Over 50s sleepwalking into retirement nightmare

A growing number of people are at risk of being unable to afford a decent standard of living after retirement, according to a new report released today. The report, ‘What is an adequate retirement income?’ estimates a quarter of people approaching retirement,...

Cash use plummets

Consumers kept their cash and cards in their pockets last year, as lockdowns cut the number of payments made for the first time in six years, banks say. More than 8 out of 10 payments by consumers are spontaneous but options were limited by the Covid crisis. The total...

State pension underpayments scandal

The state pension has been underpaid for an estimated 200,000 women, and Britons are being urged to check their entitlement. State Pension payments are understandably important to millions of people right across the UK as a source of income in retirement, however, due...

How much for a comfortable retirement?

Couples typically need £26,000 and single people need £19,000 a year for a comfortable retirement, new research reveals. This amount would cover essential bills plus regular short haul holidays, leisure activities, alcohol and charity giving. A couple would have to...

What next for the economic recovery?

The fastest monthly growth of the services sector since 1997 and a fall in the number of workers on furlough signalled that the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis remained on track in May, as lockdown restrictions were relaxed across all four nations of the UK....

Home movers overtake first time buyers

The proportion of first-time buyers (‘FTBs’) has risen over the last decade and outnumbered movers in 2019, according to research by property listings site Zoopla. However, this trend is set to reverse in 2020 and through to the beginning of 2021 because of the impact...

House prices set to keep on rising

House prices are likely to continue rising for some time despite hitting a new record high in May, one of Britain’s biggest mortgage lenders has said. The monthly snapshot of the property market from Halifax showed a 1.3% jump in the cost of a home in May, taking the...

Towards a cashless society

Worldpay’s Global Payments report 2021 claims that cash payments in UK shops in 2020 made up 13.4% of total payments, down from 27.4% in 2019. By 2024, it predicts, they will be down to just 6.9%. By the same year it will be down to just 0.4% in Sweden. The Bank of...

Neil Woodford: two years on

Two years after the collapse of Neil Woodford’s Equity Income fund, and with 300,000 investors still awaiting answers from the regulator despite being set to lose £1bn from its liquidation, industry commentators are calling for a solution to be found sooner...

Crackdown on financial fraud

The city watchdog has vowed to ‘up its game’ after a Money Mail investigation exposed how easily fraudsters can scam thousands of victims online. Last month, ThisisMoney revealed how a fake website they created, that promoted returns of 9.5% on bonds, had...