Although there are many couples across the UK who would love to start or expand their family, many are well aware of the financial implications involved with having a new baby. In the current climate, where many couples are already struggling financially, the prospect of having a baby has become an impossible one due to finances, which means that many couples are having to put off their dream of a new baby.

Recent research has shown that many couples are now putting their plans to have a baby on hold as a result of financial issues. Research was carried out by Skipton Building Society and according to the findings around four in every ten couples have decided to put plans to have a baby on hold because they do not believe that they can afford it. In addition to financial issues, many couples have become more concerned over the security of their jobs, which is adding to their reluctance to start a family.

The survey was carried out amongst nearly two and a half thousand couples without children. Out of these, 901 couples said that they had been putting off having children for two years due to the state of their finances. Out of these couples, 47% said that they were still saving up to purchase their own home in which they would be able to bring up children. Another 22% said that they wanted greater job security before they decided to take the plunge and start a family.

A range of specific reasons were cited by couples as being key to their decision to hold off starting a family. This included the rising cost of living in relation to essentials such as food, petrol and utilities.

A spokesperson for the Skipton Building Society described the effect of the global financial crisis on family structure as ‘devastating’. She said that the financial climate meant that couples could no longer choose when to start a family but had to wait for their situations to improve, whether they liked it or not, if they wanted to give their baby a decent start in life.

One of the things that borrowers have to go through when they make an application for a loan, credit card or other form of finance from mainstream lenders is a credit check. Lenders, as well as a range of other businesses, also record the repayment information of customers so that their credit files are kept up to date and so that other lenders can get a better view of a person’s financial status when considering lending money.

However, there are many people who do not take finance from traditional lenders and finance companies, turning instead to one of the range of payday lenders in operation today. The payday industry has come under fire on a number of occasions, being slated for everything from charging crippling levels of interest on loans through to not carrying out adequate checks on potential borrowers.

Fresh accusations have now been made against the payday lending industry, with claims that payday lenders are failing to properly record lending transactions, which is then having an impact on borrowers’ credit histories and making it more difficult for other lenders to make an informed decision about whether to approve or reject an application for finance.

According to the credit reference agency, Equifax, some payday lenders are not making enough checks to ensure that they are exercising responsible lending and many are failing to record lending transactions, which means that other companies who do a credit check on consumers are not actually getting the full picture with regards to their financial situations and borrowing levels.

Neil Munroe, the external affairs director at Equifax, said that ensuring that all data about consumers’ borrowing and repayments was shared would help to ensure that lenders were able to lend responsibly with all the information they needed to hand. He said that this information was vital to help lenders ensure that they were not providing finance to those who were already overloaded with finance and who were rolling from one payment period to the next.

He also added that accurate recording of information by payday lenders could help those who have damaged credit ratings if they were repaying their payday loans back on time. He said that having information about timely repayments recorded would help to improve the credit scores of those affected.

The company that owns energy giant British Gas has warned that despite its recent energy price cuts, customers should be prepared to see energy usage costs rise again as a result or rising wholesale energy prices. Centrica said that supplying homes in the UK with energy was set to become more costly over the course of this year, which meant that at some point customers are going to end up paying more for their energy bills.

The company warned that next winter the cost of gas could be 15% higher whilst additional costs could add around £50 to the cost of supplying energy to the average home in the UK. Centrica said that the “trend for retail energy costs therefore remains upwards.” The warning comes after British Gas cut its standard electricity costs by 5% in January.

In August of last year, British Gas customers were hit with price increases of 16% on electricity and 18% on gas. Although the cuts in January did not counteract these increases, they did go some way towards appeasing customers who were angry about the continuing rising cost of energy. The warning will once again create concern and anger amongst those who are already paying out a small fortune on the cost of their energy.

A spokesperson for a main UK comparison site said that any further increases would result in an even greater number of people being left to struggle to afford their bills. He added that suppliers needed to delay increases for as long as they could and even then to only apply increases that were justified. He said that energy suppliers needed to think more carefully about the impact that the price increases would have on their customers.

Centrica’s warning is similar to a warning issued by another energy giant earlier this year. After cutting the cost of energy usage earlier this year, Scottish Power warned that the demand for energy was on the rise and that this would “inevitably lead to higher energy costs in the long term”.

Millions of taxpayers across the UK are set to receive a tax rebate over the coming weeks, with the average payout set to be around £379 for the 2011-2012 tax year. It is thought that around 3.5 million people will be enjoying a rebate from the tax office, which will no doubt be welcomed.

However, there will also be others who have underpaid on their taxes for that financial year and will therefore be receiving a letter from the tax office informing them that they have to pay an average £537. Around 1.6 million people are expected to be affected by these demands over the next few weeks.

The letters are the result of the tax office’s annual reconciliation of consumers’ PAYE tax codes against their tax payments and final earnings. However, HMRC confirmed that this year the letters were being sent out a couple of months early. A spokesperson for the tax office said that this early action would be beneficial to all taxpayers affected, as it would enable those who had overpaid to get their extra money back earlier whilst providing those who had underpaid with earlier certainty with regards to what they had to pay.

The letters from this exercise are set to start going out towards the end of this week and will continue to be sent out in stages until around October of this year. Those who are owed money will simply be advised of the rebate and receive a cheque or payment for the amount owed. For those who owe money no action will be necessary unless they wish to query the amount owed. This is because the tax office plans to take repayments from their earnings in the next year by using an adjusted tax code until the amount owed has been paid off.

There has been controversy over similar exercises since a new PAYE system was brought in a couple of years ago. The new system highlighted the need for extra adjustments to be made, which had been overlooked previously when the older tax system was being used.

Over the past few years, lack of mortgage availability, lower demand, and falling property priced have created huge difficulties for homeowners hoping to sell their homes, particularly those who have been reluctant to drop their asking prices despite the difficult conditions.

It has now been revealed that, although the mortgage squeeze continues and the number of potential buyers has been falling, many homeowners who are selling their homes are holding out on their asking prices. In fact, in a recent survey homeowners have said that they are less likely to drop their asking prices now than they were three months ago, despite the lack of demand and continued difficulties in the mortgage market.

Over recent weeks, lenders have increased their mortgage rates despite the base interest rate remaining at its all time low of 0.5%. In addition to this, the end of the stamp duty holiday has marked the end of a rush from first time buyers whilst banks have cut back even further on the availability of interest only mortgages, thus placing a further stranglehold on the mortgage market.

Out of the properties that are currently up for sale, around 34% are said to have been reduced in price since they went on the market. This compares to 37% in another study that was carried out in February. There has also been a reduction in the typical amount that is being knocked off the asking price, which now stands at 7.5% or an average £19,012.

One industry expert said that the various challenges in the market, including quashed demand following the end of the stamp duty holiday, had all pointed towards sellers having to slash their asking prices in order to boost their chances of making a sale. However, he said that instead average discounts had actually fallen.

The data showed that the smallest reductions in asking prices from sellers were to be found in Reading, where the average drop was 5.9%. The largest reductions were found in Newcastle, where sellers were offering average reductions of 11.1%, which equates to an average drop of £22,151.

The base interest rate in the UK has been kept on hold yet again, remaining at its record low level of 0.5%. Following today’s Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, the Bank of England has announced that it is keeping the rate at its all time low, where it has been for over three years.

Continued concerns about the economy and inflation coupled with the fact that the nation has fallen back into recession are thought to be driving factors behind the decision of the MPC to keep rates on hold. The decision will be welcomed by many businesses, groups and consumers.

Many members of the MPC are said to be concerned about inflation levels, which have been running above the target level of 2% for twenty eight months. The minutes from the last MPC meeting showed how concern about inflation was rising amongst members of the committee.

The Bank of England has also confirmed today that there will be no extension of the quantitative easing scheme this month, which will come as no big surprise to many experts. However, many believe that a further extension in QE cannot be ruled out over the long term and one expert said that it was a close call this month with regards to whether or not to extend the scheme.

Some believe that the subdued economic conditions coupled with problems in the Eurozone will push MPC members to look at extending QE again in the near future and some have voiced the opinion that the committee will have little choice but to extend the program over the coming months. The last time there was an extension to the scheme, which was brought in under the Labour government, was in February, when the total amount of stimulus was boosted to £325 billion.

Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser to the CBI, said that the May MPC Meeting will have involved some very difficult decisions given the various challenges that members would have faced in terms of economic conditions, inflationary pressures, Eurozone problems, and the recession. Other economists added that the decisions taken in this month’s meeting showed that concerns amongst inflation had outweighed concerns about the weak economy.

Another energy giant has found itself on the receiving end of action by authorities after being fined £1.25 million over alleged mis-selling. Energy supplier, SSE, was fined after it was found guilty of tricking consumers into switching from their existing supplier and moving to SSE plans after being given the impression that they would be financially better off.

According to reports, the company had its sales agents using misleading sales scripts when carrying out doorstep calls between September 2008 and July 2009. It was last May when the company was originally found guilty by Guildford Crown Court but it then decided to launch an appeal, which it has now lost resulting in the significant fine.

SSE has now apologised for the way in which it treated customers and conducted its business during that period. The firm has also now confirmed that it has no intention of lodging an appeal relating to the amount that it is being fined. The fine was imposed after a case was originally brought against SSE by Surrey Trading Standards.

Steve Playle, investigations and enforcement manager for Surrey Trading Standards, said that the action taken and the resulting fine should send an important message to the energy industry that it was simply not acceptable to use tactics that involved misleading customers and using illegal strategies. He said that the action would help to remind energy firms that they could not ‘lost sight of the law’ no matter how competitive the market had become.

During the period in questions, doorstep sales people from SSE were found to be advising consumers that they were paying too much for their energy usage with their current provider in the hope that they would then switch to SSE. However, often this was not the case, and customers were misled into switching for no reason. In total seven charges were brought against SSE under the unfair trading practices regulations and the company was found guilty on two of these seven charges. This is said to be the first time that one of the big six energy giants has been prosecuted as a result of its dodgy sales tactics.

The first quarter of this year saw the number of company insolvencies increase by 10% according to recent reports. The number of companies that became insolvent or went into administration in England and Wales saw a 10% increase compared to the previous quarter according to official figures from the Insolvency Service.

In total, there were 1290 firms that had administrators or receivers appointed in the first quarter of this year, which compared to 1173 in the last quarter of 2011. However, whilst the number of companies being declared insolvent increase in the first quarter there was actually a slight drop in the number of people that were declared insolvent in the first three months of the year, with a drop of 1% compared to the final three months of last year.

According to a spokesperson from the Money Advice Trust, the insolvency figures only represented the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it came to the scale of the debt related issues that many households were facing. She added that data showed that there were now around ten million households where finances and debts had become a constant worry and struggle.

Although company insolvencies were up in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter, the figures also showed that the number of insolvencies, both corporate and personal, were down compared to the first three months of last year. Company insolvencies saw a year on year drop of 2% whilst personal insolvencies are said to have dropped by 5% year on year.

Charles Turner, vice president of the Insolvency Practitioners Association, has warned that the level of business insolvencies could continue to increase over the course of this year, as the economic fragility continues. He said that a rising number of businesses and sole traders have been seeking debt related advice and assistance, with many struggling to cope with budgets and finances in the recession. He said that there was a real possibility and a lot of concern about a ‘new wave’ of insolvencies, which could result in an increasing number of both business and personal casualties.

Although the UK’s service sector grew more slowly than expected in Last month, confidence and the hiring of new staff are both on the rise, according to the Markit / CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index for services, which make up about three quarters of the economy, showed it’s lowest reading since November 2011.
This together with slower growth in manufacturing and construction, the PMI data will hopefully help to nudge the Bank of England in to pumping more money into the economy through its programme of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing(QE).

A slight fall in construction output and a low services sector reading were blamed for a surprise 0.2% dip in gross domestic product (GDP) between January and March.
After the fall of 0.3% in the previous quarter, the UK stumbled in to its first double-dip recession since the 1970’s though it is expect the overall figure for the first quarter of 2012 to be revised upwards.

The CBI has cut its GDP growth estimate for 2012 from 0.9% to 0.6%, it is however predicting it to pick up in recovery over the rest of the year.
The organisation which represents some 240,000 companies in the UK, agreed with the key finding of the PMI that optimism among businesses is increasing, meaninga two-year high last month according to the survey.

Markit’s chief economist, Chris Williamson commented: “From what we are hearing from panellists, this certainly does not sound like a recession.”

John Cridland, CBI director-general, said: “Optimism among businesses has been increasing since the turn of the year, with manufacturing demand holding up and that is beginning to translate into more jobs and investment.”, but he warned the global economy continued to pose a number of challenges, including eurozone worries, high oil prices and fragile household confidence. It also predicts that falling tax receipts as a result of the weaker than expected economic growth will mean the government misses key borrowing targets.

It forecast that public sector borrowing will be £8bn higher than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, at £128.2bn in 2012/2013, although it is a vast improvement on 2 years ago.

The continued restrictions on mortgage lending in the UK has been further demonstrated this week after figures were released showing that mortgage approvals are still well below their long term average. The figures were released by the Bank of England and showed that although the number of mortgage approvals increased by 1.5% to 49,860 in March, this was down on the previous six month average of over 53,000 and was a significant drop compared to the 58,000 approvals that were recorded in the month of January.

The weak economy and ongoing caution from lenders means that mortgage lending is set to remain subdued over the coming months, with potential borrowers set to struggle to get mortgages as the year goes one. In fact, according to reports increased restrictions are already being brought in by many of the major lenders, which has triggered a drop in the number of mortgages that are being approved. On top of this, lenders have bumped up their mortgage interest rates recently, despite the base interest rate remaining at its all time low of just 0.5%.

The Bank of England figures also showed that there was also a slight increase in remortgage approvals, which increased to 29,511. However, this was again lower than the six month average of over 31,000. Furthermore, whilst increased restrictions from lenders are likely to further dampen mortgage approval levels, many believe that reduced appetite amongst consumers for mortgage loans will add to the drop in approvals.

Estate agents and lenders have said that although there was a rush amongst first time buyers earlier in the year due to the stamp duty holiday coming to an end, it was highly likely that this would be followed by a dip in application and approval levels. One economist said that ‘a genuine recovery in approvals remains a distant prospect.’

He said that this was a concern that had been heightened by the fact that Britain was back in recession, which was going to have a negative impact on consumer confidence levels.

Although the base interest rate in the UK has been stuck at its all time low level of just 0.5% for over three years now, many lenders have finally bitten the bullet and hiked up their mortgage interest rates this week. This is set to result in a more than a million mortgage holders having to pay hundreds of pounds a year extra on their mortgage payments even though there has been no movement in the base interest rate.

According to the consumer campaign group, Which?, the nation will see a collective £300 million added to its mortgage bill as a result of lenders hiking up their Standard Variable Rate (SVR) mortgage rates. This will mean increased pressure on consumers at a time when many are already struggling and a knock in terms of consumer confidence.

The other issue that has cropped up as a result of the widespread mortgage rate hikes is that those who might have considered remortgaging to a different deal will now find that alternative mortgages will also be increased. Which? has said that around 70% of borrowers are now concerned about how the impact of mortgage rate increases will affect their financial situations and their ability to cope. Around 14% have said that they are already struggling with repayments.

Which? carried out a survey amongst mortgage holders and nearly half of those who were polled as part of the survey said that a repayment increased of just £50 a month would result in them having to make cutbacks in other areas. Around 11% of those polled said that a £50 a month increase would leave them unable to purchase essentials because money was already so tight.

The figures showed that with a monthly mortgage repayment increase of £100 there would be around 20% of homeowners who would be unable to afford to buy essential items due to the additional strain on their finances and 11% who believe they would then be unable to afford their mortgage repayments, which could ultimately lead to repossession.

The high cost of living and rising bills have had a huge negative impact on household finances over recent years, with many struggling to keep their heads above water. It has now been revealed that travel costs are increasingly eating into household income, with reports showing that more and more households have fallen into what has been described as ‘transport poverty’.

This situation is said to have arisen as a result of soaring petrol costs and hiked up rail fares amongst other things, so no matter what mode of transport consumers are using to get to work, do the school run, or get around generally, they are facing a huge increase in costs, which is having a profound effect on their disposable income levels.

The figures show that households are now spending more than 10% of their income on fuel, public transport costs and vehicle maintenance. Campaigners have said that the situation has now reached a point where some households have had to choose between ‘meals or wheels’.

Lilian Greenwood, Labour MP for Nottingham South, said that certain groups had been hit particularly hard by the rise in transport costs, which she said included younger people, those living and working in rural areas, and those who rely on transport in order to get to work. She added that in some cases people were having to consider giving up work as a result of the soaring cost of travel.

This was also echoed by Luke Bosdet of the AA, who said that the organisation had heard about people having to cut back on food so that they could afford the transport costs to get to work in order to earn money to buy food and pay the rent, leaving them in something of a catch 22 situation.
The figures suggest that around 26.1% of households, equating to 5.67 million households, are now spending more than 10% of their income on transport costs with over 1 million spending more than 25% of their income on transport. The analysis was carried out by the Office for National Statistics, and was based on a sample of more than 4,000 households in England.

Many people have been in a situation where they have purchased something or signed up to something that entails a monthly fee and have then found that, even though they may have cancelled the service, the company they purchased from continues to take the payment from their account on a recurring monthly basis.

These recurring payments have caused huge issues for many accountholders, who have found it impossible to stop the money from coming out of their accounts even when the service has been cancelled. Whilst some companies do cancel payments right away when a service is cancelled, others can prove far more difficult, and the accountholder continues to see money go out of their account each month.

The natural reaction for most people in this situation is to contact their bank in order to get the recurring payment cancelled. This is something that banks have been legally obligated to do since 2009, with FSA rules stating that if a customer wants to cancel continuous payment authorities (CPAs) banks must now comply with that request.

However, two of the biggest UK banks have admitted that they have denied some customers their rights to cancel these payments, stating that the only way that the cancellation can be enforced is if it is done by the merchant even though the money is coming out of the customer’s account.

Lloyds TSB and Santander are two of the High Street banks that have denied customers their right to make these cancellations, leading to huge problems for those who have seen the money coming out of their accounts month after month. Whilst the new regulations with regards to banks having to cancel these payments upon request from customer came into force in 2009, discussions have been ongoing between the banking industry and the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority.

Mike Dailly, a consumer lawyer at the Govan Law Centre, confirmed that if a consumer wants to cancel one of these recurring payments, they should be able to go to their bank to request cancellation and the bank should not be in a position to refuse.

Although the property market has been filled with doom and gloom over recent years due to the financial climate and the recession, data shows that it has still seen its typical spring bounce this year, as the number of homes sold in the UK saw a sharp rise for the month of March. Over the course of March there were 74,000 completed house sales which compared to 63,000 the previous month.

Figures also showed that there was a spike in mortgage lending for the month of March, with gross mortgage lending standing at £13.4 billion in March, which reflected an increase of 30% compared to February according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The data showed that sales figures in the property sector had increased significantly in March compared to February for the past three years in a row, which means that although some may think that this year’s increase was partly down to people rushing to complete sales before the end of the stamp duty holiday, this has actually been a trend spanning several years. Some believe that the warmer weather seen earlier in the year may have prompted some consumers to start house hunting.

Despite the spring bounce that was seen last month in the property market, HM Revenues & Customs has also released figures showing that sales levels are still subdued compared to the sales levels seen during the property boom prior to the global financial crisis. Figures from HMRC showed that the sales levels for March of this year were just over half the levels that were seen in March 2007, which was just prior to the housing bubble bursting.

In the meantime, many property and mortgage experts are predicting that any increases that are seen over the course of this year are likely to be temporary blips that will not be sustained, as mortgage availability is likely to be restricted amongst most of the major lenders. This could mean that although rents have fallen slightly recently due to the increased house purchase levels, they could be heading back up as properly sales slide again.

The Big Six energy firms in the UK have been accused of failing to stand by their promises to help the most vulnerable households who are struggling with their bills after it became apparent that without government intervention they are going to miss their targets when the deadline comes around.

The Community Energy Saving Programme was launched in 2009 and under the agreement the energy giants were legally obliged to offer either free or very low cost energy efficiency advice and assistance to poor households in deprived communities. However, the 31st December deadline is now fast approaching and it seems that the Big Six are getting hot under the collar having realised that they are way off target.

The energy giants have been lobbying the government in a bid to try and get the deadline extended, as otherwise they are on course for failing to meet the targets. The Energy Minister, Gregory Barker, met up with the Big Six at the beginning of February. He has since admitted that the energy giants had requested an extension on the 31 December 2012 deadline for achieving both the Community Energy Saving Programme (Cesp) and the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (Cert).

However, the shadow Energy Secretary, Caroline Flint, has urged the government not to give in to the energy suppliers. She said that energy firms had failed to keep their side of the agreement and had failed families and pensioners by not helping them to make their homes more energy efficient and warmer. She said that it was vital that the government and the energy regulator, Ofgem, did not simply let the firms off the hook by caving in to their demands. She said that steps needed to be taken to ensure that the energy firms put their huge profits to good use and met their obligations prior to the scheme coming to an end.

As an example of how far behind target the energy firms are, figures show that the Cesp scheme was meant to help around 90,000 homes across the UK. However, figures show that, with only around 8 months left to run, only 12,703 homes have received insulation measures.

Many people are already aware that their financial situations can have a huge negative impact on their lives, with high debt levels and damaged credit impacting on the ability to get finance, be able to get a car, buy or rent a home, or get credit for many of the other things that we rely on finance for. However, many will be shocked to learn that it could now also impact on their ability to get a job.

According to credit reference agency Callcredit, a rising number of employers are now looking into applicants’ financial history and status before making a decision with regards to their suitability for a job. For those who have damaged credit though missed payments and high levels of debt, and those who are clearly seen to be overstretching themselves financially, the news may not be good.

In the past, many financial companies have carried out financial checks on prospective employees because of the nature of the job but this has tended to remain within the financial sector. The rise of social networking, however, has fuelled interest amongst other employers with regards to doing checks on potential employees, with some having admitted to using social networking sites to get more of an idea of what a potential employee is like.

Callcredit stated that these days more and more employers are developing an interest into looking into the financial status and habits of potential employees, which they can do by checking their credit. Of course, applicants would need to give permission for this to be done, but by refusing to give permission they could be damaging their chances of getting the job anyway. Callcredit said that whilst employers can determine the applicant’s financial status and situation from doing a check, they cannot see what the money is being spent on, which means they will not really get a good idea of an applicant’s lifestyle.

Owen Roberts, of CallCredit, said that more and more employers were now doing credit checks in order to check on applicants’ identities but also to get an idea of how responsible they were by looking at an overview of their

UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has slapped at £750,000 fine on home insurance and repairs provider Homeserve. The fine has been imposed for making an excessive number of abandoned and silent calls, which excessive levels said to have occurred between the start of February and 21st March last year.

Between these times, Homeserve is said to have exceeded the number of silent and abandoned calls it is allowed to make on forty two separate occasions. In total, around 14,756 silent and abandoned called were made during this period. In addition to this, Homeserve also placed around 36,218 calls that breached a rule that prohibits companies from making repeated calls to answer phones within a twenty four hour period.

Ofcom described its fine as “appropriate and proportionate”, stating that the breach was one that it considered to be serious and that it was a warning to other companies. Ofcom did add that the fine also reflected the cooperation of Homeserve in addressing the issues as well as the company’s offer to compensate customers who had been affected by the silent and abandoned calls.

Ofcom’s consumer group director Claudio Pollack said that Ofcom’s rules were in place to ensure that consumers were not annoyed, inconvenienced, or stressed as a result of silent and abandoned calls. Pollack added that this measure was designed to send out a strong message to other companies that used call centres to ensure that they were fully compliant otherwise they would have to face the consequences.

Homeserve said that it has carried out a thorough internal audit and has taken steps to ensure that the problem is resolved. The company said that it has stopped using outsourcing for its outbound marketing and has confirmed that since March 22 2011 all of its dialler systems have been complaint with Ofcom regulations. Moreover, the company said that it has arranged to provide any customers who received silent, repeated and abandoned calls during that period with a compensation payment of £10 by way of a goodwill gesture for any inconvenience they experienced.

Data released by the property group LSL has shown that average private rents fell back again in March across England and Wales. The drop was only a slight one, with rents dropping by 0.3%, equating to a drop of just £2. This has taken the average rent to £705 per month and follows a 0.6% drop in February. Compared to the same period last year, rents are still a significant 2.7% higher.

According to LSL the latest drop in average rents is going to be a short lived ones, as it has been mainly driven by a greater number of first time buyers moving out of rented accommodation and into their own homes, having rushed to purchase a home of their own in the run up to the end of the stamp duty holiday, which came to an end towards the end of March.

David Newnes of LSL said that the rental market was still experiencing the after effects from the stamp duty deadline in March, with the increased exodus of first time buyers from rented accommodation helping to ease competition amongst renters and driving down prices. He added, however, that people would soon become increasingly reliant on rented accommodation again as a result of moving becoming more expensive for first time buyers again coupled with tighter lending criteria from financial institutions.

The drop in rental prices for March is said to have been most prevalent in the south west of England and in the East Midlands. There was a slight drop in rental prices also seen in London but the city also saw the fastest annual growth of all regions, with rental prices having increased by 4.9% compared to the same time last year.

Over recent years, rental prices have shot up as a result of fewer and fewer people being able to get onto the property ladder and more and more people having to opt for private rented accommodation. Whilst this temporary drop in rental prices may be welcomed by some, it is unlikely that it will have any impact on rental price over the medium to long term.

As many people know, getting a mortgage has become increasingly difficult over recent years, with banks becoming increasingly stringent when it comes to eligibility. It has now been suggested that this has led to an increase in the number of people making fraudulent mortgage applications by lying about their jobs and finances or trying to hide their damaged credit history.

Figures released by the credit reference agency Experian have shown that the number of fraudulent mortgage applications involving such issues has increased by 8% in the space of a year. Fraudulent mortgage applications have increased for five years in a row and in 2011 reached a record high of 34 in every 10,000 applications. In 2006, when records began, the figure was just 15 in every 10,000 applications.

The data was compiled through the use of information from the National Hunter and Insurance Hunter fraud prevention systems. The overall increase in financial fraud applications was 4%, which included insurance and current account fraud. The vast majority of fraudulent applications, around 93%, involved applicants fudging their personal information when making applications, such as trying to cover up damaged credit history or lying about their jobs and financial situations.

The data showed that those most likely to engage in this type of fraudulent mortgage application included middle aged skilled workers, well educated younger professionals and younger, less educated people who lived in small towns. There are concerns that this situation could get worse before it gets better, as banks are expected to further tighten their lending criteria over the coming months, which will restrict access to mortgages for an even larger number of people.

In addition to banks tightening their lending criteria, further restrictions are set to come in as a result of lending regulations from the Financial Services Authority, which is keen to take action in order to ensure that there is no return to the irresponsible lending that was seen before the onset of the global financial crisis and recession. Under these regulations, consumers will only be able to take out deals that they can afford with no leeway to rely on house price increases.

Abbey, Britannia, C&G, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, and Santander have announced rate rises in the past week for people taking out new mortgages, meaning that obtaining a mortgage is likely to become more difficult and expensive.
Their new deals, for fixed, tracker or discounted Home loans, have typically been re-priced with interest rates now between 0.1% and 0.4% higher than before.
The Bank of England figures show that the average two-year fixed rate deal, with a 25% deposit, has risen from 2.9% last September to 3.45% in March.

Also in March the Bank of England reported that banks and other lenders were preparing to restrict their mortgage lending even more in the coming months.
The figure for the average two-year fixed rate deal in September 2011 was the lowest on record after rates for such deals had fallen from a peak of 6.35% in the middle of 2008.
At the start of April financial information service Moneyfacts reported that the 2 months previous had seen a sudden drop in the total number of mortgage deals available to borrowers.

Lenders say that increasing mortgage rates are due to the rise in the cost of raising funds from both ordinary savers and the wholesale financial markets, funds which are then used to lend to homebuyers.
Sue Anderson, of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), said that funding costs have been experiencing upward pressure for lenders, who have been operating at low margins, and at some point lenders will take the decision to increase rates for good balance sheet management.

The employment situation in the UK, as well as in many other countries, has been very bleak of late, with reports of job losses and rising unemployment numbers adding to the woes of consumers all around Britain. However, the Office for National Statistics has released some encouraging data recently, registering its first fall since last spring.

Over the period between December and February, unemployment figures in the UK have fallen by 35,000 to 2.65 million. This has resulted in the unemployment rate falling slightly from its twelve year high of 8.4% to 8.3%, which is the lowest level since last summer. However, March saw the claimant count increase by 3600 to 1.61 million, which is the highest level since October 2009.

Nick Palmer from the ONS said that last summer saw the unemployment rate rise quite significantly but the increases began to level out towards the end of the year. He added that because of this, despite the latest decrease, unemployment was still significantly higher than it was a year ago, with figures showing that unemployment is around 170,000 higher than it was at the same time a year ago.

The data has also shown how the number of people having to enter into part time work has increased to its highest level since records began back in 1992. The increase in the number of people having to opt for part time work has increased by 89,000 to 1.4 million. The TUC has expressed concern about this trend, stating that although any increase in the number of jobs was encouraging, it was worrying that the number of full time employed continued to fall whilst the number of people now stuck in involuntary part time jobs had reached a record high.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said that it was encouraging to see more people entering back into the workplace. He said that many of those who were entering into part time work were mothers coming back to work after having a child or older people whose kids were now grown up and who wanted to get back into working.

New research has shown that consumers across the UK are continuing to lose confidence and faith in the Big Six energy firms, with the vast majority convinced that suppliers are now maximising their profits at the expense of cash strapped and struggling customers. The results of the research suggest that consumers are now more fed up than ever with these suppliers, with many people angry about the huge profits that the firms are recording.

The research was carried out by YouGov and shows that a massive 84% of consumers now believe that gas and electricity suppliers are maximising their profits at the expense of their customers. The Big Six suppliers, which have sparked anger amongst consumers, are British Gas, EDF, E.on, nPower, Scottish Energy and SSE. All of the firms have come under fire over hiked up prices and bills and experts believe that the thing that is making most people angry about the firms is the huge profits that they post whilst charging customers a fortune for energy usage at a time when many were struggling to scrape by financially.

The survey results showed that three out of five people believed that energy firms treated their customers with contempt. Experts said that this showed just what a huge problem energy firms had when it came to customer service and customer relations, reflecting the severe lack of trust that consumers now felt when it came to the Big Six suppliers.

YouGov Sixth Sense research director James McCoy said that from the findings following the research it seemed that the majority of energy customers were more angry about the huge profits that the energy firms were posting than they were about their rising bills. Bills are, of course, a big problem for many households, with one fifth of consumers stating that they struggled to pay their energy bills and just under one third stating that they had made cutbacks in other areas in order to pay their energy bills.

Recently released figures have shown that the amount of money that consumer owe to energy firms has been rising, with nearly four million households now in debt to their gas or electricity company and a total of £478 million owed to energy companies by consumers. One comparison group has calculated that the average amount owed per household in the UK is £131.

Whilst many people will be relieved to hear that the UK has avoided a double dip recession, an independent forecasting group has suggested that it will not all be plain sailing, as the UK’s economy is likely to stall for the remainder of this year. This is according to the Ernst & Young Item Club, which has said that although confidence had been boosted as a result of monetary policy measures from the Bank of England, big business now needs to fuel growth.

The group said that companies in the UK had stockpiled cash on their balance sheets but that it was now important for them to increase investment. It has predicted that growth for this year will be ‘dismal’ at a predicted level of 0.4%, which will increase to 1.5% next year. The figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility are slightly more encouraging, with expected growth of 0.8% for this year and 2% for next year.

The Bank of England has been taking measures to try and boost the economy. Already this year, the quantitative easing programme, which was set up under the former Labour government, has been increased to £325 billion. In addition to this, the base interest rate in the UK has continued at its record low of just 0.5%, where it has now stood for over three years, again having been reduced to this all time low under the former Labour government.

However, despite these measures, Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Item Club, has stated that there is only so much that the central bank can do. He said that the central banks could ‘keep us away from disinflation and depression’ but that they couldn’t ‘pump any more in than that for fear of inflation’.

He also said that in the United States business investment was coming along well but in the UK companies had stockpiled cash and were continuing to avoid risks, which in turn was having a negative impact on the economy. He said that unless firms stopped stashing money and started increasing their investment levels the economy would remain on what he described as ‘the critical list’.

The Citizen’s Advice Bureau is set to become the first line of protection for consumers under new plans that have been confirmed by the government. Initial calls and emails will be dealt with by the CAB and a new board will be set up to oversee action by trading standards officers on a national basis. This means that if consumers wish to complain about a consumer issue they would first go through the CAB and the next step would then be determined based on that initial contact.

Norman Lamb, the consumer affairs minister, said that the various reforms were designed to ensure that the right system was set up for consumers who were looking for help, advice and protection. However, it has been claimed by a consumer group that the plans would overstretch local trading standards departments which were already underfunded.

Figures show that in total rogue trading costs the consumers of Great Britain around £6.6 billion a year. Around £4.8 billion of this is attributed to mass market scams, which includes fake lotteries. Counterfeiting and dodgy trading adds to this figure. In a recent report, the Commons Public Accounts Committee claimed that consumer protection procedures had not kept up with the digital revolution.

The committee also claimed that the system of protection was fragmented, with rouge traders said to be basing themselves in areas where there was far lower trading standards protection but then proceeding to rip people off on a nationwide level. Whilst the protection system would be given an overhaul under the new plans, concerns have been raised funding.

The plans will involve the CAB taking over from the existing Consumer Direct, which means that staff there will be the first port of call for consumers who want to make a complaint. However, under the new plans the CAB will not take on individual cases on behalf of consumers. The CAB will also take on some of the duties that are currently dealt with by the Office of Fair Trading and Consumer Focus, so some of the funding will come from these areas.

Over the past couple of decades, up until the onset of the financial crisis, interest only mortgages had become a popular option for many people who wanted to get onto the property ladder but who needed to keep monthly outgoings down in order to manage. With these interest only mortgages, borrowers repay only the interest on the only over the mortgage term and then have to settle the actual principal loan at the end of the mortgage term. With this in mind, interest only consumers have had to look at sideline investments, such as endowment investments, to try and ensure they have the money to cover the principal loan at the end of the mortgage term.

However, worryingly there are now tens of thousands of homeowners who took out an interest only mortgage in the past and who are fast approaching retirement age with no sign of the money needed to settle the principal loan balance on their mortgage. This means that many people will end up retiring whilst still bogged down with mortgages debt, with over a quarter of a million interest only borrowers set to be affected by the end of this decade.

Figures from the Financial Services Authority have shown that over the next eight years around 150,000 interest only mortgages a year are set to mature, out of which 60,000 are likely to be in shortfall. A large proportion of those in shortfall are set to be in the names of people who are either very close to retirement or who have retired, leaving a large number of retirees in mortgage debt during what should be their golden years.

One industry expert said that the situation was ‘horrendous’ and the options would be harsh. He said that those who found themselves in this situation would have to look at how they could use their equity and in some cases could even be forced into selling up in order to pay off their outstanding mortgage balance. For those with properties in the North, this could produce additional concerns, since there has been no house price recovery since 2007 in these areas.

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has pointed out recently that around 70% of households in the UK are on the wrong energy deal, resulting in their paying too much for their energy bills. In the current climate, with many households struggling to cope with their finances given the high cost of living and soaring bills, the government is keen to address this issue and Clegg has now announced that energy providers will now have to guarantee the best deal on energy tariffs, which could save households up to £100 per year.

Under new regulations, energy providers will be required to let customers know about their best deals, providing them with the most suitable tariff and offering them that deal should they request it. The deal will involve the big six energy firms, which are British Gas, E.On, NPower, Scottish and Southern Energy, EDF and Scottish Power.

These energy giants will now have to contact their customers on an annual basis in order to provide them with information about the best tariff for their needs and how they can sign up to the tariff. The same move will be made by the energy companies in cases where customers are on fixed energy deals that are due to come to an end. Whilst the energy firms will be required to provide details of their own best deals, they will not have to offer details about cheaper deals that are available with rival energy providers.

In the autumn consumers are said to have seen increases of between 15% and 18% in their gas bills in addition to sharp increases in electricity bills. Although energy firms did reduce their prices earlier this year, the reduction was nowhere near enough to counteract the increases that consumers experienced last year. Whilst the government believes that this latest move is going to be invaluable in terms of helping households to save money, environmental campaigners have described it as simply “tinkering around the fringes”.

Clegg described the move as ‘an important step’ adding that consumers were not going to turn up their noses at the chance to save up to £100 a year on the cost of their energy bills.

Recent statistical information released shows the quantity of bank holidays that we now have in the UK are effectively costing the economy around £19 billion a year. Economists claims that each bank holiday in the UK comes at a cost of £2.3 billion to the economy and that by scrapping bank holidays, annual output could be increased by £19 billion.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has called for bank holidays to be more evenly spread over the course of the year so that businesses will not lose momentum through the damage caused by a cluster of bank holidays within a short period of time. This year will see five bank holidays over the course of April, May and June alone in parts of the UK, including the extra bank holiday for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The CEBR said that Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) would be £19 billion higher each year if bank holidays were scrapped. The think tank said that compared to other countries, Britain was far more dependent on services but during bank holidays that sector tended to work far less, with the exception of the hospitality industry.

CEBR founder Douglas McWilliams claimed that around 45% of the economy suffered as a result of these bank holidays, including construction sites, offices and factories. However, he added that around 15% of the economy saw a boost as a result of these bank holidays, highlighting businesses such as pubs, restaurants, shops and visitor attractions.

He said that the answer was not necessarily to scarp bank holidays but to spread them out more, which he claimed would not only help businesses to keep the momentum going but would also enable workers to enjoy these holidays more. Despite this, unions have in the past campaigned to have even more public holidays in the UK, stating that other European countries get more than the standard minimum of eight that the UK gets.

Recent data has shown that there has been a 15% increase in retail sector administrations in the first quarter of this year. It is thought that the rise in administrations within the retail sector is down to shoppers abandoning the High Street retailers and heading online instead to make purchases. The data was released by Deloitte, the accountancy firm, with the figures showing that a total of 69 retail companies went into administration in the first three months of the year compared to 60 administrations in the first quarter of last year.

Online purchasing has become increasingly popular amongst consumers for a number of reasons. The wide range of choice available online is a major attraction for shoppers, as is the value for money that can be found online. Many also love the fact that they can shop from the comfort and privacy of their own homes and then have their goods delivered to the door. Add to this the rising number of people who are now using internet enabled devices as well as computers, such as smart phones and tablets, and it is clear why so many retailers have seen their sales and profits plunge.

The added squeeze on consumers spending has added to the woes of the High Street retail industry, with the high cost of living and unemployment levels resulting in consumers being far more careful with their spending, which has also had an impact on retailer sales and profits. Around ten thousand job losses have resulted from these retail administrations, with big High Street names such as La Senza, GAME, and Peacocks all closing their doors in the first three months of the year.

Experts said that the number of job losses will have been much higher than a year ago given the big names that had closed their doors so far this year. Lee Manning, from Deloitte, said that the first quarter of this year had been particularly significant as a result of the size and profile of the retailers that had been affected. The figures show that the number of administrations in the first quarter of this year was 64% higher than the previous quarter. However, administrations do tend to increase during the first quarter of the year.

Recent released reports show that the number of mortgage deals on the market has suddenly fallen back following steady increases towards the end of last year. Figures show that the number of mortgage deals peaked in February, when the numbers rose to their highest figure since 2007, coming in at 2,757. However, in March the number of deals fell to 2,325 and there was a further fall in April, where the numbers have fallen to 2,288.

Experts believe that lenders may have been responding to the last minute rush amongst first time buyers to get onto the property ladder in the run up to the stamp duty holiday coming to an end, which it did at the end of March. The government decided to bring this holiday to an end after claiming that the increased threshold of £250,000 had not done enough to help first time buyers to purchase a new home in light of mortgage rationing.

One industry commentator said that the reason in the fluctuation in the number of higher Loan to Value products (LTV) was due to the stamp duty holiday coming to an end and the launch of the NewBuy scheme by the government, which many hope will help non-homeowners to get onto the property ladder. The scheme is designed to help 100,000 in England to purchase a new build property. Both the government and house builders will contribute towards losses that lenders might face in the event that the borrower defaults on the mortgage under this scheme.

Other industry professionals expect that one of the reasons behind the increase in mortgage products towards the end of last year was due to lenders looking for borrowers who were more profitable and who could be charged higher rates of interest. However, he acknowledged that there had now been a marked drop in the number of mortgages available from a number of big name lenders.

Many are predicting that the housing market in the UK will continue to stagnate over the course of this year, with the Bank of England predicting that lenders will cut their mortgage lending over the coming months based on a survey of lending intentions.

For many years now, older people in the UK have struggled to get affordable deals when it comes to a range of insurance cover types, largely because they are considered a greater liability and risk to insurance companies. Many older people have had to fork out a fortune to get cover such as motor insurance and travel insurance, and in some cases they have found it difficult to get cover at all.

However, things might be looking up for them now following an agreement that has been made between members of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba). As part of the agreement, member companies who are unable to help someone with insurance cover because of their age will not automatically refer them to either a different provider who may be able to help them or to Biba’s “Find a Broker” service. The agreement has already come into force and could help to make things a little easier for seniors who are looking to get different types of insurance cover but may struggle because of their age.

The agreement follows a move by insurance industry giant LV, which used to refuse cover to drivers aged eighty six and over. The provider recently announced that it was scrapping this upper age limit for motor insurance having already scrapped the upper age limit for travel insurance cover. This move, coupled with the agreement made between the insurance giants, could mean that more and more seniors will now be able to get insurance cover more easily and at more affordable prices.

Many insurance companies operate upper age limits on their cover, particularly when it comes to travel insurance cover, as the risk of someone falling ill and making a claim is far higher if they fall into the older age brackets. Some insurance firms have placed the upper age limit for insurance cover at around 74 or 84 whereas others refuse to insure people who are only in their 60s. With this in mind, older consumers often have to spend a lot of time shopping around to even be accepted for cover but this new agreement should make things easier and faster.