trying to figure out how much one must have at the month to ensure you can pay everything next month is very difficult.  Switching to weekly payments helps some but when all you get is your SP or another benefit you're very often living basically hand to mouth anyways, not helped by all those monthly DD that might be easier to manage if the payment date was aligned with you SP income.

Many of us are lucky to have a work pension or two, maybe still have a small PT income as well, all paid monthly.  Plus a nice widget of savings to replenish the account the DDs are paid from.

Hoenir

Brie said:

xylophone said:

Makes budgeting impossible for some. 

Could you explain how?

For you and @BikingBud

It's easy to forget that a lot of people are not money savvy.  Some can't even add and subtract.  So trying to figure out how much one must have at the month to ensure you can pay everything next month is very difficult. 

Months have differing number of days. How do people cope with that when budgeting?  The state pension has been paid the same way for a very long time. Well before the technology that's avalable now was accessible to all. 

Brie

@Hoenir

Some people had trouble with that too.  And didn't know they could get DD payment dates delayed to cope with work pay being a bit late.

BikingBud

How do they manage council tax and water bills that tend to only require paying as a single payment or more usually 10/12? Possibly utilities at 3/12, or car tax, car servicing or car insurance or many other non-regular payments.

Let's go back to paying people in cash, weekly, that'll solve all the problems won't it? Nope still doesn't match up with the sometimes random outgoing cycle. 

But nothing is impossible and suggesting it is provides excuses for those that only want to be victims and do not want to "learn" to manage their money. Yes unfortunately this is a significant educational shortfall but it is what it is and there are resources to improve this: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/financial-education/ but we should focus on showing empathy and steering them toward education rather than just saying "yeah its impossible". By that we route we just continue with learned helplessness.

ColdIron

Fluterman said:

I wonder how many Pensioners on this site are aware of the following issue. State Pension is paid every 4 weeks, thirteen payments per year.

All of them I should think

Hoenir

Brie said:

@Hoenir

Some people had trouble with that too.  And didn't know they could get DD payment dates delayed to cope with work pay being a bit late.

That places such as this forum. Should be constructive and help people find solutions that work for them.  Education rather making more and more molehills.

westv

When I am old enough for the SP I won't lower myself to be paid weekly.

   

badmemory

Then there is the other problem that it can't be taxed at source, this is why people are talking about state pensioners gettiing annual bills from HMRC.  Then to be really irritating they won't let you file self assessment & insist they do the simple assessment.  Then they get it wrong, every year so far, then they decide it is a good idea to close the phone lines.  But we must remember that tax shouldn't be taxing.

poseidon1

Qyburn said:

This is why I'm going to choose weekly payment. I believe they try to resist this, but in law it's a weekly entitlement, and to rub it in you're actually taxed on what you would have received weekly.

Precisely what I ended up doing after initially getting it every fortnight  ( an option I should not have been offered in the 1st place!)

However, you are right you have to phone up and request weekly ( on the basis of 'change of circumstances').

It is not an option on the online claim system. That said I was moved onto weekly within a week of the phone request. There is something quite pleasing about the weekly £200 dropped into a current account  earning 1.5 to 2% interest.

Bit perplexed about this so called budgeting difficulty  with the 4 week option.

Brie

BikingBud said:

How do they manage council tax and water bills that tend to only require paying as a single payment or more usually 10/12? Possibly utilities at 3/12, or car tax, car servicing or car insurance or many other non-regular payments.

Let's go back to paying people in cash, weekly, that'll solve all the problems won't it? Nope still doesn't match up with the sometimes random outgoing cycle. 

But nothing is impossible and suggesting it is provides excuses for those that only want to be victims and do not want to "learn" to manage their money. Yes unfortunately this is a significant educational shortfall but it is what it is and there are resources to improve this: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/financial-education/ but we should focus on showing empathy and steering them toward education rather than just saying "yeah its impossible". By that we route we just continue with learned helplessness.

If their income is low enough (likely if they only get SP) then there is little or no CT and water bills are small.  Rent goes into arrears and then is caught up . But the big problem is utilities.