As everyone is saying, today’s interest-rate rise was a big surprise: not that they’ve done it, but that they’ve done it now. Most commentators – myself included – have predicted that there would be a rise in the early part of the year; I was saying February or, at the outside, March. But January? No [...]

I’ve just been on BBC News 24 talking about how today is the poorest day of the year (according to uSwitch’s PR people anyway so of course it must be true).
Apparently our monthly disposable income falls from an average of £387 a month to around £270. thousands of people will default on bills in January [...]

I've just been on BBC News 24 talking about how today is the poorest day of the year (according to uSwitch's PR people anyway so of course it must be true).

Apparently our monthly disposable income falls from an average of £387 a month to around £270. thousands of people will default on bills in January [...]

So, according to Scottish Widows four in ten families will now have to pay inheritance tax because the threshold (currently £285,000) is far too low. OK, the threshold is going up to £325,000 in a couple of years time but even that is nowhere near high enough to stop families with very ordinary properties having [...]