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August’s cut in interest rates of 0.25% was far from straightforward and has implications for future moves.       The Bank of England was given independence to set interest rates in May 1997. Since then, the Bank Rate has been decided by a vote of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which consists of nine […]

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been surveying 40–75 year olds, with some interesting responses.   The DWP have recently released the results of its second ‘Planning and Preparing for Later Life’ survey, based on questions posed to over 4,000 people aged between 40 and 75. The answers showed some conflicted – or […]

With changes to Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) expected in the Autumn Budget, one existing variant has been heavily criticised by the Treasury Select Committee.  The Lifetime ISA (LISA) made its debut in George Osborne’s final Budget in March 2016. At the time, it appeared to be a proposal for a new form of pension savings […]

The government wants to encourage investment, not savings.  “For too long, we have presented investment in too negative a light…quick to warn people of the risks, without giving proper weight to the benefits…” These words may sound like the rhetoric of the chief executive officer of a fund management company, but they are not. In […]

The future of triple lock increases for the State pension has been called into question by two well-respected groups of economists.    Triple lock increases to the main State pension were introduced from 2011/12, setting the yearly April increase at the greater of: The rise in prices to the previous September, now as measured by […]

Savers and those reaching retirement age are being warned to protect their pensions and look out for criminals trying to catch people out of their life savings, with Action Fraud revealing a total annual loss of £17,567,249. This equates to roughly £48,129 lost to this type of fraud per day in 2024. Data reveals there […]