OAP four-weekly?

[Mick F]

In the process of claiming my OAP for later this year.

We will normally pay your State Pension every four weeks into you bank or building society account.

I know the OAP is stated in a weekly rate, but why do they want to pay my OAP every four weeks?

Normally, people receive their salaries paid in on the last working day of the month. My service pension is like that too.
Having one pension paid at the end of each month, plus another paid every 28 days is going to play havoc with my accounting.

Why can't they divide the weekly rate by seven, then multiply by the days of the month to make it simple?
I'm aware that some OAPs collect weekly in cash from the local post office, but if they're paying it into a bank, what's wrong with monthly?

Rant over.

[barrym]

Yep, pees me off too. I've been drawing mine since October. It makes a right muddle of budgeting.

[Mick F]

Just looking at the .gov website.
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-have-your-benefits-paid
Seems like Universal Credit is paid monthly, so why not other benefits?

I will probably raise this with the Pension People next week. I'll give them a ring.
0800 731 7898

[rjb]

I thought the same as you but when mrs rjb qualified for hers the pension service took mine into account and pay hers 2 weeks after mine so we get a payment every 2 weeks. I keep a record of my finances on an old laptop using microsoft money and which we never connect to the Internet and the program gives an option of recording 4 weekly payments. Using this I can check my account whenever I want and see what the balance is down to the last penny. How sad is that

[Mick F]

Yep, pees me off too. I've been drawing mine since October. It makes a right muddle of budgeting.

Yes, what about monthly rent and bills and direct debits etc etc?
It could be that you'd go into the red before your pension is paid.

Surely this is a terrible issue this day and age. In days gone by, the man in the street didn't have a bank account.

I always reconcile my bank statements, and I always keep with paper statements. I tick the entries off against my computer spreadsheets. I've found errors in our favour a few times over the years.

[al_yrpal]

I like it because if you just treat the payment like a monthly pay cheque, every 12 months you get a bonus month. It's like the two months no council tax in February and March. You have to have something to look forward to in old age !

Al

[fossala]

Child benifit is paid every four weeks as well.

[dodger]

I think it's great. I suddenly find an extra payment into my account in the middle of the month that I somehow wasn't expecting, even though I've been getting it for a while. Fine by me!

[PH]

It's because it's a weekly amount rather than an annual one devided by 12 like a salery. Many hourly paid workers also get paid four weekly. If the state pension was the only income you had and you received the same every month, you would need to budget for the difference between long and short months, not just number of days but also what those days included.

[mercalia]

I agree with those who comment you get a bonus month. nice idea, you have been budgeting all year to stay within your means then you get a windfall Also easier to keep track of payments in my calandar just place a memo reminder every 4 weeks. If you were paid monthly would it pro-rata so some months less some more?

"Why can't they divide the weekly rate by seven, then multiply by the days of the month to make it simple?"

no thanks they may make a mistake and you lose out. or the calcuation loses you half a pence? if its the same each time then easy to keep track

[Mick F]

It's because it's a weekly amount rather than an annual one devided by 12 like a salery.

I don't agree in the slightest with this.

Weekly rate divided by seven then multiplied by the month. Any slight differences are carried forward to make whole pounds, or pence if you want it more accurate.

Take Mrs Mick F for instance .................. Yes, she's just retired ................ but before that.
She was a lunchtime supervisor and had been for twenty odd years plus.
She used to be the lollipop lady in the village too - did that for ten years.
After packing that up, she became a teaching assistant at the same school at the same time as doing the lunchtime job, and after qualifying, became high level teaching assistant. Two jobs a day.
All her jobs were paid hourly and separately by Cornwall Council ............... but all of them were paid on the last working day of the month into our current account.

If they can do it, any company or organisation can do it.

Back in the day when I was in the RN, we were ALL paid per day ........ ratings and officers alike. We ratings used to be paid once a fortnight, but slowly we all went over to being paid monthly to the bank. Officers were always paid monthly to their bank from joining as midshipmen.

The daily rate was multiplied to 14 days for us initially, and then later to the whole month. Each pay statement was reconciled so that odd bits and pieces were added to the next month. I'm now a service pensioner of course, and my pension is paid monthly.

If they can do it, any company or organisation can do it.

[francovendee]

Never had a problem with it, every 4 weeks for the state pension and first of the month for my company one, not too difficult to build this into an accounts spreadsheet.
I think most people aren't waiting for the next payment to arrive and have a buffer of cash left in their accounts. Of course there will be some who are not in this situation and are desperate to get the money.

I heard , on radio 4, a programme about pensions, it seems today's pensioners are the lucky ones. You need 3 working people paying taxes to fund 1 pensioner.
With people living longer the continued financing of the state pension becomes harder.
I also heard there is an £18 billion hole in the University pension pot and the government has said it's not going to bail it out.
Troubled times ahead for future pensioners I think

[Paulatic]

I don't see the problem with it just so long as there's money in my account I don't care when it came. As current accounts seem to pay more interest than savings accounts there is nothing wrong with having any excess in it.
Just work your budget out over a year and it will all be simple

[fossala]

My wife works hourly and gets paid every 4 weeks. I who also gets paid hourly gets paid on the 7th working day of each month. This is even more silly than every 4 weeks as most months I get paid on the 9th, but other months like January it can be around the 13th or 14th if I'm unluck and bank holidays and weekend fall badly.

[PH]

It's because it's a weekly amount rather than an annual one devided by 12 like a salery.

I don't agree in the slightest with this.

Weekly rate divided by seven then multiplied by the month. Any slight differences are carried forward to make whole pounds, or pence if you want it more accurate.

Take Mrs Mick F for instance .................. Yes, she's just retired ................ but before that.
She was a lunchtime supervisor and had been for twenty odd years plus.
She used to be the lollipop lady in the village too - did that for ten years.
After packing that up, she became a teaching assistant at the same school at the same time as doing the lunchtime job, and after qualifying, became high level teaching assistant. Two jobs a day.
All her jobs were paid hourly and separately by Cornwall Council ............... but all of them were paid on the last working day of the month into our current account.

If they can do it, any company or organisation can do it.

I don't think anyone has said they can't do it, this thread shows that not everyone would prefer it. I think those who need it most would prefer it least