Financial news

• Starmer faces Labour revolt over plan to raid bank accounts of benefit claimants

  25-04-2025 20:12 via theguardian.com
  Welfare fraud bill would allow funds to be taken from bank accounts and driving licences to be cancelledShould benefit claimants risk having their bank accounts spied upon and driving licences revoked? I don’t think soKeir Starmer is facing a rebellion over his plan to use direct deductions from people’s bank accounts and the cancellation of driving licences as part of a government crackdown on welfare fraud and over-claiming.In an attempt to claw back the annual £9.7bn in bene
  
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• EU may accept 12-month work visas for ‘youth experience’ scheme with UK

  25-04-2025 17:53
  Exclusive: Post-Brexit plan would allow British and European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel and work freelyThe EU is prepared to make major concessions in negotiations to allow British and European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel and work freely, potentially paving the way for a long-awaited reset with Brussels.A scheme that would allow thousands of young Europeans to live and work in the UK has been seen as a key EU demand in reaching a post-Brexit pact incorporating defence, energy and migration.
  
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• Britain will find ‘common ground’ with US on energy policy, says Miliband

  25-04-2025 17:52
  
  Energy secretary says countries must work together during conference at which US delegate called net zero ‘dangerous’Britain will find “common ground” with the US on energy and the economy including on nuclear power, despite differences over climate policy, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.He was speaking at the close of a two-day, 60-country conference in London on energy security, hosted by the government and the International Energy Agency (IEA), at wh
  
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• Stunned resignation and foreboding: a week in Trump’s shadow at IMF

  25-04-2025 17:40
  
  Few policymakers mention US president by name, but his tariffs dominate IMF-World Bank meetingKristalina Georgieva’s favourite film, the International Monetary Fund boss told the audience at a packed panel event in Washington on Thursday, is Tom Hanks’s cold war romp Bridge of Spies.In one of the stranger digressions in a frequently strange week, Georgieva recalled the moment when Hanks’s character, a US lawyer, tells the Soviet spy he has been appointed to defend that he will
  
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• Anyone with a Cash ISA urged to take action before Thursday

  25-04-2025 17:28 via express.co.uk
  Finance experts are urging savers with Cash ISAs to take action before Thursday.
  
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• Marks & Spencer pauses online orders as firm struggles with cyber-attack fallout

  25-04-2025 16:36
  
  Contactless payments now restored in stores after week of problems as retailer apologises to shoppersMarks & Spencer has halted all orders through its website and apps as the retailer continues to battle the fallout from a cyber-attack that began on Monday.The company apologised to shoppers for “this inconvenience” and paused digital orders “as part of our proactive management of a cyber incident”. Continue reading...
  
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• DWP benefit worth £441 a month scrapped for thousands of Brits

  25-04-2025 16:30 via express.co.uk
  In a new change, attendance Allowance will be replaced by the Pension Age Disability Payment.
  
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• Vinterior: meet the boss who quit finance to set up a thriving vintage furniture site

  25-04-2025 16:00
  
  Sandrine Zhang Ferron on how she created her online business, from building the website to signing up 100,000 customersVinterior may not have any showrooms or shops, but the home of the founder and chief executive, Sandrine Zhang Ferron, has plenty of finds from the classy secondhand furnishings site – from quirky vases to a vintage drinks cabinet.Zhang Ferron, who was born in China but grew up in France, readily admits that she created the site for herself, ditching her well-paid job in f
  
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• Rupert Murdoch’s company ‘actively frustrated’ Met’s phone-hacking investigation

  25-04-2025 15:38
  Exclusive: Court document reveals accusations by former detectives, with one concluding NGN’s Will Lewis could have been arrestedRupert Murdoch’s company, News Group Newspapers, has been accused by former detectives of having “actively frustrated” their UK investigation into phone hacking, with one concluding a senior executive could have been arrested for perverting the course of justice, according to a newly disclosed court document.The senior executive, Will Lewis, is
  
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• Property guardians: caretaker solutions to sky-high city rents

  25-04-2025 15:33
  
  London professionals are taking advantage of reduced rents in vacant buildings in often unusual spacesA top-floor, open-plan property in a trendy east London neighbourhood would usually set you back thousands of pounds a month in rent, but Luke Williams is paying a fraction of that.The 45-year-old programme manager is one of a growing number of professionals turning to property guardianship – a housing arrangement whereby people live in vacant buildings in exchange for reduced rent. Contin
  
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• UK households handed up to £450 in 9 regions in England

  25-04-2025 14:49 via express.co.uk
  A new government scheme will help give working families hundreds of pounds - and time - back each year.
  
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• Nationwide urges customers to 'check for this letter or email' over £50 payments

  25-04-2025 14:09 via express.co.uk
  It's being paid as a thank you to customers
  
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• Average energy bill in Great Britain to fall 9% as Trump tariffs hit gas prices

  25-04-2025 14:06
  
  Typical bill to drop by £166 as warm weather and global economic uncertainty drive down wholesale gas prices, says leading forecasterBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump’s trade war means lower energy bills for British households, according to a leading forecaster, after the economic shock waves triggered by US trade tariffs caused global gas market prices to slide.Cornwall Insight predicts the UK government’s cap on energy bills will fall by 9% from July, or £
  
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• DWP update as thousands of people given extra help

  25-04-2025 14:02 via express.co.uk
  The DWP has shared new figures as it commits to helping people get into employment.
  
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• Post Office paid £600m to continue using bug-ridden Horizon IT system

  25-04-2025 14:00
  
  Tony Blair was warned about possible problems with the original Fujitsu deal before it was signed in 1999Business live – latest updatesThe Post Office has paid more than £600m of public money to continue using the bug-ridden Horizon IT system despite deciding it needed to be replaced more than a decade ago.It has emerged that the government was warned about potential problems with the original £548m deal that the Post Office struck with the Japanese company Fujitsu before it wa
  
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• Microsoft says everyone will be a boss in the future – of AI employees

  25-04-2025 13:31
  
  Tech company predicts rise of ‘frontier firms’ – where a human worker directs AI agents to carry out tasksMicrosoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we’re all going to be bosses – of AI employees.The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a “frontier firm”, where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Continue reading...
  
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• Travel expert urges holidaymakers to avoid common 'tourist trap' in Italy

  25-04-2025 13:16 via express.co.uk
  Lauren Quacquarelli, who lives in Italy and is half English, half Italian, has warned about a scam that is catching out scores of holidaymakers in Italy.
  
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• Tax dash as families scramble to save 'thousands' thanks to Donald Trump chaos

  25-04-2025 13:05 via express.co.uk
  Inheritance tax bites at 40% on estates worth over £325,000
  
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• Should benefit claimants risk having their bank accounts spied upon and driving licences revoked? I don’t think so | Neil Duncan-Jordan

  25-04-2025 13:00
  
  MPs like me are horrified by my government’s proposals to treat vulnerable people as suspects simply because they need state supportNeil Duncan-Jordan is the Labour MP for PooleReport: Starmer faces Labour revolt over plan to raid bank accounts of benefit claimantsLabour won last year’s general election on a promise to reverse the damage done by the previous Conservative governments, offering a politics that would, in the memorable words of the prime minister, “tread more light
  
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• Apple ‘aims to source all US iPhones from India’, reducing reliance on China

  25-04-2025 12:16
  
  Report suggests tech firm – swept up in Donald Trump’s trade war – will make change as soon as 2026Apple is reportedly planning to switch assembly of all iPhones for the US market to India as the company seeks to reduce its reliance on a Chinese manufacturing base amid Donald Trump’s trade war.The $3tn (£2.3tn) technology company aims to make the shift as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported. Continue reading...
  
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• Retail sales rise unexpectedly in Great Britain as sunshine lures shoppers

  25-04-2025 10:33
  
  Overall 1.6% rise in sales across first quarter, compared with last quarter of 2024, is strongest rate since July 2021Business live – latest updatesSunny weather fuelled an unexpected increase in retail sales in Great Britain last month, as shoppers flocked to clothing, outdoor and DIY stores.Retail sales volumes rose 0.4% in March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), defying a forecast of a 0.4% fall by City economists and marking the third straight month of sales growt
  
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• Supported housing in England on brink of financial crisis, charities warn

  25-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: More than 150 organisations warn funding cuts could force closures, putting thousands of vulnerable people at riskMore than 150 organisations, including Age UK and Refuge, have warned the supported housing sector is on the precipice of a financial crisis that could plunge tens of thousands of vulnerable people into homelessness.In a letter to the government being delivered on Friday, public bodies, charities and housing associations called for urgent action to save the sector, which p
  
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• Quirky converted homes in England for sale – in pictures

  25-04-2025 08:00
  
  From a Norfolk windmill-watermill to a Sussex oast house with micro vineyard, conversions worth a toast Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I had rose-tinted spectacles’: UK city dwellers on relocating during the pandemic

  25-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As London once again becomes the most searched-for location on Rightmove, which is better, rural or city life?London has once again become the most searched-for location on the property website Rightmove, with more than half of the people living there (58%) looking to stay rather than leave.This comes five years after the start of the Covid pandemic, which prompted many people to seek an escape from city life in favour of more outdoor space to accommodate working remotely. This trend has since r
  
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• Drax needs a better policeman

  25-04-2025 06:01
  Public confidence in the UK biomass industry is low – robust checks are needed to ensure every wood pellet its power plant burns is sustainableMPs question value of billions in subsidies granted to Drax power plantEven government ministers sounded embarrassed in February when they threw yet more subsidies at Drax, recipient of £6.5bn to date, to keep its wood-burning power plant open until 2031. Few people think the biomass industry can survive in the long term unless as-yet-untested
  
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