Financial news

• Avoid rising funeral costs with a pre-paid plan

  22-03-2016 23:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  FORGET the cost of living, it is the cost of dying that is causing the most concern for many.
  
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• Fate of BHS to be decided by creditors in crucial vote

  22-03-2016 20:39
  
  Landlords and suppliers will join large turnout of creditors at west London hotel to decide whether to back a rescue dealThe future of BHS is to be decided at a hotel in west London on Wednesday morning when the 90-year-old chain’s creditors will vote on whether to back a rescue deal.Darren Topp, the struggling retailer’s chief executive, will address the meeting at Novotel London West in Hammersmith in a bid to persuade landlords, suppliers and others who have registered a claim to
  
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• Osborne looks set to miss budget target for 2015/16

  22-03-2016 19:03
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne is on the verge of missing his target for cutting the budget deficit in the current financial year, official data showed on Tuesday.
  
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• Major UK banks sign charter pledging to tackle gender gap

  22-03-2016 18:28
  
  HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds among financial companies vowing to increase efforts to get more women into senior rolesSeveral major UK banks including HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group along with the Lloyd’s of London insurance market have signed up to a new voluntary charter aimed at getting more women into senior roles in the finance industry.Harriett Baldwin, the economic secretary to the Treasury, hailed the charter as evidence that the voluntary approach
  
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• More than half of Britons would choose cremation over burial

  22-03-2016 17:56
  
  Research also revealed that football grounds, gardens and the sea are among most popular locations for ashes to be scattered Do you want to have your ashes catapulted from a second world war plane, scattered around your favourite football ground or even fashioned into a dinky glass ornament?
  Research has revealed that more than half of Britons (55%) want to be cremated after they have died. They are also very clear about what they would like to happen to their ashes.Continue reading...
  
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• Disability benefits U-turn 'will add £1.3bn a year to welfare budget'

  22-03-2016 17:43
  OBR says Treasury will breach welfare cap by £20bn over duration of current parliament after cuts reversalThe Treasury will breach its self-imposed welfare cap by £20bn over the duration of the current parliament following the U-turn on disability benefits, the government’s spending watchdog has confirmed.The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the reversal of a cut in personal independence payments (PIPs)would add another £1.3bn a year to a welfare budget that wa
  
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• UK advises against all but essential travel to Brussels - PM's spokeswoman

  22-03-2016 17:18
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is advising its citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Brussels, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokeswoman said on Tuesday, after attacks on the city's airport and a rush-hour metro train killed at least 30 people.
  
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• EU in financial CHAOS: European markets plunge amid Belgian terror attacks

  22-03-2016 15:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  STOCK markets across the globe fell after the terror attacks on Brussels which killed at least 32 people.
  
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• Cuba needs modernising – but it can manage without McDonald's

  22-03-2016 14:10
  
  This long-isolated country has lost a lot, but it is in danger of being spoilt in countless ways – the golden arches includedThough the chain once loomed large in my children’s lives, nowadays I try not to think about McDonald’s more than a couple of times a year. So it came as a shock to discover that decades of economic sanctions mean that Cuba is one of the few countries in the world without a single branch of the fast-food restaurant.No Starbucks either, no Coke (though Spr
  
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• I feel the guilt of the brick-wealthy generation – we’re not ‘all in this together’ | Stewart Dakers

  22-03-2016 14:00
  
  While many of my older chums are renters, we are part of the generation who failed to challenge the toxic assumptions that saw homes become commodities“We consider it has been extremely successful across the country.” “We” referred to the government, “it” to their housing initiatives. I had attended my MP’s surgery, and this was perhaps the pick of a plethora of platitudes.I had been provoked to see him because I could no longer confine my outrage at the
  
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• London house prices rose almost £500 a day in January

  22-03-2016 13:47
  
  ONS figures show ‘two-speed’ property market, where annual price growth hit 10.8% in capital but prices in Wales fell over same periodLondon house prices increased by almost £500 a day in January, according to government figures that provide fresh evidence of a “two-speed” property market.The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that while London and the south-east are powering ahead with double-digit annual growth rates, the property ma
  
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• Fifth of women harassed at work over pregnancy or flexible hours, report finds

  22-03-2016 12:37
  
  Three-quarters of pregnant women and new mothers experience discrimination at work, study saysThree-quarters of pregnant women and new mothers experience discrimination at work and one in nine lose their job as a result, government-commissioned research has found.The report suggests that pregnancy discrimination, which is illegal, has risen significantly since 2005, when 45% of women said they had experienced such discrimination.Continue reading...
  
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• Nearly 1 in 5 home appliances uses more energy than advertised, survey finds

  22-03-2016 11:02
  
  European electronic goods study finds devices from fridge freezers and tumble driers to digital radios and vacuums using more electricity than advertisedNearly one in five fridges, dishwashers, microwaves and other household gadgets guzzle more energy than advertised according to a three-year survey of Europe’s home appliance industry.One AEG fridge freezer tested used 12% more power than claimed, while a Hotpoint tumble-drier was found to be sucking considerable power while supposedly in
  
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• Gender pay gap has barely improved in four years, say MPs

  22-03-2016 09:05
  
  All jobs should be flexible by default to better support working mothers, says the women and equalities select committeeThe government should make all jobs flexible and introduce an industrial strategy for low-paid women’s jobs to act on its pledge to close the gender pay gap, MPs will say.The 19.2% gap between men’s and women’s pay has barely improved in the past four years despite the government’s pledge to eradicate it within a generation, the women and equalities sele
  
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• Poetry or property punts: what's driving China's love affair with Cambridge?

  22-03-2016 08:26
  
  House prices in Cambridge have risen 50% since 2010 – caused in part by Chinese investors whose passion for the city may have begun with a poem they learned at school. But what do local residents make of this romantic vision?On the edge of Scholar’s Piece, the strip of farmland just behind King’s College, lies a granite stone which has become arguably Cambridge’s most coveted tourist attraction.For the many students who amble past it every day, it’s easily missed; p
  
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• Business News: Pets at Home, Sports Direct, Markit

  22-03-2016 08:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  PETS At Home has appointed Ian Kellett as its new leader of the pack after chief executive Nick Wood resigned to spend more time with his family.
  
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• Rolls Royce to create 350 jobs at Derby factory

  22-03-2016 08:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  AERO-engine giant Rolls-Royce is to create hundreds of jobs at its Derby factory as Britain’s UK manufacturing sector looks to bounce back from its biggest drop in output since 2009.
  
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• I paid for no claims bonus protection – but my insurance premium has gone up

  22-03-2016 08:00
  
  Zurich said that despite the extra insurance, I’m going to have to pay more after a claimI insure my car with Zurich and pay extra for no claims bonus (NCB) protection. I had to make a claim this year for the first time and was told afterwards that my premium would go up despite the insurance. They said that although my NCB stayed the same, the claim still affected the premium. I don’t think the millions of people paying for this extra insurance realise this. RC, Chipping Norton, Oxf
  
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• Private health insurance providers named over 'junk' policies

  22-03-2016 04:51
  
  Choice says Medibank, HCF and NIB among those offering products it says are a waste of moneySome of Australia’s biggest private health insurance providers have been named and shamed by the consumer advocacy group Choice for offering useless “junk” products.Medibank, HCF and NIB were among those named by Choice on Tuesday for offering policies it said were a waste of money, with little benefit above what is provided through Medicare. Continue reading...
  
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• Millions of older workers forced to delay retirement

  22-03-2016 01:01
  
  Four in 10 over-50s expect to work until 70 or older due to insufficient pension savings and lingering debt, says AvivaMillions of workers in their 50s have been forced to postpone their retirement by eight years due to a lack of pension savings and high levels of debt, according to a report from Aviva. Forty per cent of people in their 50s expect to work until 70 or older, the insurer found. In a sign that the days of early retirement – in the private sector at least – are over, onl
  
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