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Featured - ISA allowance
What is the 2024/25 ISA allowance?A new tax-year means a refreshed ISA allowance to allocate. Find out more about the 2024/25 ISA allowance...
Savings
ISAs
Mortgages
Buy to let
Specialist mortgages
Featured - Debt and your credit score
How debt impacts your credit scoreA healthy credit score has its benefits, so make sure you manage your debt correctly.
Loans
Featured - travel insurance
Travel insurance 2024Discover the best travel insurance policy for your next trip.
Home & vehicle
Health & travel
Featured - High interest current accounts
Find current accounts offering in-credit interest rates up to 5.00% AER.
Current accounts
Featured - Purchase Cards
Best purchase credit cardsExplore the best cards with a 0% introductory period.
Credit cards
Credit repair
Calculators & guides
Featured - The triple lock explained
Could the value of your state pension rise by more than inflation?
Retirement
Business savings
Business products
Business insurance
How much can I give as a cash gift?
How much can I give as a cash gift?Will your loved one's gift be tax affected?
Categories
Featured guides
Popular news
Latest news - by category
Other money & finance news
Featured Star Ratings categories
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Regular pay rises may still be of concern for policymakers.
When accounting for inflation, UK regular pay between February and April fell 2.2% compared to the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced today.
“If you exclude bonuses, pay in real terms is falling at its fastest rate in over a decade,” said Sam Beckett, Head of Economic Statistics at the ONS.
When taking bonuses into account, this figure changes to a rise in pay of 0.4%.
“The high level of bonuses continues to cushion the effects of rising prices on total earnings for some workers,” she said.
While regular pay fell compared to the previous year, employees received an average regular pay increase, which excludes bonuses, of 4.2% between February and April this year.
This will be of particular concern for policymakers, like the Bank of England [BoE], due to rising inflation, according to Paul Craig, Portfolio Manager at Quilter Investors.
“Earlier this year, Andrew Bailey [Governor of the Bank of England] went as far as to urge workers not to ask for big pay rises in the face of spiralling inflation. Ultimately, this all translates to people’s earnings not keeping up with inflation and hampering people’s purchasing power,” he explained.
For Sarah Coles, Senior Personal Finance Expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, this wage increase is not sustainable in the long-term due to inflation.
“Rising inflation will pile the pressure on even more, and over time effective pay cuts are likely to spread. Already, not every company is boosting pay to keep pace with inflation,” she said.
Despite wages failing to keep pace with inflation, unemployment figures released today made for kinder reading.
“On the face of it, unemployment figures look rosy. The overall level continued to drop in the three months to April, and has finally fallen below the pre-pandemic level,” said Coles.
The latest data has estimated the UK’s employment rate at 75.6%, 0.2% higher than the previous three-month period.
Still, Beckett does highlight some cause for concern.
“Moreover, although the number of people neither in work nor looking for a job has fallen slightly in the latest period, that remains well up on where it was before COVID-19 struck,” she said.
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The Financial Conduct Authority is set to extend Consumer Duty rules to closed products and services from the end of this month, but savers shouldn’t be complacent.
The FCA is set to extend Consumer Duty rules to closed products and services from the end of this month, but savers shouldn’t be complacent.
Are the new rules enough to attract high quality companies to the UK?
Are the new rules enough to attract high quality companies to the UK?
With the UK General Election taking place later this week (Thursday 4 July), we examine how some of the main parties’ policies could affect your personal finances if they were to form the next Government.
Find out what the Conservative and Labour Parties have planned for your taxes, savings and pensions.
The Financial Conduct Authority is set to extend Consumer Duty rules to closed products and services from the end of this month, but savers shouldn’t be complacent.
The FCA is set to extend Consumer Duty rules to closed products and services from the end of this month, but savers shouldn’t be complacent.
Are the new rules enough to attract high quality companies to the UK?
Are the new rules enough to attract high quality companies to the UK?
With the UK General Election taking place later this week (Thursday 4 July), we examine how some of the main parties’ policies could affect your personal finances if they were to form the next Government.
Find out what the Conservative and Labour Parties have planned for your taxes, savings and pensions.
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