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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been sorting through its inflation shopping basket. Every year in March, the ONS announces the results of a review of approximately 750 items which it uses to compute inflation indices, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The annual review is a reminder that the calculation […]
One of the few surprises in the Spring Budget was the change affecting how child benefit is taxed for higher earners. The high income child benefit charge (HICBC or ‘hicbic’) was introduced in January 2013 to reduce child benefit payments for higher earners. It was considered an arbitrary piece of legislation by some as the […]
New data on marriage and civil partnerships shows a significant threshold has been crossed. ‘Population estimates by marital status and living arrangements, England and Wales: 2022’, sounds like a rather esoteric piece of academic output from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, its release in late January attracted a brief flurry of media attention […]
New research has put some surprising numbers on the income needed in retirement. Each year since 2019, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has set about answering the question of how much retirement costs for couples and single retirees. It considers three different Retirement Living Standards, which are summarised as: Minimum: covers all your […]
Following on from a previous warning last December, Action Fraud has issued a new warning to stay safe online after £1.3 million lost from hacked email and social media account scams last year. Data from Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting service, shows that 22,530 people reported that their online accounts had been […]
From 6 April 2024, individual savings account (ISA) rules will be changing, mostly for the better. In April, ISAs will celebrate their 25th birthday. However, the ISA was hardly a new-born back in 1999, as it was effectively a reworking of two previous tax-favoured savings plans – the personal equity plan (PEP) and tax exempt […]