Pension 100 - Do you want your pension paid in advance?

Many pensioners will not be aware, they are perhaps missing out in a Government Initiative - or should I say Secret Initiate (it must be secret they have told very few ! ) which changed the Goal posts for State Pensioners.

When I became eligible for my state Pension I was informed I could either receive my pension in one of two methods :-

a) Payment via the Post Office- in advance on a weekly basis.
b) Payment via your Bank Account. If you opted for this method you were paid one month in arrears,

I decided, Monthly in arrears through my Bank I didn't fancy collecting it from the Post Office on a weekly basis.

However I found out during August 2004 ago that you can now receive your State Retirement Pension weekly in advance through your Bank Account - as opposed to in arrears.

To be in a position to do that the Government has to bring your Pension up to date. In our case my wife and I were paid an extra three weeks pension just after the Months Pension had gone into our Bank on the 7th Aug 04.

The Benefit to You
The effect of this is that your pension now in advance, is in your Bank earning you interest as opposed to the Government.

I don't know about you, personally I prefer it in our coffers earning my wife and I now over 0.5% in our On-Line Bank account.

What you need to Do
First make sure that you that you have your National Insurance number, before you phone the Pensions Office, they will need it and will go over a few security details with you,

My State Pension is via Newcastle upon Tyne. Telephone 0845-301-3011. Other pensioners should look at their Annual Statement of Pension Increase (Form BR2199) for their Pensions Office phone number.

They first calculated how much I would receive (the amount being subject to the number of weeks to "catch up" - in our case it was an additional three weeks). After that we now receive it weekly into our Bank.

Why Haven't you been informed before
Yes a very good question and one I asked, and why it hadn't been widely circulated, I was told ( words to the effect "Don't be stupid sir ! it is not in the Government's best interest" ). and "only those who receive their pension via the post office are being officially told" -

I then enquired who would be communicating this to those who now receive it in their Bank. I was informed there is no official information being sent out, and as far as she knew the rest are finding out by "word of mouth"

My objective now is to make it widely known at every opportunity! Please pass it on!

You also pay very slightly less income tax if the state pension is paid weekly (assuming you are a tax payer), because the tax liability on the state pension is on the amount you are entitled to receive rather than on the actual amount received during the tax year.

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