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Multiple pay-dates

Cantilip

Not sure if this is 'Disability rights' or 'cost of living', kind of both.

I guess this is comparatively trivial in that the important thing is getting the money at all, but it very much struck me. I worked full-time. Life was simple. At the end of each month my salary went into my account. I paid the essentials. What remained had to last till next payday. Then I retired. And got PIP and Housing Benefit. I found myself in a world in which you're never paid on the same date two months running.

Thus State Pension paid every 4 weeks on a Friday, e.g on 17th May, 14 June, 12 July, 9 Aug, 6 Sept, 4 Oct, 1 Nov, 29 Nov

My rent goes out on 28th, therefore in November it goes out the day after pension day

There are certain Tory-type people who claim people can’t budget. Don’t make it simple, do they.

PIP paid every 4 weeks on a Wednesday, e.g. 20 May, 17 June, 15 July,

Housing Benefit, every 2 weeks on a Monday. e.g. 11 May, 25 May, 3 June.

There’s been a flurry recently from the usual suspects over spending PIP on specific things to enhance independence. This business of dates, such that some months you might for example get your PIP shortly before you have to pay for your physio and some months not until after and so if you are on a narrow margin may not be able to pay, is not taken into account.

The most obvious problem I think is that unless you have a cushion it’s not possible to set up a direct debit.

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Comments

66Mustang

Thanks @Cantilip for explaining this

To be fair I used to be one of those who thought it didn't matter when the money came in because over a longer period, say a year, my outgoings equal my incomings; but over several weeks there may be an imbalance, I didn't really understand the issue but I was fortunate in that I had a cushion to dip in to

But I found the explanation quite helpful. If someone's bank account is literally on "zero" they may depend on money coming in on a certain day… I guess the suspects you mention would just tell you to stick it on your black Amex card and pay it off when you get paid? 😂

Sorry I don't have anything constructive to add but just wanted to say consider me educated, for whatever that is worth 😆

Cantilip

Thank you, kind person. Are there not so many things to pick up on in this wonderful world of benefits! 'Nother thing that irritates me, about the budgeting sneer, is the figures for numeracy actually suggest some people may indeed have difficulty budgeting and need practical help with arithmetic, but both sides seem to prefer to just trade insults, at any rate politicians and commentators - think I read somewhere some food banks are helping in this respect.

66Mustang

"but both sides seem to prefer to just trade insults, at any rate politicians and commentators"

Sorry can't seem to quote just a bit of your message so I just copied and pasted it

This is something that has bothered me pretty much since I was old enough to reason

I have autism so I see some things in a weird way, but genuinely I can't understand why a significant amount people decide to attack the "owner" of an opinion, rather than pick apart and logically criticise the opinion itself

I would perhaps forgive a "normal" person, putting it down to lack of experience, or maybe ignorance/confusion, but a "professional exchanger of opinion", i.e. a politician, surely should know better??

I wonder if politicians (& others who should know better) decide to resort to insults, knowing full well it's an ineffective way of getting their point across, but it's what the voting public want to see so they do it to please potential voters??

Cantilip

I think the standard of public debate has nosedived. The public figures pronouncing don't bother with fact and reason, which used to be called demagoguery, and are heeded rather than derided. While people do put forward the facts and engage in rational argument, these do not always penetrate the mainstream narratives about things or things remain left out, so the 'debate' continues as a hot air show divorced from reality because it doesn't take account of all the facts.