Financial news

• What is behind the extraordinary rise in investment into silver and gold?

  29-01-2026 18:53 via theguardian.com
  Experts say factors including Trump’s aggressive policies and pressure on the dollar are pushing investors toward ‘safe haven’ of precious metalsLast year’s extraordinary run in precious metals has only intensified in 2026, as Donald Trump has continued to rip up the rules of the global economy.Gold has been on a tear since last summer, repeatedly breaking records. It has risen by more than a quarter this month and hit a new high of just under $5,595 (£4,060) an oun
  
  Read more

• ‘My kids buy me food’: civil service pensioners offered emergency loans as nearly 90,000 face delays

  29-01-2026 14:40 via theguardian.com
  Government to lend up to £10,000 to worst-affected new retirees as minister admits there is ‘unacceptable’ backlogNewly retired civil servants say they are struggling to pay bills and buy food because delays at their pension scheme have left them without an income for months.Pensioners have reported being forced to borrow money from family to pay for food and heating, with some saying they feared losing their homes because they could not afford their rent or mortgage. Continue
  
  Read more

• Hopes dashed as ‘Waspi women’ again denied state pension compensation

  29-01-2026 14:14 via theguardian.com
  Latest ruling affects up to 3.6m women born in 1950s who say they have lost out in way UK pension age changedMillions of “Waspi women” will not receive any compensation, the government has again decided in its latest ruling on the case – but campaigners say they will fight on to secure the justice they say they have been “shamefully denied”.As many as 3.6 million women born in the 1950s are said to have lost out because of government failings in the way changes to t
  
  Read more

• Households in England and Wales must splash out more as water bills to rise by 5.4%

  29-01-2026 12:50 via theguardian.com
  Average bills to go up again in April, with Ofwat approving record spending plans amid outrage over sewage spillsWater bills in England and Wales will rise by an average of £33 per household in April, in the latest above-inflation increase intended to fix leaking pipes and sewage treatment works.The increase will push the average annual water bill to £639 in the year from 1 April, up 5.4% on the previous year, according to figures published on Thursday by Water UK, a lobby group for
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• As most TV viewers tune in via broadband, will 2034 signal the death of Freeview?

  29-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The aerial-accessed service has a fast-dwindling audience but when exactly to switch the platform off is proving highly divisiveFor almost quarter of a century Freeview has enabled viewers to access television from the nation’s biggest broadcasters almost anywhere in the UK for no charge.Despite it still being the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on 10m main household sets, those same broadcasters are now calling for the service to be switched off in as littl
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!