Financial news

• Complex rules for universal credit see one in five claims fail

  12-05-2018 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Thousands feared to be out of pocket after applications turned down for ‘non-compliance with the process’Fears are emerging over the complexity of the government’s new welfare system after data revealed that one in five applicants is being turned down because they are failing to comply with the application process.Ministers have already been forced to slow down the rollout of universal credit and to ensure that claimants receive their payments sooner after concerns that some we
  
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• For Brexit Tories, the hard border is too hard a question

  12-05-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  The customs union issue – and the fall in foreign investment to the UK – is consuming ever larger amounts of the party’s energyRemain voters must wish someone had considered the Irish border question before they voted on 23 June 2016.It probably would not have changed the outcome. The referendum, as the pollsters remind us, was a cultural phenomenon linked more closely to people’s attitudes to immigration and sovereignty than to economic success – a situation that p
  
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• Barclays boss fined £642k for attempting to unmask WHISTLEBLOWER

  12-05-2018 17:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  UK regulators have fined Barclays chief executive Jes Staley £642,430 over his attempts to unmask a whistleblower.
  
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• Rise of robots threatens to terminate the UK call-centre workforce

  12-05-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  It is feared that almost 46,000 jobs in customer support will disappear before 2021 as firms embrace automationSome days the robot future feels closer than others. At the annual Google developer jamboree in California last week, the tech giant wowed the audience with the language skills of its virtual assistant software, now so fluent it can make calls without the recipient realising the voice does not belong to a human.It’s a long way from Silicon Valley to Swansea, where less than a fort
  
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• How much do you earn? ‘It’s not something you want to talk about’

  12-05-2018 10:00 via theguardian.com
  There’s nothing that makes Brits cringe more than discussing our salaries. Have the gender pay revelations changed that?How much do you earn? There are few questions that British people find so excruciating – or rude. Walking around Bristol on a heaven-scented spring day, buttonholing random strangers about their personal finances, I sense most would prefer it if I were asking when they last masturbated, or passed stool, or voted Conservative.“I’d say that’s a cheek
  
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• Why the GDPR email deluge, and can I ignore it?

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  A stringent new law will change how companies handle your data. Here’s what you need to do‘Urgent action required ”, “Do you still want to hear from us?”, “We’ve updated our privacy policy”, “Should we stop sending you updates? If not, act now!”Many of us will have received emails like this during the past few weeks, some of them from companies we haven’t used for years or have maybe never even heard of. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Was I blocked from a Ryanair flight because of racism?’

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  UK-based charity worker says ground staff’s refusal to let her fly was ‘frightening and humiliating’A London-based charity worker, who was denied boarding a Ryanair flight while on a work trip to Montenegro, has accused airport staff of “racism” and “making up their own immigration rules as they go along”.Neha Kagal, who has an Indian passport and a British visa and residence permit, says she was left angry and humiliated after boarding staff at Stansted
  
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• Student who had laptop stolen at airport will now get refund

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  London City vows to reform its security processes after outcry raised by Guardian articleAn economics student who had her £1,000 laptop stolen as she went through London City airport’s security has been told she will now be refunded, and that the airport has changed the way it will deal with future thefts.Last week Guardian Money featured the case of Fernanda Ardiles whose MacBook Air was stolen from a tray as she waited to go through security – and her anger over the staff&rsq
  
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• Six ways to prove rail fares reform is not just a PR con trick

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From season tickets to a better deal for young people, here’s where operators should lookAbsurdly high fares, a bewildering ticketing system, passengers playing cat-and-mouse with train companies trying to spot “split-ticket” bargains; there are lots and lots of reasons why the root-and-branch reform of fares promised this week by the network operators is long overdue.Given the price-gouging history of the privatised train companies, and the way they are hooked on extorting wal
  
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• How can I beat the burglars?

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  We have an alarm – what other tips do readers have on devices or strategies to beat crime?Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: Continue reading...
  
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• House prices are on the slide – where will they go now?

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As Halifax figures show the market fell in April, experts say what’s really going onWe are slap bang in the middle of the spring househunting season, but this week’s news that the average price of a UK home dropped by more than £7,000 in April will have left many wondering: is this the start of a prolonged period of falling property values? If so, should would-be buyers hold fire on the basis that they could pay less in a few months’ time? Or do falling prices mean now is
  
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• Council tax rebates for mental disability still going unclaimed

  12-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Awareness campaign helps severely mentally impaired receive little-known discountFamilies are claiming as much as £7,000 in council tax refunds thanks to an awareness campaign about a little-known discount for the severely mentally impaired (SMI).Someone who has been medically certified as having a permanent condition that affects their intelligence and social functioning (such as Alzheimer’s, but many other conditions apply) is “disregarded for council tax purposes” in E
  
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• ‘I still buy gig tickets and vinyl LPs like I did as a teenager’

  12-05-2018 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Steve Brennan on why he values experiences, such as getting his album mastered at Abbey RoadMy approach to money is probably shaped by my early teenage years when my parents were divorcing. We were not well off, and I did paper rounds morning and night so I could buy clothes and records like the other kids. It taught me that if you worked hard you could earn well. In my later teenage years, I started some small enterprises designing and printing magazines from my bedroom and had to make sure we
  
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• WH Smith apologises after outcry over hospital shop prices

  12-05-2018 00:51 via theguardian.com
  Retailer says it will conduct review after computer glitch meant some toiletries were heavily marked upWH Smith has apologised after a computer error resulted in some toiletries in hospital shops being sold at almost eight times the high street price.The newsagent said it was conducting a review after it emerged that Colgate toothpaste was being sold for £7.99 in its hospital kiosks. It has outlets in 129 hospitals across the UK where, according to reports, other essentials including nappi
  
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