Expert views
Commentary submitted by Charlene Young in their own words.
Back to profileYoung adults sitting on forgotten windfalls worth £2,310 on average
If you were born, or if you have a child who was born, between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011, there could be a CTF waiting to be found. You can track it down through the tool on the government website. You need to sign in through the government gateway and then complete a form and they’ll let you know where the money is, so you can get in touch and claim it.
UK borrowing falls by more than forecast in early relief for new Chancellor
A sharp drop in public sector borrowing gives new chancellor John Healey a welcome tailwind on his first full day in the job.
Retirement ‘cliff edge’ warning as figures indicate income levels needed
The Pensions UK figures can help people crunching the numbers to work out what they’ll need to get by.
Home mortgage approvals jump to 15-month high, figures show
Net mortgage lending was down in April to £4.4 billion, from £6.8 billion in March and below the £5.1 billion average over the last six months.
February rise in mortgage approvals is ‘snapshot of what could have been’
Flows for the month were nearly 30 per cent higher compared to February 2025.
MPs to look at fairness of student loans system
For a Government that came to power promising to incentivise work and provide a shot in the arm for the nation’s long-stagnant productivity rates, the Chancellor’s decision to freeze the Plan 2 student loans repayment threshold from April was a bizarre call. It’s also not the first time the system has been tinkered with, with a three-year freeze in the repayment threshold announced in 2022 by Boris Johnson, accompanied by a change in the uplift measure from average earnings to RPI thereafter.
NS&I chops British Savings Bonds rates
Hot on the heels of the latest Bank of England base rate cut, the government savings provider NS&I has slashed rates on new issues of its popular Guaranteed Growth and Income bonds across the board.
£2,000 cap for salary-sacrificed pension contributions – OBR
Rather than an all-out ban on using salary sacrifice for pension contributions, a £2,000 cap announced by the Chancellor today will be placed on the amount of earnings given up that will benefit from a National Insurance (NI) exemption from April 2029.
Any salary sacrifice clampdown ‘would hit pension savers, firms and economy’
Thousands of employers currently use pensions salary sacrifice as a way of efficiently paying pension contributions while cutting National Insurance costs for them and their employees.
Just seven and-a-half minutes of admin time ‘may lead to pension windfall’
A few minutes work is well worth it if you can uncover thousands of pounds to help towards a better retirement.