Claiming state pension

I was sent a letter a good few weeks before my pension was due last November. I could have claimed by getting a password for the government gateway online and doing it that way. Having tried that before and finding it so convoluted and stressful I took the easy way out and phoned a human. It was very easy, they were very helpful, told me what I would receive , first payment was a part month, and exactly when it would be credited to my bank account. A letter followed soon after with everything in writing. It all turned out exactly as I had been told. If you haven't heard from them four weeks before his retirement date I would ring them again. Good luck, do hope it goes smoothly.

Alima, thanks for reply. We were going to try on-line application and have sent for password but prefer as you did to speak to a person so will wait and try again later.

Mine all went smoothly - letter came - money came!!

Sister had bit of a nightmare as they couldn't work out a gap in her working ( looking after children) it had things up a bit the whole pension thing baffles me not retired yet still working but hoping!!!

when i claimed my pension 10 years ago i was asked about the gap in my working when i was looking after my children. they decided that they would use my husband's contributions to work out my pension so that worked out all right.
i received my first pension payment just after i retired in august 2007 and every four weeks thereafter - although i've still got to get my head around sorting out the paying of bills which are paid monthly!
i get paid on a friday every four weeks for my state pension, every four weeks on a tuesday for my disability living allowance [not the same week] and once a month for my occupational pension.
you would have thought that the simple thing would be to take the weekly amount of pension, multiply it by 52 and then divide that by 12 and pay everyone on the last day of the month but i suppose simple and logical doesn't work for the dwp!

you get 13 Pension months a year, Lupatria, it goes back years, to the system set up for the then sate owned industries, where workers got paid every 4 weeks., some things that work are never changed

Just for sake of argument, when I retired almost 8 years ago I was offered the choice of having my pension weekly, two weekly or four weekly. I chose weekly and consequently love Mondays!
Also for years my husband was paid four weekly (and same with pensions now). In order to sort out the bills coming out calendar monthly, we opened a second bank account then, when his salary/pension is paid in to No. 1 account, the bill money (which I do actually work out over 12 months not 13) is sent by SO to No. 2 account and all our bills are paid out of that account. This way we always know how much money we have to spend each month and know that the bills will always be paid on time. The reason for the 12 months not 13 is that as the bills go up (as they invariably do) we don't have to change the amount that is paid in. Sometimes, I can even whizz some extra money over to the savings account!!

Also, if you stayed at home to look after your children and didn't pay your own NI contributions, they allow you 3 years Parental Responsibility contributions for each child under 6 (if I remember correctly). However this is concurrent so, in my case, as I had my 3 children in 3 years, I only got 9 years total contributions paid.

Thanks for the replies, interesting to note payments are 4 weekly and not monthly as we had been thinking - every little extra helps as I just missed out on my pension and have to wait another 5 years, by which time it could have all changed again.

I've been looking in to this as I get my pension next March. I think I'll ask for it to be paid weekly. My pay day will be a Thursday.

We've both claimed over the last couple of years but neither of us received any initial letters - one of us 'phoned and the other applied on line - both seemed to work alright and then we received the letters explaining the payments.

Think it's always paid every four weeks - 13 payments a year - and if anyone is wondering the day of payment depends on your National Insurance number, certain numbers on certain days - no choice.

Be careful with your tax returns. Some people, me for one,get a nasty shock. Because I do not get enough income from my pensions to take me over the threshold I gave my husband part of my tax allowance. The Civil Service sent me a tax code change letter. Immediately we both got letters from the tax man. I was told I owed them £200+ and OH was given the same amount in over paid tax. Do the sums carefully before you claim. OH cancelled it after several 'phone calls and after weeks of tooing and froing it was sorted out thank goodness.

My husband is nearly 70. when he reached 65 he started applying for his Greek pension, which he contributed to for several years a very long time ago when he lived in Greece. (He is Greek). It took many phone calls and letters. but he has finally got it!

I have my pension weekly on a Monday but I believe that the choice now is only 4 weekly or 3 monthly. Who would want it 3 monthly as it is paid in arrears? I know my husband was not given the weekly option when he retired later than me.

With the giving of some tax allowance what matters is your overall tax position. You can only move 10% of the allowance - about £ 1100. We did this and OH pays a small amount and no unused allowance and I pay less but overall we gain. The tax man told him on the phone when he rang up about it what the result would be.

I found it easy to claim mine too. I did it over the 'phone, they worked it all out, told me the date it would go in the Bank, and it goes in four weekly. The chap on the phone was very pleasant too.

I was amazed how much they knew about me though . He asked had I ever worked abroad and I was adamant that i had not. After we said goodbye I remembered I had worked in Ireland when I was 17!! a lifetime ago, and although it IS I never think of Ireland as being "Abroad". I called them back in a tizzy thinking I would be in trouble or something for not declaring it, but he was lovely, he said not at all it is just to see if you are owed any pension from that Country :-)

I wasn't, by the way, wasn't there long enough.

Chelseababy...I got my pension 18 months ago...wasn't given a choice about how I wanted it paid. I receive it 4 weekly on a Wednesday....you had better check this out before you get your hopes up! My hopes were dashed when I had to receive it 4 weekly, but I've got a strong constitution and keep it separate from other monies and pay myself a weekly pension from my bank account.

W11girl - I did look it up yesterday and it said you could have it weekly or fortnightly in arrears - however this doesn't show on the claim from. I imagine they don't want to encourage this. When the time comes (not long now!) I will ring them up and ask in case it changes! The different pay days used to mean you could lose out on nearly a week's pension as only full week's were paid. That has changed now too.

My DH started claiming his deferred state pension on 6 March and it has been paid weekly ever since. He was not given the option of having it paid monthly.

He had a lump sum to come too as he had not claimed his state pension for 10 years and the rate of interest on the unclaimed amount was far better than anything available in the banks. He could have enhanced the weekly amount of pension instead of taking the lump sum but chose to take the whole lump.

Tried the online method but kept getting error codes, so telephoned, spoke to a person who was very helpful and I now get mine weekly, still working part time so its increased my taxable income but the good news is I don't pay an insurance stamp. Hubby took early retirement on a works pension and gets his state pension end of May 2017 managed to do his on line its due in 4 weeks but still had no letter of confirmation. Seems telephone method is easier.

Thanks for replies everyone. Melp1, my DH like yours took early retirement last year and is due state pension beginning of June. Have received Gateway password so are going to try claiming on line tomorrow- as it seems to have worked for most people, fingers crossed no computer gremlins about.

I never received the letter advising me that my pension was due but claimed online and it was straightforward and easy to do. I didn't receive the conformation letter either but I phoned and they confirmed all was in hand and I received my first payment on time. It's not practical to claim by phone when you are still working and there was an option to get a printed form and post back but thought that might get lost or be slower.

The Gov don't seem to let you know clearly that you can request your pension weekly. So if, like me, you could not cope with 4 weekly, just ring and tell them you want it paid weekly.