Spectator money

The pension revolution rolls on. Next year more than five million retired people will be able to enjoy the new ‘pension freedoms’ and cash in their annuity. I imagine the daytime TV ads are in the pipeline already, showing cheery pensioners completing the Daily Telegraph crossword in their new conservatory, or heading off into the sunset on a luxury cruise. It’s not hard to see why many pensioners might be looking forward to this opportunity. Not because they want to waste their hard-earned savings on fripperies, but because many will be unhappy with the annuity they were forced to buy at retirement. Until recently most people bought an annuity with

Buried in the Queen’s Speech this week was an unassuming little sentence that could transform our collective ability to deal with the ruthless financial services industry – but don’t hold your breath. The Government signalled that it is bracing itself to take on the challenge that has defied all of its predecessors – to produce a widely accessible, State-backed source of financial advice. The Queen said: ‘A new money guidance body would replace the Money Advice Service and be charged with identifying gaps in the financial guidance market to make sure consumers can access high-quality debt and money guidance.’ Details so far are sketchy, suggesting that the new scheme has

A ‘digital revolution’ was at the heart of the Queen’s Speech yesterday, including a new legal right to fast broadband under plans to bring rural areas and unconnected households into the 21st century. That’s according to this morning’s front page of The Times. The paper reports that a law enshrining the right to broadband will mean that up to a million people in rural areas, who have long suffered terrible coverage, can demand a better service. It brings internet connectivity into line with the right to get electricity, telephone and postal services. Other measures in the speech included the capping of exit fees for savers who want to access their cash under new

My phone rings. ‘Hi, it’s your editor here. We need an article in a hurry, it’s a bit of an emergency. Can you do it quickly?’. I reply: ‘Yes, but I’ll have to raise my rate by 500 per cent.’ My career at The Spectator would be pretty short-lived if I tried that on. But it’s exactly what plumbers do – and they get away with it. A new study from Direct Line Home Insurance has revealed the so-called ‘plumber premium’ if you need a tradesperson to fix a leak in an emergency. While the average increase in a plumber’s hourly rate for this kind of work is an imposing 117 per

There’s a whole swathe of wannabe parents buying pets to ‘practise on’, according to recent research. More than two million British dog owners bought their dogs to limber up for a baby, the Direct Line survey found. Meanwhile, a third of dog owners without children feel like parents and one in 20 childless dog owners believe owning a dog is more work than having a baby. It’s hard to know whether to feel more sorry for the dogs or the children. Babying a dog is a sure-fire way to psychologically destroy it and if you reckon that pampering a pooch is anything like the mind and body annihilation that comes

The new issue of Spectator Money is out on Thursday 19 May, and there’s a fantastic array of articles to look forward to. Here’s the editor, Martin Vander Weyer, on what you can expect. The magazine will come free with your next copy of The Spectator, and will also be available to read online at www.spectator.co.uk/money. Times of political change are also times to think about ‘legacy’. What will Barack Obama be remembered for: his nuclear deal with Iran, his ‘Obamacare’ health programme, or simply his symbolic status as America’s first black president? Is the legacy of Boris Johnson as London’s mayor all about buses and bicycles, or something less tangible but

Am I a ‘doomeranger’? If a new survey is to be believed then, yes, that’s exactly what I am. In a twist on the phrase ‘boomerang generation’ – used to describe young people who, not long after leaving home, move back in with their parents – some PR whizz has coined ‘doomeranger’ to mean adults who return to the nest years after moving out. These so-called doomerangers (who make up 14 per cent of the population) often have families of their own and have been forced back in with mum and dad after a bad break-up or financial problems. Thankfully I didn’t fit into either of those categories when, five

Owning houses and cars can sometimes seem like throwing money into a black hole. And there’s little respite – new research has found that car insurance premiums rose by an average of 12 per cent over the past year. MoneySuperMarket, the price comparison site, looked at year-on-year quarterly car insurance premiums to identify overall and regional price fluctuations. The average premium paid in the first quarter of 2016 was £478, up from £428 in the same period in 2015 – a stinging £50 hike. Drivers in Tonbridge saw premiums rise by almost a quarter (23 per cent – or £75). Drivers in Dartford, Worcester and Wolverhampton also experienced hefty year-on-year increases,

Just days after Halifax and Scottish Widows said they would raise their age limit for mortgages from 75 to 80, Nationwide has announced it is increasing its threshold too. The UK’s biggest building society is raising its age limit for borrowers by ten years to 85. The change – which applies to when a mortgage term ends, not the maximum age a borrower at which can apply for a loan – is yet another sign of the impact of rising house prices on buyers. Nationwide said the increase was due to ‘growing demand’, and the limit would be in force from July. It means a 60-year-old could take out a 25-year mortgage as long

One of the starkest trends in recessionary Britain is the ever expanding army of the self-employed. Among the staggering 4.4 million people who work for themselves are 166,000 taxi drivers, 140,000 carpenters and joiners and 123,000 farmers, as well as more prosperous lawyers and computer contractors. These workers have few perks: no paid holidays or sickness cover. They make up one seventh of the workforce but, also, sadly, according to the Department for Work and Pensions 22 per cent of them have no pension. My own family experience bears this out. I am one of the youngest in a family of seven children: four siblings are self-employed, but only one