Money

Pensions

Pensions - that Monday feeling

Paul Lewis

"Why do I reach pension age on Tuesday but have to wait until the following Monday to get my pension?" Although it has been explained here several times, new pensioners are always shocked by this unfairness, says Paul Lewis

The rules say that the pension begins not on your 60th (women) or 65th (men) birthday but on the next payday. Pensions were once paid on different days to reduce queues at post offices, but for decades now payday has been Monday.

The winners of this lottery, of course, are those whose birthday that year happens to fall on a Monday. The losers are those whose pension birthday falls on a Tuesday. They lose six days' pension – nearly £80 on the basic pension of £90.70. This saves the Government more than £25 million a year.

This problem will be even more apparent after April 2010, from when women's pension age rises from 60 to 65 in easy stages. Pension ages are all on the 6th of odd numbered months.

A woman born on May 10, 1950 reaches 60 on May 10, 2010 but her pension age is actually July 6, 2010, when she is 60 years, 1 month and 26 days. While her birthday falls on a Monday – and in the past she would have got her pension that day – her new pension age falls on a Tuesday. So she will not get money until Monday July 12, six days later.

You can find your pension age at www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/statepensioncalc.asp. However, unless it falls on a Monday you still have to wait until the next one before you actually get any money.

* This article first appeared in the April 2008 edition of Saga Magazine. Paul Lewis is the editor of Saga Magazine's Money News section and the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Moneybox. Paul's opinions are his own and for general information only. Always seek independent financial advice.

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