State Pension forecast vs actual payment

bjorn_toby_wilde

jem16 said:

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

molerat said:

Working people see their pay as weekly, monthly and annually so it will be as a comparison to what they are used to.

Which is why I find it odd that the state pension is paid every four weeks (and I know you can opt for weekly before the pedants start typing).

I’ve been employed in jobs that were paid  weekly or monthly but I can’t think of any example of a job with a four weekly pay cycle.  Why is it set up like that?

I’m sure there’s a good reason (actually it’s a government department so I’m not sure there will be a good reason!).

I was paid 4 weekly. It was quite common. 

However with respect to the state pension, like most benefits it’s a weekly benefit which is why payments are in multiples of weeks. 

That’s interesting. Do you mind if I ask what you did?

Four weekly seems a pain to me, mainly because it just doesn’t seem to tie in with bill payments, etc.  Utilities, credit cards, everything seems to work on calendar months.

spaniel101

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

molerat said:

Working people see their pay as weekly, monthly and annually so it will be as a comparison to what they are used to.

Which is why I find it odd that the state pension is paid every four weeks (and I know you can opt for weekly before the pedants start typing).

I’ve been employed in jobs that were paid  weekly or monthly but I can’t think of any example of a job with a four weekly pay cycle.  Why is it set up like that?

I’m sure there’s a good reason (actually it’s a government department so I’m not sure there will be a good reason!).

4 weekly here!   Railway - most TOC's/FOC's are paid 4 weekly.   We tend to see the '13th' monthly pay day as a 'bonus'  (although in reality its not, but easy enough to budget this way).   You do get used to it and I now prefer it - comes around much quicker!  

molerat

There are many places that pay 4 weekly, some of the supermarkets were on that schedule.  I remember a few years back when there was a big fuss at Asda over the tax when getting 14 pay days in a year.  Seems it happens once every 20 years and in 2012-13 it caused Asda staff to owe over £12M in tax.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

molerat said:

There are many places that pay 4 weekly, some of the supermarkets were on that schedule.  I remember a few years back when there was a big fuss at Asda over the tax when getting 14 pay days in a year.  Seems it happens once every 20 years and in 2012-13 it caused Asda staff to owe over £12M in tax.

Or to put it another way, get £12m in interest free loans from HMRC 😉

jem16

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

jem16 said:

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

molerat said:

Working people see their pay as weekly, monthly and annually so it will be as a comparison to what they are used to.

Which is why I find it odd that the state pension is paid every four weeks (and I know you can opt for weekly before the pedants start typing).

I’ve been employed in jobs that were paid  weekly or monthly but I can’t think of any example of a job with a four weekly pay cycle.  Why is it set up like that?

I’m sure there’s a good reason (actually it’s a government department so I’m not sure there will be a good reason!).

I was paid 4 weekly. It was quite common. 

However with respect to the state pension, like most benefits it’s a weekly benefit which is why payments are in multiples of weeks. 

That’s interesting. Do you mind if I ask what you did?

Four weekly seems a pain to me, mainly because it just doesn’t seem to tie in with bill payments, etc.  Utilities, credit cards, everything seems to work on calendar months.

I was a teacher. We were always paid monthly and then at some point our local council decided to change all its employees from monthly to 4 weekly. I did prefer monthly payments but didn’t have any choice. My teacher’s pension is now paid monthly but of course my state pension is 4 weekly. 

LHW99

Presumably it remains based on weekly payments because many years ago everyone got it paid weekly in cash from the local PO.

As direct payments and then the online systems came in that was never actually changed and it would likely cause too much disruption to offer monthly payments (knowing how well government data system implementation often works )

SacredStephan

I believe Tesco pays its staff every four weeks.

german_keeper

Many years ago when I worked on Family Credit I remember occasionally people being paid on a 4/4/5 cycle.

poseidon1

Unless you are literally living pay check to pay check with zero cash buffer,  really cannot understand this angst over monthly versus 4 weekly debate.

As it happens I insisted on receiving my state pension weekly.

The bulk of my other investment/rental income has been quarterly or half yearly, so the weekly pension is a useful iinfill. However even without that, there is a sufficient cash buffer to meet bills whenever they occur and I have not slavishly arranged all bills to hit at the same time each month.

However it helps that my current account is interest bearing where the cash buffer is held.

MarlowMallard

Going off on a slight tangent, I heard it is common in France to be paid 1/13 of your annual salary monthly, but there's an extra 50 percent in July and December to help with August holiday and Christmas.  Sounds quite sensible.