7 January marked the fifth anniversary of the tax on child benefits, an imposition that is still not widely understood. The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), to give child benefit tax its correct name, was introduced in a rush by George Osborne – so much so that it began three months before the start […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is aiming to expand pension coverage among the self-employed. Pension automatic enrolment has become a major success since it was launched nearly seven years ago, with almost 10 million people joining a workplace pension arrangement. Take-up rates have been much higher than some pundits had forecast – the […]
Life doesn’t always turn out as we’d hoped or planned. Almost 100 children suffer the loss of a parent every day in Britain. There are nearly 160,000 deaths from heart disease each year in the UK – an average of 435 people each day. In 2016, there were more than 163,000 deaths from cancer. Tailored […]
A new survey from a major insurer shows that 14% of people think they will still be paying their mortgage at age 701. Not so long ago, mortgages were likely to be for 25 years, and homebuyers would often be aged in their 20s when they took them out. However, times have changed. Many people […]
As of 9 January, companies that make unsolicited phone calls to people about their pensions will be liable to enforcement action, including fines of up to £500,000. The ban has been introduced in a bid to prevent people falling victim to cold call scams that can lead to them losing their life savings. As many […]
The world’s share markets mostly saw falls in 2018. 2018 was a very different year for investors from 2017. During that year, the share markets generally produced positive returns with very little volatility. Both years had their fair share of dramas, with Brexit and Donald Trump sources of concern across the 24 months. However, whereas […]
