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• 418,000 households issued £259 energy bill ‘shock’ alert

  14-04-2025 16:33 via express.co.uk
  
  Households are being urged to act "as soon as possible" to avoid it.
  
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• NatWest to close 19 branches in May - full list

  21-04-2025 12:09 via express.co.uk
  
  The major UK bank will be shuttering more branches in May as more customers take business online.
  
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• Pensioner with severe learning disabilities could face eviction over care costs dispute

  21-04-2025 12:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Hugh Kirsch’s case one of wave of evictions of vulnerable residents caused by crisis in adult social care fundingA pensioner with severe learning disabilities who was a victim of one of the most notorious care home abuse scandals of recent years has been told he faces eviction over a dispute about who pays for the costs of his state-funded care.The family of Hugh Kirsch, 66, said they had been warned he would have to leave his supported home because the council that funds his care refused
  
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• The one change that worked: I was in excruciating back pain – until a standing desk saved me

  21-04-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In Scandinavia, more than 80% of office workers have access to a standing desk, as opposed to 1% in the UK. After a herniated disc threw my health into jeopardy, I learned how good they can beIn 2019, I was cycling to work, training at a boxing gym, playing basketball and doing yoga (not all at the same time). Then, one day, I picked up a box. It was bulky but not particularly heavy. I felt a twinge in my back, but thought nothing of it. I played basketball that evening and went to bed as normal
  
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• Bank offers bumper 7% interest rate on savings account

  21-04-2025 11:33 via express.co.uk
  
  Savers can launch the account with just £25.
  
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• Be a sim-only saver: could you join the phone users shunning bundles?

  21-04-2025 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  More people are switching to deals with greater flexibility and value, and there are a growing number of providersPeople are rejecting mobile “bundles” that include a new phone and data contract, and are increasingly turning to sim-only deals that offer better value for money.A growing number of consumers are not getting a new phone when they change their mobile ­contract and are instead holding on to their existing handset or ­buying a ­secondhand one, according to analy
  
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• Barclays warns of rise in 'devastating' scam costing victims up to £19,000

  21-04-2025 10:55 via express.co.uk
  
  One in 10 UK adults has been targeted by this scam or knows someone who has been targeted.
  
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• Gen Z students in Manchester to learn ‘soft skills’ such as empathy and time management

  21-04-2025 10:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Thousands of ‘digital natives’ to be taught social skills, as employers say they are too afraid to speak on phoneThousands of gen Z students in Greater Manchester are to learn “soft skills” such as empathy and time-management in a UK-first trial aimed at teaching “everyday but essential” tools.The pioneering programme will teach young people how to thrive in the workplace after employers said “digital natives” were too afraid to speak on the phone
  
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• I’ve just been housed. Now I’m paying someone else’s debt on my prepay meter

  21-04-2025 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  In her final Your Problems column for the Observer, Anna Tims hears from a refugee suffering at the hands of British GasBritish Gas is causing me mental breakdown. I am a refugee and was grateful to be given a social housing flat. I duly informed British Gas, which supplies the gas on a prepayment meter and electricity, which was supposed to be billed. They sent me a new code and top-up card and I paid in £60. It turned out the previous tenant had left a £236 debt, presumably on the
  
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• How to split the bill without causing long-term divisions

  21-04-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Whether you’re eating out or settling up households costs, here are ways to make it as fair and painless as possibleIncome disparity in friendships can sometimes lead to conflict. A study published last year by a US financial services company, Bread Financial, found 26% of people felt they were “financially incompatible” with their friends, while 21% said they had lost a friendship because of money. Continue reading...
  
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• Rachel Reeves’ stealth tax raid that will cost pensioners £3,000

  21-04-2025 08:53 via express.co.uk
  
  Rachel Reeves has said the income tax threshold will remain frozen until April 2028, with pensioners forced to pay more in a 'stealth raid' many won't have planned for.
  
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• Mortgage completions rose by 50% in March as UK buyers rushed to beat stamp duty deadline

  21-04-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Barclays says March was busiest month in property market since 2021, driven by scramble to avoid higher costsThe number of mortgage completions in the UK increased by 50% during a “blockbuster” March as buyers raced to avoid higher stamp duty payments, according to Barclays.The lender reported its busiest month in the UK property market in years, with the highest number of completions since September 2021, when low interest rates were driving a pandemic-era house price surge. Continu
  
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• London Gatwick is UK’s worst airport for flight delays, figures show

  21-04-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  CAA data shows flights departed more than 23 minutes late last year, with Birmingham and Manchester second and third-worstLondon Gatwick is the UK’s worst airport for flight delays, official figures showed, with air traffic control issues blamed for continuing disruption.In 2024, flights departed on average more than 23 minutes late from Britain’s second-biggest airport, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority. Continue reading...
  
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• In a difficult year being unemployed, I learned what success really means | Sunil Badami

  21-04-2025 05:03 via theguardian.com
  
  For most of that year, I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want to burden them with my troubles. And, to be honest, I felt ashamedFrom finance to academia, on radio and TV and even in a Kings Cross sex shop, I’ve had a diverse range of jobs, most largely freelance, casual or contract.I loved doing new things, learning new skills and meeting new people. I was so busy for so long, with so many contracts overlapping each other, that I often didn’t have much time for anything else
  
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• Pensions black hole - Brits have 'eyes shut' over savings

  21-04-2025 01:01 via express.co.uk
  
  The findings, from Aviva, suggest the nation is heading towards a "pensions black hole"
  
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• The Guardian view on a new deal for travel in Europe: bring back student exchanges | Editorial

  20-04-2025 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  The EU is expected to push for special youth visas at next month’s summit. Sir Keir Starmer should say yesStrong hints that a rebranded “youth opportunity scheme” will top the EU’s wishlist at next month’s EU-UK summit are good news for anyone who regrets the diminished travel opportunities that were one result of Brexit. Rising expectations of new European train routes – possibly including direct trains from London to Italy – can only add to the appeal
  
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• Heat pump installation needn’t be problematic | Letters

  20-04-2025 18:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Readers respond to a letter by Dr Kirstine Oswald and urge people not to be deterred by paperwork and potential stressLike Dr Kirstine Oswald (Letters, 14 April), I had a heat pump installed last year. I needed a new boiler and wanted to be as environmentally friendly as I could. I have had solar panels for some years, so I had a battery installed along with the heat pump. I agree it is a very expensive process, and I am unlikely to reap long-term benefits, as I’m already 81. However, I do
  
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• State pension age countdown for everyone born after 1960

  20-04-2025 18:04 via express.co.uk
  
  Those born after 1960 begin the countdown for their state pensions as the finish line draws nearer.
  
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• Why the UK’s electricity costs are so high – and what can be done about it

  20-04-2025 16:01 via theguardian.com
  
  From nationalising gas plants to boosting renewables, how soaring prices could be tackledOne of Labour’s key election promises was to cut energy bills by £300 a year by 2030 while making Britain a “clean energy superpower”.The job is already halfway complete: renewable energy made up more than half the UK’s electricity for the first time last year. So why does Britain continue to have one of the most expensive electricity markets in the world? Industrial users compl
  
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• Cost of living alert - one in five would struggle to fund £850 shock bill

  20-04-2025 15:49 via express.co.uk
  A major survey from the Office for National Statistics lays bare the top issues keeping the nation awake at night
  
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• British firms urged to hold video or in-person interviews amid North Korea job scam

  20-04-2025 12:48 via theguardian.com
  Google intelligence report finds UK is a particular target of IT worker ploy that sends wages to Kim Jong Un’s stateBritish companies are being urged to carry out job interviews for IT workers on video or in person to head off the threat of giving jobs to fake North Korean employees.The warning was made after analysts said that the UK had become a prime target for hoax IT workers deployed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They are typically hired to work remotely, enablin
  
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• Martin Lewis warns millions will 'pay more tax' in Rachel Reeves reform plan

  20-04-2025 12:47 via express.co.uk
  The Money-Saving Expert shared one urgent action every ISA holder should do ASAP
  
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• HMRC sends letters for 'first time in decade' to people earning more than £1k from savings

  20-04-2025 11:20 via express.co.uk
  Thousands are receiving unexpected tax bills from the HMRC for the 'first time' in more than a decade.
  
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• ‘We just go to the park’: making the most of Easter in a child-poverty hotspot

  20-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In Manningham in Bradford 72% of children live below the poverty line. The national average is 22%• ‘The whole policy is wrong’: rebellion among Labour MPs grows over £5bn benefits cutWhile some British children will be going on holiday, playing with ­high-end games consoles or ­spending a week at a holiday club, for many ­children the Easter break is ­somewhat different.Manningham in Bradford has the second highest rate of child poverty in the UK, with nea
  
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• ‘The whole policy is wrong’: rebellion among Labour MPs grows over £5bn benefits cut

  20-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Dozens of MPs are angry at their party, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to assuage them• ‘We just go to the park’: making the most of Easter in a child-poverty hotspotLabour MPs opposed to the government’s massive £5bn of benefit cuts say they will refuse to support legislation to implement them, even if more money is offered by ministers to alleviate child poverty in an attempt to win them over.Legislation will be introduced to the House of
  
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• The Observer view on poverty: promises won’t get children off the breadline | Editorial

  19-04-2025 20:30 via theguardian.com
  It’s not good enough for Labour to say that there’s no money to tackle the problem – raising taxes risks losing a few votes but for the greater goodOne of the crowning achievements of the last Labour government was a significant reduction in child poverty. This was achieved not only by supporting more parents into work, but through significantly increasing the generosity of financial support paid by the state to low-income parents. Today, that ambitious New Labour goal to
  
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• It’s not poverty that’s breeding the new populism. It’s wealth | Phillip Inman

  19-04-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Analysts trace a link between financial security and a troubling, increasingly devil-may-care, attitude to political risk Steve Coogan wants ­people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.The film’s central character – a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina – rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Cooga
  
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• US chocolate prices surge amid soaring cocoa costs and tariffs

  19-04-2025 12:00
  
  Price of cocoa – chocolate’s key ingredient – has climbed over past year and tariffs on imports will keep prices highFor many Americans celebrating Easter, the holiday is incomplete without chocolate: chocolate bunnies and eggs, bars tucked into Easter baskets, candy hidden in plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts.But the rocketing cocoa costs will mean higher prices for chocolate candy this year, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on all imports will likely keep prices high for the
  
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• ‘I’d named my autistic son in my will – I didn’t realise that would only cause problems’

  19-04-2025 12:00
  
  In this extract from her book, Rhiannon Gogh says parents often aren’t aware specialist planning is needed if you leave money to a vulnerable dependantAs parents to an autistic son, my husband and I found it hard to accept his diagnosis. Developmental milestones were missed, and the difference between Tristan and others became stark. It could not be ignored, denied or explained away – our beautiful son was profoundly autistic.Tristan was offered a place at a school for children
  
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• Carrot-shaped lights, bunny wreaths and beauty boxes – forget Easter, welcome to 'Eastermas' | Amelia Tait

  19-04-2025 10:00
  
  Social media is turning the spring festival into yet another opportunity for lavish spending. What’s in your #EasterBasket? As a child, I was keenly aware of the inequitable practices of the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and the so-called Easter Bunny. How could it be that my teeth were less valuable than Abbie Smith-Arthur’s? Why was my stocking sock-sized, and the Walter boys next door had novelty sacks the size of their sofa? For what reason did I get but one big Easter egg, and Bethan
  
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