Category Archives: Money

Household energy bills in Great Britain forecast to fall by £117 a year

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Consultancy’s prediction comes after Rachel Reeves said green subsidy costs would be removed from domestic bills

Household energy costs in Great Britain are expected to tumble by an average of £117 a year from April after Rachel Reeves announced in November’s budget that the cost of green subsidies would be removed from domestic bills.

The government’s quarterly cap on energy bills is forecast to fall after the chancellor’s decision to shift the levies used to support renewable energy projects into general taxation, and scrap a bill payer-funded energy efficiency scheme, according to Cornwall Insight, a leading energy consultancy.

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People deriving income solely from state pension won’t be taxed, says chancellor

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Clarification creates prospect of two-tier system for retirees solely on new state pension and those on private schemes

People who rely only on their state pension for their income will not have to pay tax on it, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said, creating the prospect of a two-tier system for those in retirement.

The new state pension is poised to rise to £241.30 a week next April, putting the annual income for someone receiving the standard payment at £12,547 – just below the personal tax allowance of £12,570 a year.

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Rachel Reeves targets UK’s wealthiest in £26bn tax-raising budget

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Chancellor axes two-child benefit cap and cuts energy bills paid for by mansion tax and freezing tax thresholds

Rachel Reeves targeted Britain’s wealthiest households with a £26bn tax-raising budget to fund scrapping the two-child benefit policy and cutting energy bills.

On a chaotic day that involved key details of her budget accidentally being released early by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the chancellor defended the measures, saying she was “asking everyone to make a contribution to repair the public finances”, but that she wanted the wealthiest to pay the most.

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Reeves’s plan to cut cash Isa limit could raise mortgage rates, say finance bosses

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Building societies fear consumers will be put off from saving if chancellor’s budget announces a 40% reduction

Rachel Reeves’s plan to slash the annual cash Isa limit by 40% could lead to higher mortgage rates and deter consumers from saving, finance bosses have said.

The chancellor is expected to cut the maximum amount people can put into tax-efficient cash individual savings accounts from £20,000 a year to £12,000 in Wednesday’s budget.

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Wimbledon to get exemption from ticket resale crackdown for seats that can cost thousands

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Organisers claimed proposed ban on reselling tickets for more than face value would dent investment in facilities

Wimbledon will be given an exemption from the clampdown on ticket resales for its “debenture” tickets, the Guardian understands, in what would be a victory for the organisers of the annual tennis tournament.

The championship organisers, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), had previously said ministers’ proposed ban on reselling tickets for more than face value would prevent it from being able to reinvest debenture proceeds in maintenance of its facilities.

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Eight firms under investigation in crackdown on additional online fees

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Competition watchdog examines StubHub, Viagogo, AA Driving School and BSM Driving School and others

Britain’s competition watchdog has begun investigations into eight companies about their online pricing practices, expressing concern over additional fees and sales tactics such as “drip pricing” and “pressure selling”.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was looking into the ticket sellers StubHub and Viagogo; AA Driving School and BSM Driving School; the US gym chain Gold’s Gym; and the retailers Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Marks Electrical.

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Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown

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Touts, and ordinary consumers, will no longer be able to charge anything more than price at which they bought ticket

Reselling tickets for profit is to be outlawed under plans due to be announced this week, the Guardian has learned, as the government goes ahead with a long-awaited crackdown on touts and resale platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub.

Ministers had been considering allowing touts – and ordinary consumers – to sell on a ticket for up to 130% of face value, as part of a consultation process that ended earlier this year.

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Asking prices fall as UK housing market hit by budget speculation, Rightmove says

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November drop of 1.8% is biggest for this time of year since 2012, with chancellor’s plans looming

Budget speculation has depressed the UK property market, figures from a leading property website have suggested, with asking prices slipping in the run-up to Rachel Reeves’s much anticipated fiscal set piece on 26 November.

The average new seller asking price fell by 1.8%, or £6,589, month on month in November, the figures collated by the property website Rightmove set out, taking the average price tag on a British home put up for sale to £364,833.

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‘Bereavement penalty’: people who lost partners hit by insurance premium rises

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Campaigners claim AI algorithms are behind hefty increases in renewal quotes for home and car cover

Shortly after her husband died, Kay Lawley* received renewal quotes from the couple’s home and car insurance provider, Ageas. She told the company of his death and was stunned that the quotes then increased by up to 15%.

Her car insurance quote went from £301 to £348, while her home and contents policy rose by almost 12% – from £1,039 to £1,161.

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Treasury won’t cut threshold for higher rate income tax, say sources – UK politics live

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Fallout continues over budget income tax U-turn, with Treasury saying expected fiscal gap has dropped to £20bn

This is from Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, on the market reaction to the chancellor’s reported budget U-turn.

Investors will have 2 broad concerns about news that Chancellor won’t increase income tax rates

1. Does it signal less willingness to do politically difficult things

Britain’s long-term borrowing costs were sent soaring as reports suggested the latest U-turn would leave Rachel Reeves scrambling to fill a gaping black hole in the nation’s finances just two weeks before the 26 November budget.

Yields on 30-year UK government bonds, also known as gilts, jumped as much as 14 basis points in early trading, and the yield on 10-year gilts also shot up 12 basis points – rising the most since July.

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Bots and third parties to be banned from booking driving tests in DfT shake-up

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In effort to tackle severe backlog and end resale market, only learner drivers will be able to make bookings

Bots and third parties will be banned from booking driving tests as part of a government shake-up to tackle a severe backlog of almost 670,000 learners booked in for a practical assessment.

The Department for Transport (DfT), which recently consulted on how to crack down on touts reselling test slots at inflated prices, said that only learner drivers themselves and not their instructors would be able to make bookings.

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UK to reconsider decision to deny Waspi women pension payouts

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Millions born in 1950s lost out because of government failings over changes to state retirement age, campaigners say

Millions of “Waspi women” have been given fresh hope that they might receive compensation after the UK government announced it would revisit a decision to deny them payouts.

As many as 3.6 million women born in the 1950s are said to have lost out because of government failings in the way changes to the state pension age were made, prompting the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign to launch in 2015.

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Reform’s public-sector pensions plan could cost billions extra, union warns

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Prospect says proposals to make payouts less generous would damage public finances rather than save money

Reform UK’s plans to make public-sector pensions less generous could cost billions extra a year and cause a ticking timebomb in the public finances, a leading trade union has warned.

Prospect said the plans unveiled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, would damage the public finances rather than save money “and end up costing taxpayers tens of billions of pounds in the years to come”.

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Ofwat letting water firms charge twice to tackle sewage, court to hear

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River Action bringing legal action against water regulator over who should foot bill for firms’ past failures to invest

Ofwat is unlawfully allowing water companies to charge customers twice to fund more than £100bn of investment to reduce sewage pollution, campaigners will allege in court on Tuesday.

Lawyers for River Action say the bill increases being allowed by Ofwat – which amount to an average of £123 a year per household – mean customers will be paying again for improvements to achieve environmental compliance that should have been funded from their previous bills.

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BT ‘considering low-cost mobile brand’ as Revolut and Monzo plan launches

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Move into budget market could involve creating new brand in-house or buying virtual network operator

BT is reportedly considering the launch of new a low-cost mobile brand, as the telecoms group explores ways to compete with new rivals in the market including the fintech companies Revolut and Monzo.

The group is exploring options to enter the budget market, which could involve creating a new brand in-house or buying an existing virtual network operator, according to the Financial Times.

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Cutting cash Isa limit will not boost stock market, MPs warn Rachel Reeves

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Treasury committee says move in November budget could push up mortgage rates instead

Cutting the annual cash Isa allowance will not encourage many savers to switch to shares but could push up mortgage costs, MPs have warned the chancellor.

Adults can put up to £20,000 a year in a tax-free Isa and spread the money between cash and stock market investments as they choose. In the 2023-24 tax year, 66% of all contributions went into cash savings.

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Real living wage to rise by almost 7% in boost for low-paid UK workers

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Hourly rate to increase in April by 95p to £14.80 in London and by 85p to £13.45 for the rest of the country

Almost half a million workers are to receive a pay boost after it was announced that the real living wage paid voluntarily by 16,000 UK companies will rise to £13.45 an hour in April.

Distinct from the national living wage, which is a statutory minimum, the real living wage is calculated each year based on the cost of essentials, and is paid by more than half of the companies in the FTSE 100.

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Suspected scam investment firms ‘exploiting Trustpilot review system’

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Fake reviews, forged certificates and stolen corporate identities being used to lure victims, KwikChex finds

Suspected scam investment companies are exploiting Trustpilot’s review system by giving themselves five-star ratings to persuade would-be investors that they are legitimate businesses, a report has warned.

An investigation by the verification firm KwikChex found operators using fake reviews, forged certificates and stolen corporate identities to lure victims.

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If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit … look away now

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Club and Penguin bars are now ‘chocolate flavour’ after owner McVitie’s cuts cocoa content amid soaring prices

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit you can no longer join our Club or pick up a Penguin, as the lunchbox favourites have reduced the amount of cocoa in their recipe so much they are now only “chocolate flavour”.

The two snacks, both made by McVitie’s, changed their recipes earlier this year amid soaring cocoa prices – which have prompted manufacturers to try a number of different tactics to keep prices down.

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Students owe nearly £500m of ‘hidden debts’ to UK universities, figures reveal

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FoI data shows 180,000 students and graduates weighed down by private debt amid cost of living crisis

Students have accrued nearly £500m in “hidden debts” to their universities, including library fines, unpaid accommodation and support loans, according to figures that highlight the cost of living crisis on UK campuses.

The figures from freedom of information requests sent to 148 UK universities showed that 180,000 students and graduates owe private debts totalling £486m to universities, averaging about £2,650 each.

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