Middle-income families will also find it hard to cope with new energy cap in April, says thinktankThe number of households suffering from “fuel stress” – those spending at least 10% of their family budgets on energy bills – is set to treble to 6.3m ove…
Protecting vulnerable from £700 hike in energy bills means hard choices now | Nils Pratley
The options are unattractive but a massively expanded warm homes scheme gets the vote hereIt’s choose your poison time for a government that must know allowing low-income households to suffer the full blast of the scheduled rise in energy bills in Apri…
PMQs: Boris Johnson and Angela Rayner clash over energy prices and inflation
Prime minister talks up rising employment and makes false claims over inflationBoris Johnson and Angela Rayner have clashed over energy prices and the wider cost of living in the first prime minister’s questions of the year, during which Johnson made a…
Millions of Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile customers face price rises
Economists predict 2022 will be ‘year of the squeeze’ for UK householdsMillions of customers of Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile are facing price increases in spring, with TV and broadband subscribers having to pay £56.40 more a year for the services fro…
If you’ve resolved to improve your finances for the new year …
We asked a range of experts to set out a strategy to tackle all the most common money problemsIt’s a new year and many of us are looking for a fresh start after a very difficult 2021. We’ve asked a group of experts for their advice on how to tackle som…
Confused and at risk: the vulnerable are key targets for fraudsters
It has been easier during the pandemic for criminals to cash in on those they think more likely to fall for scamsWhen Angela Smith* phoned her 93-year-old mother to remind her to take her medication, she asked, as usual, how her day had been. “She said…
Thames Water billed us £1,000 for a mystery leak
We used to pay £400 but we suspect the cause is a recently installed smart meterWe are being pursued by Thames Water over a £1,000 bill which it alleges has accrued in six months. We suspect its recently installed smart meter is at fault, but three rec…
Black Friday: how to avoid scams when shopping for deals
Fraudsters aim to exploit shoppers’ desire to save money, but follow these tips before splashing outBlack Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t only on shoppers’ and retailers’ radars – scammers take any opportunity they can to exploit our eye for a bargain, …
E.ON and Octopus are less than smart over my meter mix-up
I switched to Octopus, but E.ON is still charging me for gasI moved house at the end of March and applied to transfer our new electricity and gas accounts to our old supplier, Octopus.While the electricity switch was fine, moving the gas account has sl…
Facebook Marketplace to start charging some UK sellers
From January 2022 a 2% fee will apply for items posted directly to customers via the platformFacebook is to start charging UK sellers who use its popular Marketplace a 2% commission if they opt to post items to customers via the platform.Last month the…