Financial news

• New transparency rules are helping reduce pay gaps – and lower average pay by 2% | Torsten Bell

  01-04-2023 20:00
  
  Research by Harvard finds workers’ bargaining pay is increased by a host of policies, but makes employers wary of granting raisesIn the old days, people thought talking about money, particularly how much you earn, was unimaginably vulgar. But as anyone who has met a banker recently knows, those days are gone. It’s not just the minted who favour pay transparency; less loaded lefties do too - for social progress rather than social point scoring reasons. Letting the sunshine into the mu
  
  Read more

• ‘This system does not work’: Why vulnerable energy customers face a battle just to get help

  01-04-2023 17:00
  
  Priority services registers – energy firm’s own lists of at-risk households – are vital to protect people. But it’s extremely hard to find them, say campaignersHelen Lord, who is now head of the Vulnerability Registration Service, was shocked at how rapidly her father’s health deteriorated after he contracted Alzheimer’s.Brian Lord had been a founder director of CCN Systems, which later became credit checking giant Experian. What happened before his death 18 y
  
  Read more

• NHS website crash prevents access to cheaper HRT in England

  01-04-2023 12:01
  
  Health officials apologise after women unable to obtain certificate for £19.30 annual feeHealth officials have apologised after women were unable to get a certificate online to allow them to access cheaper hormone replacement therapy prescriptions.Cheaper hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should have been available in England from Saturday under a scheme designed to reduce prescription costs. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Budget airlines: which is the best – and what about the worst?

  01-04-2023 10:00
  
  After Jet2 topped a Which? poll, we ask UK travel experts for their views and take a close look at the rules and extrasSo which budget airlines offer the best customer experience, and which ones will have you muttering “never again” as you stagger out of the airport?There is of course no one-size-fits-all answer – there are so many variables at play, from cost, customer service and the number of cancellations to legroom and luggage policy. Each airline has its own (often byzant
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• ‘We won’t be here for long’: UK firms fear the worst as energy bill support ends

  01-04-2023 08:00
  
  Bills could rise by as much as 133% when new cap is introduced this weekend, say analystsThousands of small businesses risk going bust as “brutal” energy bills are to double with the end of a government support scheme from this weekend.Companies are braced for an increase in energy costs as the government’s support for non-household energy bills falls away, and many fixed rate deals come to an end. The combined impact could drive energy bills for many companies up by as much as
  
  Read more

• ‘It feels like a scandal’: Wizz Air passengers claim website bug cost them extra

  01-04-2023 08:00
  
  Travellers reportedly forced to pay at airport to board plane after technical hitch stopped them checking in onlineIt was recently named “the UK’s worst airline” by the consumer body Which?, and has been hauled over the coals by the industry regulator. Now Wizz Air is facing criticism over yet another issue. Passengers have contacted Guardian Money after being forced to cough up substantial sums at the airport or face being turned away from their flight after apparently encount
  
  Read more

• Tougher second homes regulations come into force in Wales

  01-04-2023 07:00
  
  Council tax and planning changes aim to make housing more affordable for those on local incomesRadical measures giving councils in Wales a raft of extra powers designed to stop second homes hollowing out communities, especially in coastal and rural areas, have come into force.Local authorities across Wales are using the powers to increase the amount of council tax that second home owners must pay and will also be able to bring in changes to planning rules to make it harder for houses and flats t
  
  Read more

• Planning applications in England fall to record low in housing blow

  01-04-2023 07:00
  
  Experts say developers deterred by changes to planning system brought in by successive Tory governmentsPlanning applications in England have fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years, according to figures published this week by the levelling up department that highlight the scale of the country’s housing crisis.Local authorities received fewer applications to build new buildings or improve old ones in 2022 than at any point since before 2006, the earliest year for which the governm
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Water bills rise today in ‘biggest increase in almost 20 years’ - how to pay less

  01-04-2023 01:01 via express.co.uk
  
  Water bills are set to get the "biggest increase in almost 20 years", in a blow to Britons grappling with the cost of living crisis.
  
  Read more

• Ofgem update: Energy price cap drops - how much will households need to pay?

  01-04-2023 01:01 via express.co.uk
  
  Ofgem's energy price cap for the coming quarter has fallen but energy bills are still expected to be high, even with the price guarantee in place.
  
  Read more

• Household Support Fund boosted by £842m to help more families in need - are you eligible?

  01-04-2023 01:01 via express.co.uk
  
  The Department for Work and Pensions' Household Support Fund has been increased by a staggering £842million, providing more help for vulnerable households across England.
  
  Read more

• I spent my formative years working in record shops. The pay was terrible, the work tedious, but it felt like a vocation | Myke Bartlett

  01-04-2023 01:00
  
  With the loss of Sanity and its ilk from our high streets, music worship seems destined to become a niche pursuitAustralia’s last Sanity store has closed its doors for the final time. This is terrible news, not least for its staff. The demise of Sanity in the physical realm (it survives online, for now) marks the official end of a bygone age – the era of the high street music franchise. An era when awkward teens with ambitious haircuts could find a first job that so perfectly capture
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!