State pension award

molerat

ali_bear said:

If you check your income and balances on a monthly basis, a four-weekly payment is really going to make things tricky. 

How ?  You generally get one payment per month with a bonus extra once a year.  Only if you are budgeting using that full 52 weeks worth across the year does it become a problem but no different to the many out there that still get paid 4 weekly (or 2 weekly).

ali_bear

Eldi_Dos said:

Shadyocuk said:

If the option to be paid weekly in arrears rather than 4 weekly in arrears still exists when I reach SPA,  I will choose weekly as I can't think of any logical reason not to. Both of my DB's will pay quarterly in advance, so I wont have any monthly income anyway.

One benefit of being paid 4 weekly is that you only have to check payment has gone into your account 13 rather than 52 times a year thus giving you more time to enjoy the fruits of your labour and a busy carefree retirement.

My point was that, if you check your funds and balances at the end of the month, say, to ensure you have enough to meet the start-of-month expenses AND as a means of tracking your wealth over time. Getting that four-weekly payment does not make things easier so you can "enjoy the fruits of your labour" in a more carefree way. It makes that more difficult. Getting the payment weekly does mitigate this however. 

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

I agree with @molerat. I simply budget for 12 payments a year, like my occupational pension and a small annuity.
The13th payment is a bonus to be saved or spent on something I fancy having.

Qyburn

Either way it's different from when I was working. It used to be that all our income came right at the end of the month. All the big outgoings, credit cards, transfers to savings, pension contributions all came at the beginning of the next. So you got a clear "how are we doing" by looking at the starting balance each month. Or at the minimum, the balance just before the first salary.

Four weekly a chunk of that income would come in at more or less random times during the month. Weekly it's spread out throughout, in our case a chunk ever Tuesday and one every Friday so there's no clear-cut high water or low water mark.

Qyburn

Eldi_Dos said:

One benefit of being paid 4 weekly is that you only have to check payment has gone into your account 13 rather than 52 times a year ..

Is that a real concern, how often does the payment not appear when it should?  However if it is a concern, you need to keep track of which week it's due.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

So easy to keep track of when state pension is due 4 weekly. It is always the same day every 4 weeks lol!!! I just made a note on my smartphone calendar for the Wednesday payment every 4 weeks and it is there for me to see years ahead!

Qyburn

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

So easy to keep track of when state pension is due 4 weekly. It is always the same day every 4 weeks lol!!! I just made a note on my smartphone calendar for the Wednesday payment every 4 weeks and it is there for me to see years ahead!

Great. If you're paid weekly you just know it's every Tuesday, or whatever day but it will be the same day of the week forever.  Four weekly, you need a smart phone to keep track of it.

BungalowBel

When I started receiving my State Pension in January 2010 (one of the last women able to receive it at 60), I applied by phone.  They told me there and then how much it would be and when I would get the first payment.  It happened exactly as they said.

I was also able to opt to have it paid weekly -  I liked the thought of there always being some input into the current account so that there was never a time when I had to think about whether there would be enough money in to pay the bills.  My husband's Teachers' Pension also went into this account, but calendar monthly, so it was nice to have a top-up every week.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Qyburn said:

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

So easy to keep track of when state pension is due 4 weekly. It is always the same day every 4 weeks lol!!! I just made a note on my smartphone calendar for the Wednesday payment every 4 weeks and it is there for me to see years ahead!

Great. If you're paid weekly you just know it's every Tuesday, or whatever day but it will be the same day of the week forever.  Four weekly, you need a smart phone to keep track of it.

Even 4 weekly it is always paid on the same day! Mine is paid on a Wednesday.