Category Archives: Money

Zero-hours contracts among over-50s hit highest level recorded

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According to ONS data, there are now nearly 300,000 people aged 50 or over in insecure employment

Zero-hours contracts among the over-50s have reached their highest level since records began, according to new analysis of official government statistics.

There are nearly 300,000 people aged 50 and older with zero-hours contracts, the highest number for this age group since records began in 2013 and almost double the number 10 years ago, from 149,000 in October to December 2013 to 296,000 in July to September 2022.

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Experts predict housing market will cool in 2023 as UK enters a recession

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The slowdown is expected to intensify with price declines between 5% and 12%

The housing market will cool sharply next year after a bumpy 2022, industry experts are predicting, as the UK contends with recession and higher mortgage rates.

As the cost of living crisis has intensified amid soaring inflation and as interest rates have increased, house prices have already started falling month-on-month. The average house price dropped 2.3% in November from October – the most since the start of the financial crash in 2008 – according to Halifax.

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UK government looks to lure early retirees back to work, reports say

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People who quit during pandemic may be offered ‘midlife MOT’ as way to address labour shortage

Plans to coax middle-aged retirees back into work to boost the economy are being considered by the government, according to reports.

Older people who have given up work could be offered what is being described as a “midlife MOT” to entice them back into employment, the Times has reported.

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Royal Mail urges people to use or swap non-barcoded stamps

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Deadline is 31 January, although there will then be six-month grace period with such post still delivered

Do you have a book of stamps in your wallet, purse or drawer at home? Maybe you have stockpiled them to avoid future price rises.

If so, you need to be aware that the official deadline for using up stamps without barcodes – notably the regular first and second-class “everyday” stamps featuring the profile of the late Queen – is getting closer.

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UK workers face return to 2006 real-term wages in ‘highly challenging’ 2023

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PwC predicts increase in divorces, slide in house prices and drop in happiness index

British wages next year will fall back to 2006 levels, while 2023 will also bring a slide in house prices and an increase in divorces, according to a forecast that finds the UK is on course to be a less happy place to live.

The consultancy firm PwC said a look ahead to 2023 showed there were few positive indicators, with most measures of the UK’s economic and social performance going into reverse.

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Warning over spate of UK house fires as residents try to cut energy bills

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Take care using candles and electric heaters, fire authorities warn, as Ofgem reveals gas and electricity bills are up by 86%

Fire authorities have urged householders to take care when using candles, wood burners and electric heaters to cut energy bills this Christmas after a spate of recent house fires.

Flat fires in Uxbridge and Harwich this month were caused by candles; fire chiefs in Cumbria, Hereford and Worcester reported more fires as householders used unswept chimneys and candles; and last month in Wakefield a blaze was caused by a tumble dryer being used overnight to save money.

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London extends lead as most searched UK location on Rightmove

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Capital now top location by some distance after Cornwall led for several months during pandemic

The lockdown dream of leaving the city behind and owning a spacious house in the countryside or by the sea faded in 2022 as homebuyers picked up where they left off before the pandemic: house hunting in London.

Rightmove said the capital was 2022’s top location by some distance with searches 9% higher than last year. Meanwhile the number of searches for homes in Cornwall and Devon fell sharply although the counties, famous for their spectacular coastlines, hung on to second and third place on the property website’s annual list of most searched for locations.

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TSB fined £48m over ‘serious failings’ in IT meltdown

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FCA penalises bank after millions of customers were locked out of their accounts for weeks

City regulators have fined TSB £48m for “widespread and serious” failings related to the IT meltdown in 2018 that left millions of banking customers locked out of their accounts for weeks.

The long-awaited fine is expected to draw a line under the scandal, which tarnished the challenger bank’s reputation and forced its chief executive to step down within months of the botched move to a new IT platform.

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Citizens Advice says record number sought energy help in November

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Number of people unable to afford prepayment meter top-up is higher this year than in past six years combined

The monthly number of people that Citizens Advice helped with energy-related problems and issues rose to a record high in November, underlining the scale of the struggle with soaring costs of gas and electricity.

The charity said it was continuing to exceed its forecasts for the numbers of cash-strapped households turning to it for help because they cannot afford to top up their energy prepayment meter and therefore cannot perform basic tasks such as heating food.

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Two in five people experienced parcel delivery issues last Christmas

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Consumer group Which? said many packages were thrown in ponds, arrived late or were left in the rain

Parcels chucked over fences into ponds, packages hidden in bins and laptops left out in the pouring rain – these are just some of the Christmas parcel delivery failures reported by consumers.

A delivery of pet tarantulas delayed overnight in transit was one of the strangest parcel problems reported to consumer group Which? in a survey of festive delivery difficulties.

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Hot water bottles sell out around UK as cold snap hits

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John Lewis said sales are up sixfold on last year as people look to save on their heating bills

Hot water bottles are selling out around the UK amid the cold snap and efforts to save on soaring energy bills.

John Lewis said sales were up sixfold on last year with several popular models currently out of stock online including the department store’s own-label version with a fake fur protective cover.

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UK power prices hit record high amid cold snap and lack of wind power

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Severely cold weather has come with low wind speeds, creating perfect storm to drive wholesale costs up

UK power prices have hit record levels as an icy cold snap and a fall in supplies of electricity generated by wind power have combined to push up wholesale costs.

The day-ahead price for power for delivery on Monday reached a record £675 a megawatt-hour on the Epex Spot SE exchange. The price for power at 5-6pm, typically around the time of peak power demand each day, passed an all-time high of £2,586 a megawatt-hour.

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Millions cannot afford to heat homes as UK faces Arctic cold snap

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As temperatures plunge, fears grow for households struggling to pay for heating, food and warm clothing

More than 3 million low-income UK households cannot afford to heat their homes, according to research, as a “dangerously cold” weather front arrived from the Arctic.

The UK Health Security Agency has issued a cold weather alert recommending vulnerable people warm their homes to at least 18C, wear extra layers and eat hot food to protect themselves from plummeting temperatures.

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Is the UK really facing a second winter of discontent?

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Comparisons with 1979 are misleading – strikes over pay now are smaller in scale and focus, and stoked by inflation

Britain is facing a winter of strikes, as industrial action on the railways spreads to the health service and other key sectors of the economy. Such is the wave of discontent that more than 1m working days could be lost to disputes in December, the most since 1989, during Margaret Thatcher’s final years in power.

With inflation at the highest rate in 41 years amid the cost of living crisis, it’s not difficult to see why workers are pushing for better pay. Coming after the worst decade for average wage growth since the Napoleonic wars, including deep real-terms pay cuts for many in the public sector, it’s even less surprising still.

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Kent family charged £80k in error after EDF sent £1m electricity bill

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‘It was quite amusing, until it actually happened,’ says customer, after being left £75,000 overdrawn

A family of four were told they owed nearly £1m to EDF for a year’s electricity and had £80,000 taken by direct debit, despite telling the company it was clearly incorrect.

The payment, which put Richard Baron and his family more than £75,000 over their overdraft limit, was refunded by their bank’s fraud team before any serious damage was done. However, after cancelling their direct debit, they were put on a higher tariff with the energy provider.

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Martin Lewis charity highlights mental toll of cost of living crisis

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Survey finds nearly a fifth of respondents have had suicidal ideation about financial problems

The shocking impact that soaring bills are having on mental health has been laid bare by a report that highlights how money worries are driving many people to thoughts of suicide.

The Money and Mental Health policy institute, a charity founded and chaired by the consumer champion Martin Lewis, reported that 17% of respondents to a survey said they had experienced suicidal ideation over the past nine months owing to the rising cost of living.

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UK house prices fall at fastest pace since 2020 amid fallout from mini-budget

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Nationwide warns inflation and rising interest rates will weigh down housing market

UK house prices have fallen at their fastest rate for two and a half years as the fallout from Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget put buyers off according to Nationwide, which warned inflation and rising interest rates would weigh on the market in the coming months.

The price of an average home dropped 1.4% to £263,788 in November, according to the lender’s house price index, accelerating a slowdown that saw prices fall 0.9% in October. It was the third monthly fall in a row, and the biggest drop since June 2020.

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Ofgem tells energy network firms they must invest without increasing bills

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New electricity price controls from 2023 to 2028 will keep costs to customers at about £100 a year

The operators of Great Britain’s local energy networks will be forced to spend more of their profits on investing to future-proof the country’s electricity grid, after the regulator, Ofgem, said it would not allow any rises in household bills.

In a new set of price controls that will run from 2023 to 2028, the energy watchdog said it would keep costs to customers unchanged at about £100 a year.

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Calls for UK ban on pre-payment meter installations made under court warrants

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End Fuel Poverty Coalition fears energy suppliers are using warrants to disconnect poorest ‘by the back door’

Campaigners have called for an immediate ban on pre-payment meter (PPM) installations made under court warrants because of fears that energy suppliers are using them to disconnect the poorest, most indebted customers “by the back door”.

Energy firms’ licence conditions protect many vulnerable people from formal disconnection over the winter, but the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said transferring households on to PPMs, which require regular top-ups and charge for energy at a higher rate, often prompted people in debt to “self-disconnect”.

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UK households have cut energy consumption by 10%, say suppliers

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E.ON reports up to 15% drop as Grant Shapps writes to firms customers cutting back on energy use should not face direct debit rise

Britons have cut their gas and electricity use by more than 10% since October in the first evidence of the impact of the energy crisis on household habits, according to two of Britain’s biggest suppliers.

E.ON, Britain’s second-largest supplier, and the owner of Utility Warehouse have reported “double-digit” declines in recent weeks.

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