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The UK faces nearly 20 years of lost pay growth, a think tank which focuses on low and middle earners says. The Resolution Foundation said that, after taking account of rising prices, the average wage will not regain its 2008 level until 2026.more

British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt yesterday presented the budget for the 2024/25 financial year. Although this is the last budget before the House of Commons elections, it does not contain any unexpected promises that could allow the ruling Conservative Party to reduce its poll losses.more

Tesco has become the latest supermarket to increase pay as retailers face up to the rising minimum wage and try to retain staff. The hourly pay rate for store workers will rise from £11.02 to £12.02 in April, while pay for workers in London will rise to £13.15 an hour.more

Plans for automated surveillance of millions of bank accounts to catch welfare cheats should be scrapped, campaigners have said, warning the approach risks a repeat of the Post Office Horizon scandal.more

Britain’s sharp regional divide is on track to deepen with London’s economy pulling further ahead despite the government’s levelling up promises, according to a report.more

Despite the development of new forms of payment, money in the currently known form - banknotes and coins - still has a future and will not disappear in the foreseeable time - says Jennifer Adam, curator of the exhibition "The Future of Money", which opened on Wednesday at the Bank of England Museum in London.more

Britain's third-largest supermarket group Asda said on Friday it would give more than 120,000 store workers an 8.4% pay rise from July 1, following a similar move by other large British retailers as the government's national minimum wage goes up.more

A council boss has said more than 70% of budgets are being used up by “very few people” as it emerged a number of authorities could become effectively bankrupt in the next five years.more

The cost of first and second-class stamps is to go up again next month, after Royal Mail announced price rises of 10p a letter. The fourth increase in two years will take the price of a first-class stamp to £1.35 and the cost of the second-class service to 85p and will come into effect on 2 April.more

The cost of the programme to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda could exceed half a billion pounds, the UK's National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report published today. This is a much higher figure than the government has reported so far.more

One in three Poles is worried about whether they will be able to pay their bills, and one in two will not be able to handle an unexpected expense, according to Deloitte's "Consumer Signals" survey. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they would not have enough money at the end of the month - a 3 percentage point increase from December 2023.more

The extension of child benefit payments for all children under the age of 19 has been passed by the Dáil, with the planned extension being brought four months from September to May 1. Currently parents only get child benefit for each child up until their 18th birthday, but under plans announced in the Budget this was to be extended to every dependent child up to the age of 19 in September.more

Customer service at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is at an all-time low as phone line waiting times continue to deteriorate, according to MPs. Nearly two-thirds of taxpayers were forced to wait more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser, a committee found.more

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is conducting a thorough review of its cost of living payments to determine if more are needed, reports BirminghamLive. Charities, campaigners, and MPs have been urging for another round of financial aid as daily costs remain high, but the government has so far stated that no further payments will be made after the recent £299 sum.more

Labour is being warned by a powerful alliance of thinktanks and charities that poverty will soar if it comes to power and then fails to spend many billions of pounds on welfare reform to help those struggling most with the cost of living.more

Around 250 banks are set to close this year or have already shut - as financial services continue to be stripped from the high street at pace. Twelve major bank branches closed in January alone and another 38 will have been shut down by the end of this month. They are among 245 banks set to close in 2024, with another six branches also due to shut but with no end date yet announced.more

The majority of councils across England and Wales have introduced measures to dim or cut street lights altogether over the past 15 years, some saving millions of pounds a year. Now cash-strapped local authorities have increased the cuts in an effort to plug gaping holes in budgets, with Croydon, Cornwall, Havering and Hampshire the latest to declare plans to switch off lights.more

Figures published by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) show the average rent for new tenants has increased to €1,598. The latest report from the RTB for Q3 2023 show the average rent for new tenants is higher than existing tenants, who are on average spending €1,357 per month. In Q3 2023 the standardised average rent in new tenancies grew by 11 per cent year-on-year and in existing tenanciesmore

The energy price cap in Great Britain will fall by £238 to £1,690 this spring thanks to a mild winter and lower gas prices, easing pressure on household finances. Set by energy regulator Ofgem, the cap reflects the average annual bill for 29 million households in England, and takes effect from April. It is a 12.3% reduction from £1,928 in the current quarter.more

Britain’s insecure jobs market and high housing costs are leading to the growth of a precarious middle class struggling to maintain a decent living standard on household incomes as high as £60,000 a year, a report has said.more

A couple who won a £61m share of a EuroMillions jackpot have said at first they mistakenly thought they had only won £2.60. Richard and Debbie Nuttall from Colne, Lancashire, scooped £61,708,231 of the £123m prize in the draw on 30 January.more

British Foreign Minister David Cameron's plan to take over the frozen assets of the Russian central bank and use them to rebuild Ukraine is encountering resistance from bankers from the City of London, the i daily reported.more

The top five areas for low-paid jobs are all in London, a new report has found. The latest study by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) has found that five London boroughs are the country’s top-ranking local authority areas in terms of the proportion of jobs which do not pay a “real living wage”. more

Nearly all top-tier councils plan to raise council tax by the maximum permitted to avoid financial distress, new analysis shows. Of the 136 authorities which have declared their proposals, 128 (94%) are looking to increase bills in April by 4.99% – the biggest amount allowed by the Government without having to hold a local referendum.more

House prices have continued to drop in London as the post-COVID property boom gradually slows. Analysis from Zoopla revealed in December London prices fell by 1.5 per cent, with the city's outer boroughs particularly experiencing a decline in the value of property.more