PIP payment confusion for January '22

Commanded2bwell

Hello, my PIP award letter says I'll get paid every 4th Tuesday in arrears.

At the time of writing - January 2022 - we've run out of Tuesdays and nothing has been paid. I had assumed that 'in arrears' meant that the payment was scheduled for the last Tuesday because it covered the previous four weeks.

Does it in fact mean that I can expect January's payment to arrive on the 4th Tuesday of February, and February's payment on the 4th Tuesday of March?

calcotti

It means you will be paid every 4 weeks on a Tuesday, nothing to do with calendar months.
When were you told about your award - usually payments arrive before the decision letter. The letter usually also tells you the date of your first regular payment. Any arrears are paid separately.

Commanded2bwell

I was awarded PIP from April '21 after Mandatory Reconsideration. I had the MR award letter In December which went into detail about how much I will get per week from now on, and how much I was getting in "back pay" dated back to April '21. I received that as a lump sum. But the MR letter did not specify any dates, it literally just says "You will be paid on the fourth Tuesday of every month in arrears." And they've missed the fourth Tuesday of January.

calcotti

Commanded2bwell said:..the fourth Tuesday of January. 

As already advised the fourth Tuesday of January is irrelevant. I doubt the letter says the fourth Tuesday of every month because that is not how PIP is paid. The letter means you will be paid every 4 weeks on a Tuesday. If you haven't received any payments apart from the arrears you will need to ring them to find out when you will get paid - perhaps leave it to see if you get anything next Tuesday and if not ring them then.

Commanded2bwell

Right, every four weeks not every month! I read the words, but didn't take the meaning. Cheers.

poppy123456

Your decision letter should tell you when your backdated payment was paid up until. Then your first payment will be 4 weeks after that.

Commanded2bwell

Found it. It was Fri Dec 31st. Four weeks from that lands on Fri 28 Jan (yesterday) and still no payment. So, is it delayed until next Tuesday? That's beyond the four week mark.

Argh.

MarkM88

I thought you said Tuesday originally? 

calcotti

Commanded2bwell said:

Found it. It was Fri Dec 31st. 

If they said it would be paid on Tuesdays the arrears payment should be from the start of your claim upto a Tuesday. 

poppy123456

You said your payment day is a Tuesday. If that’s correct then your payment will be next Tuesday. 

If you look again at the letter it will tell you what date your backdated money was paid up until. If you received it on 31st then it wouldn’t have been paid up until that date, it would have been a date before that. 

calcotti

poppy123456 said:..If you received it on 31st then it wouldn’t have been paid up until that date, it would have been a date before that. 

I agree that I would expect the arrears to be up to a date prior to the date of letter and would therefore expect to have had a payment by now so it is odd that they haven’t. I think OP will need to ring them to clarify matters if the letter is not making sense.

Commanded2bwell

Thanks all for your advice.

I'm going to wait until tomorrow to see if something turns up. Currently my account isn't even showing it as a pending transaction. If no joy tomorrow, I'll have to book a day out of my calendar to sit on hold! (Why can't they have the same system as HMRC with payment schedules published on your government gateway account?)