State payment pension payment date

waiting_for_sunshine

My Husband reaches state pension age on the 15th July this year. He applied for the pension in March and has received a letter stating when payment will be made, but can't make sense of the dates. He rang the DWP and spoke to two different advisers, neither of which who are able to explain the significance of the dates in the letter. The second adviser said that she will need to send an internal email to investigate and that I will receive a letter in six weeks with an explanation. In our experience this is perhaps unlikely and I'm wondering if anyone here can shed any light on the dates/figures?

The letter states:

You will receive a on-off payment of £689.43 on 3 August 2026. This is for the period 15 July to 3 August 2026

Your regular payments of £965.20 every 4 weeks start from 28 August 2026.

The questions are:

What is the significance of the 3rd and 28th August, and why the interim payment?

The regular 4-week pension payment is stated as starting from the 28th August, not on the 28th. The advisor could not tell him if he would receive a payment on that date, or whether it would be another 4 weeks after. Neither could she explain why the time from the 3rd to the 28th is less than 4 weeks. Also, from his NI number the payment day should be Monday, but the 28th August is Friday and this couldn't be explained either.

t0rt0ise

The week one starts the 4 week payments apparently depends on the letter at the end of the National Insurance number. So he starts on 3rd and gets part payment for the first days until then. Next payment due 31st which is a bank holiday so will be paid early.

437222

I don't pretend to understand the details of how they work out the payment schedule for the State Pension, but I had very similar treatment when my pension commenced. I think it's just the way it works.

Silvertabby

This is pretty standard for State pension payments. It's paid in arrears, on the day of the week determined by your NI number. Making the first payment of exactly 4 weeks on the exact day due would be almost impossible, hence the short first payment followed by 4 weekly payments.

Why 28th August when this is a Friday and your husband's NI number indicates Monday payments? Well, the most obvious answer to that is that Monday 31 Aug is a Bank Holiday, so his pension will be paid on the working day before. This payment will be for the period 4 Aug to 31 Aug (28 days/4 weeks) and so his next payment will be 4 weeks after 31 Aug.

jem16

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6669826/state-payment-pension-payment-date

Whoever you spoke to should have been able to explain it.

Your husband’s first payment on 3rd August is a part payment which gets him onto his regular payment cycle. This cycle is determined by the last 2 numbers giving him his payment day of a Monday and the final letter giving him his payment week in the 4 week cycle. This week is pay,ent week for those whose NI number ends with a B.

Your husband’s next payment should have been Monday 31st August but as that’s a Bank Holiday he will be paid early on Friday 28th August which is why it’s not the full 28 days. His next payment will revert to the proper 28 days schedule so will be on Monday 28th September.

p00hsticks

What a shame the OP didn't ask here first rather than a query to DWP (which they should have been able to answer of the bat but is now going apparently going to involve further internal communications and a further letter.)

Although the gov.uk website doesn't explain the four week cycle, it does document the day of the week you can expect to get paid depending on your NI number

The new State Pension: When you're paid - GOV.UK

waiting_for_sunshine

Well, it's all now absolutely clear from your replies. Why the DWP couldn't have just pointed out the bank holiday is quite depressing. This could also have easily been made clear in the original letter. The advisers also said that they didn't have access to any of the letters that had been sent, so couldn't comment on them, which is rather surprising.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82011943#Comment_82011943

I hope you're aware that it can be paid weekly, it doesn't have to be four weekly. It's still in arrears, but you get the payment every week instead of DWP hanging on to it for another three weeks.