Pensions, tax, insurance and money worries

A landmark legal decision announced today could improve the pension rights of unmarried couples working in the public sector. Denise Brewster, from Coleraine, was refused payments from her former partner’s pension after he died suddenly in December 2009. They had been living together for a decade. She argued she was the victim of ‘serious discrimination’. Now the supreme court has ruled that the refusal to pay her the pension was unlawful. According to the BBC, ‘the result could have implications for the rights of co-habiting couples working in the public sector – including nurses, teachers, civil servants and police’. Tax The Times reports that ‘Britain’s tax burden is set to rise to its highest level for more than 30 years as the Government tries to eliminate the country’s persistent budget deficit’. The paper adds that tax receipts will exceed 37 per cent of national income for the first time since Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1986 when she was aggressively paring back the size of the state. This is according to forecasts by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Insurance

As the UK is hit by 70 mph gale-force winds and torrential rain from Storm Doris, Britons should be bracing themselves for the risk of thousands of pounds worth of damage, warns home insurance provider Policy Expert.

The average claim for storm damage is estimated to be £905, meaning the total sum from this month’s extreme weather could add up to millions of pounds across the country, unless homeowners have the correct measures in place.

One in ten people have had to make a claim in the past due to storms creating costly chaos in their homes, including damaged roofs, fences and outbuildings, as well as burst or damaged water pipes.

HBOS More developments in the HBOS fraud case today. The BBC reports that Lloyds Banking Group, owner of HBOS, is going to review the cases of customers affected by a fraud involving two ex-employees, who were jailed last week. The bank has been under mounting pressure to pay redress after it was accused of reacting too slowly to complaints from victims of the scheme. The fraud took place before Lloyds Banking Group took ownership of HBOS. Holidays

Some gloomy news for this year’s holidaymakers. According to the Daily Mail, B&Bs, cottages and seaside hotels will charge more this summer because of a tax raid on family-run businesses.

Under reforms to business rates, from April 500,000 shopkeepers, cafe owners, pub landlords and other small business owners will be charged up to ten times more, taking a £600-a-year tax bill up to £3,000 and forcing many to close.

Housing

Almost a third of properties currently for sale in the UK’s major towns and cities have had a price reduction since they were first marketed, according to figures compiled by online estate agents HouseSimple.com. Three in ten properties in London have been reduced in price.

HouseSimple looked at current listings on property website Zoopla for 100 major towns and cities across the UK, and the percentage of properties listed that had been reduced in price. In eight of these towns, more than 40 per cent of properties currently for sale have had the initial asking price cut. In Stockton on Tees in County Durham almost half the properties being marketed have been dropped in price to secure a sale. This compares with Salford where just 12.3 per cent of properties have been reduced in price. The analysis reveals a clear North South divide, with 17 out of the top 20 locations in terms of price reductions in the North of England or Scotland. More that half of this top 20 list are either in the North West or North East of England. Only one city in the south of England features in the top 20 list – Oxford – with 36.8 per cent of properties having been cut in price since they were first listed. AA 

Year-on-year increases to insurance premium tax (IPT) means that the AA may have to increase its prices. The breakdown service, which also reported a rise in personal memberships of 0.4 per cent to 3,335,000 in the six months to the end of January, said it had so far absorbed the price rise but added it would look at its fees if the tax rose once more.

Money worries

Rising uncertainty is driving worries about job and financial security and damaging employees’ performance at work, research for MetLife’s latest UK Employee Benefits Trends Study 2017 shows.

The concern about a lack of financial control is having a major impact – one in three employees say they are distracted at work by financial concerns, rising to 54 per cent among the 18 to 30-year-old group. Almost a third of employees say they have had to take time off due to financial worries in the past year – up from just 3 per cent in 2013.