Financial news

• Foster children to be entitled to same amount of free childcare as others

  19-12-2017 21:33 via theguardian.com
  UK foster children gain access to 30 hours of care after U-turn announced by children and families minister Robert GoodwillFoster children will be entitled to the same amount of free childcare as other children, a minister has announced. The government’s flagship childcare policy, which increased the potential number of free hours a week for three- and four-year-olds up to 30 in total, was introduced in September but contained a specific exclusion “if the child is your foster child&r
  
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• The Pension Protection Fund aims to protect pensions – not management

  19-12-2017 20:22 via theguardian.com
  Toys R Us can’t find £9m to help save 3,200 jobs. So what went on when the UK arm wrote off a £584m loan to its US parent?It looks terrible for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF): the pensions lifeboat fund is planning to vote against a restructuring of the UK arm of Toys R Us, an action that could mean 3,200 people lose their jobs. On the company’s proposal, only 800 employees would depart and the others would resume the fight against Amazon’s invasion of the toy ma
  
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• Creditors desert Poundland owner amid South Africa accounting scandal

  19-12-2017 20:02 via theguardian.com
  Parent group Steinhoff says credit insurance being cancelled and credit facilities suspended as shares plungePoundland’s parent group Steinhoff International has started to lose credit lines from lenders, putting more pressure on the South African retailer’s shares as it grapples with an accounting scandal.In a presentation prepared for lenders at a meeting in London on Tuesday, Steinhoff said the position of its operating companies, including Poundland, which it bought last year, as
  
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• Bitcoin price latest: How high will bitcoin go? Will the bitcoin bubble burst?

  19-12-2017 19:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN prices hit a rough patch today but some analysts are certain the crypto token still has a lot mileage left.
  
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• Delving deeper into an economics Reformation | Letters

  19-12-2017 19:24 via theguardian.com
  Sixty five academics support the call for a new Reformation, and 21 female economists and social policy researchers also have their say. Plus letters from Dr Pete Clarke and Nicholas MaxwellIn the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which challenged a single dominant belief system, we agree it is time for the reformation of another all-embracing and powerful set of beliefs: that of mainstream economics (Larry Elliott: Economics needs a Reformation of its own, 18 December). Neoclassical theorie
  
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• Tenants lose out after landlord pressure halves UK home insulation cap

  19-12-2017 18:54 via theguardian.com
  Plan to make landlords improve draughtiest homes and boost energy efficiency for hundreds of thousands of tenants lies in tatters, say criticsTenants face missing out on energy bill savings after the government caved in to landlords’ demands by lowering a cap on the costs they face to upgrade Britain’s draughtiest homes.Landlords must improve the energy efficiency of F- and G-rated homes from next April under new regulations designed to protect vulnerable tenants and cut carbon emiss
  
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• Tesco found issues at second 2 Sisters plant as scandal-hit site was closed

  19-12-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Inspectors gave ‘red’ warning rating to processes at chicken plant in Scotland, which supplies Asda, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Lidl, Aldi, Co-op and IcelandTesco food standards inspectors unearthed a series of “major” process issues at a second 2 Sisters Food Group factory, on the same weekend that separate concerns prompted the closure of the UK’s largest chicken supplier’s West Bromwich site.Leaked documents show how in October the supermarket’s audi
  
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• First pilots, now cabin crew – Ryanair to recognise other unions

  19-12-2017 16:56 via theguardian.com
  Airline says it will meet flight attendants in the new year, as it prepares for talks with pilots
  Ryanair has said it will recognise cabin crew unions and hold meetings in the new year, as it prepared to start its first ever talks with pilots’ unions in Dublin on Tuesday. The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, announced last week that it would recognise pilots’ unions in a bid to head off strikes planned in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading...
  
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• UK pensions lifeboat to block Toys R Us survival plan

  19-12-2017 16:16 via theguardian.com
  About 3,200 jobs at risk at 100-plus UK outlets after Pension Protection Fund says retailer’s insolvency plan fails to address its pension scheme deficitThe Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed it intends to block a proposed restructuring of Toys R Us, pushing the retailer closer to collapse unless a deal can be struck within two days.The future of the the UK arm of Toys R Us and 3,200 jobs hang in the balance as the retailer has said it cannot meet the industry-funded pensions life
  
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• Switch your UK mobile network with a text message from 2019

  19-12-2017 12:44
  New Ofcom rules also mean customers will not have to pay for their old and new services at the same timeConsumers will be able to switch mobile phone providers by sending a text message under reforms set out by the communications regulator. Ofcom said the changes would come into effect in 18 months and make it quicker and easier for individuals and businesses to leave their mobile company.Continue reading...
  
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• When will we see the world's first trillionaire?

  19-12-2017 12:42 via theguardian.com
  The fantastic fortunes of fictional characters are being outstripped by the assets of flesh-and-blood tycoons. Should we fear this explosion of super-wealth?Every so often Forbes, the magazine closely associated with America’s corporate elite, compiles its Fictional Fifteen – a chart of the wealthiest characters in film and literature, to complement its well-known annual list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. After carefully assessing the assets of the likes of Bruce Wayne
  
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• Lights fantastic: Christmas decorations around the UK

  19-12-2017 09:00
  Whoever said less is more couldn’t have had Christmas in mind as these festively festooned homes around the country prove Continue reading...
  
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• Toys R Us UK faces collapse with loss of all 3,200 jobs

  19-12-2017 08:38
  Pension Protection Fund’s refusal to back restructuring unless retailer pays £9m into fund could push chain into administrationToys R Us UK is facing potential collapse this week with the loss of 3,200 jobs as it struggles to win the support of the state-backed Pension Protection Fund (PPF) for a planned restructure.The PPF, the industry-funded, state-backed safety net, demanded that the troubled retailer pump about £9m into the ailing Toys R Us UK pension fund. Continue readin
  
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• When will Virgin Trains put the ‘automatic’ back into Delay Repay?

  19-12-2017 08:00
  Our trains were cancelled and I’ve been waiting since October for a refund – but still nothingOn reading your letter about supposed “automatic” refunds from Virgin Trains I share my, as yet unresolved, experience. I was due to travel from London Euston to Llandudno Junction in October, costing £68 for an advance booking. We were told that all trains were cancelled due to a fatality. I did eventually get a train to Chester at which point there was a further delay due
  
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• Is this the end for binary options, the world's most useless financial product | Nils Pratley

  19-12-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  There are limits to how far regulators are obliged to save individuals from their own stupidity, but binary options are a clear case for interventionThe most useless financial product invented this century is probably the binary option. It is a fancy name for the opportunity to guess whether the value of a share, a commodity, an index or a currency will rise or fall over a short period of time. Absurdly, such periods can be just 30 seconds.Since price movements over such a timeframe are virtuall
  
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• Top British firms named and shamed on PM's fat cat pay list

  19-12-2017 06:55 via theguardian.com
  Burberry, Sky, Sports Direct, WPP and one in five FTSE 100 firms included on register ordered by Theresa May to list UK firms overpaying bossesSeveral of Britain’s best-known companies, including Burberry, Sky and Sports Direct, are included on a list ordered by the prime minister of firms rewarding bosses with “fat cat pay” and representing the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.
  More than a fifth of Britain’s FTSE listed-firms are included on the “name
  
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