The End of the Student Tuition Fees Freeze The long freeze on student tuition fees in England has come to an end in 2025. Do you know what the RPIX is? You might guess it’s related to inflation given that RPI is the Retail Prices Index. But what does the X mark? X...
New statistics show that cash ISAs remain a popular investment. Every autumn HMRC publishes a set of annual savings statistics, setting out detailed information about individual savings accounts (ISAs), lifetime individual savings accounts (LISAs), child trust funds...
A third deadline for topping up State Pension entitlement is now coming into view. “Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?” The words of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, recorded over half a century ago, always come to mind when...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget was a significant one in all senses. “…this Budget delivers a large, sustained increase in spending, taxation, and borrowing.” So said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in the first paragraph of its overview of the...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has been crunching the numbers on the adequacy of pension contributions and retirement savings. One of the unremarked government successes of the 2010s was the introduction of automatic enrolment of employees into pension...
HMRC is uncharacteristically keen to give money away, reminding young adults again that they may be due unclaimed child trust funds (CTFs). The amount still to be paid out comes to just under £1.4 billion. As the UK settles under its first Labour government in 14...
Autumn won’t leave much time for the new government to settle before important pension policy decisions need to be made. When MPs return to work after the summer recess, many areas of policy will require attention. Some are inheritances from the last government, while...
‘Tick the Gift Aid’ box to boost your donation to charity and save some tax. The number of national and international calls on our goodwill to donate to causes has grown in the last few years. You are probably familiar with the ‘Tick the Gift Aid’ box, or a request to...
New data from HMRC show growing numbers of income taxpayers paying above the basic rate. The club that all members want to leave, the income tax playing club, is gathering ever more members who are paying every greater subscriptions. That, at least, is one way of...
Are student loans something to avoid? With the 2024/25 academic year on the horizon, student finance is again a hot topic for many parents. How hot differs slightly for the UK’s four nations as each has a subtly different way of funding students and, outside Scotland,...
The date of the next Budget has been announced, accompanied by the new Chancellor’s warning about government finances. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first announcement on entering 11 Downing Street was the commissioning of a ‘spending inheritance’ review from the...
With a majority of over 200 and a weight of expectations, what happens next for Sir Kier Starmer’s new Labour government? The importance of the first 100 days of a new government cannot be understated. Within that period the new incumbent has the greatest political...
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