Five million Americans dropped marketplace health insurance after a 2021 subsidy ended on schedule

The rest of the day

33 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   A 10% card rate cap with no law behind it

   On the night of 9 January President Trump posted that credit card interest rates would be capped at 10% from 20 January, the first anniversary of his second inauguration. [20] He gave no detail on how the cap would be enforced, and it is unclear whether a president can set one without Congress passing a law. [20][21] When 20 January arrived no bank had cut its rates. [22] A White House list of the year's achievements said Trump had 'directed' card companies to cap rates, which reads as voluntary. [22]

   Why it matters — The average card rate was 22.3% in November 2025, so a real cap would halve what people carrying a balance pay. [21] Without a law, nothing changed for them.

2. 03

   What a cap would do to cardholders

   The Bank Policy Institute speaks for large US banks. It said two-thirds of cardholders who carry a balance from month to month could lose their credit lines, or have them cut, under a 10% cap. [21] Brian Shearer of Vanderbilt University studied the proposal. He says banks make six times the profit on cards that they make on everything else, and a cap would save Americans about $100bn. [22] Sara Rathner of NerdWallet says lower credit limits could hurt people's credit scores. [22]

   Why it matters — A cap would cut the rate for everyone who keeps a card. It would also decide who keeps one, and the people with the most debt would be dropped first. [22]

3. 04

   Card rates sit at 19.56%, prime plus a margin

   Bankrate's weekly average credit card rate was 19.56% on 9 September 2026, down from a record 20.79% set on 14 August 2024. [23] The usual formula is the prime rate plus a profit margin the issuer sets, typically 12 to 13 percentage points; the prime rate is 6.75%. [23] Cards carry a higher markup than mortgages or car loans because there is no house or car to seize if the borrower stops paying. [23] Most cards tie their rate to prime, so a Federal Reserve move passes through within a month or two. [23]

   Why it matters — A 10% cap sits below prime plus the margin banks say they need. [23] So the fight is over which customers would still be offered a card at all. [21]

4. 05

   US regulators strike 'reputation' from bank exams

   Two agencies supervise most US banks: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Their final rule removed 'reputational risk' from bank supervision on 9 June. [24] The next day the US Attorney's Office in Washington DC subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. [24] The question is whether their account closures broke federal law. [24] The Federal Reserve proposed on 23 February 2026 to write the same removal into its own rules. [25] Its vice chair for supervision, Michelle Bowman, said supervisors had used reputation risk to pressure banks to drop customers over political views, religious beliefs or lawful but disfavoured businesses. [25]

   Why it matters — The rule does not just end a practice; it leaves five years of board-level closure decisions open to lawsuits, which is why the subpoenas followed within a day. [24]

5. 06

   A Somali savings club frozen by the bank

   A Somali community leader in Birmingham collected about 4,000 pounds from friends between July and September to pay for a weekend trip to a farm in Wales. [26] They froze money she sent her sister for plane tickets, and froze a savings club where friends each paid in 200 pounds a month. [26] Any sum over 250 pounds is held until she explains where it came from. [26] A 2022 US poll found more than a quarter of Muslims had been refused an account or had one suspended, three times the rate for white evangelicals. [26]

   Why it matters — The checks come from rules written after the 11 September 2001 attacks. [26] In 2002 the Financial Action Task Force told banks to watch charities 'targeted at a particular community', and the cost lands on people moving small sums. [26]

6. 07

   A church's $270,000 and a cancelled account

   Steve Happ is an elder at the Servants of Christ Church in Memphis. In 2023, as he packed for a mission trip to Uganda, Bank of America told him it was cancelling the church's account and his credit cards. [28] He had more than $270,000 in three accounts there, including one for a charity that funds orphanages in Uganda. [28] The letters said the bank had decided not to serve 'a business type we have chosen not to service'. [28] Banks are now racing to show they have not dropped conservative customers, and say closures were about financial risk and regulatory pressure. [28]

   Why it matters — His story helped drive the Trump administration's campaign against what it calls debanking, and the consumer bureau now runs a task force on it with the Justice Department. [28][27]

7. 08

   The US consumer bureau redefines unfair banking

   The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the US agency that polices banks and lenders. It says it no longer uses 'disparate impact' in fair lending, the idea that a rule discriminates if its results fall on one group. [27] Instead it checks banks against an executive order that no American be denied services for political or religious beliefs. [27] The page describing this was last changed on 28 May 2026. [27]

   Why it matters — What counts as discrimination has been narrowed to intent with named victims, so a pattern that falls on one group without anyone meaning it to is no longer a case. [27]

8. 09

   A bank can close your account for any reason

   The terms of most US bank accounts include the right to close the account at any time, for any reason. [29] When that happens, the remaining balance is usually mailed as a cheque, as long as no fees are owed. [29] A closure for suspected fraud or unpaid fees can be reported to ChexSystems, the agency that records banking history, which makes opening an account elsewhere harder. [29] Automatic payments and deposits then fail. [29]

   Why it matters — The contract makes the bank's decision final. The fights above, over politics, religion and terror rules, are all fights over how that clause gets used. [29]

9. 10

   Rent software settles with US prosecutors

   RealPage, a Texas company whose software gives landlords daily suggestions for what to charge, settled a federal antitrust case on 24 November without paying damages or admitting wrongdoing. [30] Landlords fed the company confidential data on their rents and occupancy, and US prosecutors said the algorithm suggested rents above what a competitive market would set. [31] Under the settlement, which needs a judge's approval, the software may no longer use current lease data, and any non-public data must be at least a year old. [30][31] Greystar, the largest US landlord, paid $50m and $7m in two settlements over its use of the software. [30]

   Why it matters — Ten states that joined the original suit were not part of the settlement, and New York and California have passed their own bans on rent-setting software. [30][31]

10. 11

    Big investors own 3.8% of single-family rentals

    A viral claim says BlackRock is buying all the houses. BlackRock is an asset manager that owns very little property; the firm people mean is Blackstone, which bought thousands of foreclosed homes after 2008. [32] A 2022 Urban Institute study found institutional investors held about 574,000 single-family rentals, 3.8% of the 15.1 million in the United States. [32] In Atlanta, though, large institutional owners controlled about 25% of single-family rentals that year. [32]

    Why it matters — The national share is small. Where a few firms hold many similar homes in one area and share pricing data, as in the RealPage case, tenants have fewer real choices. [32]

11. 12

    UK state pension age begins its rise to 67

    The UK state pension age started rising from 66 to 67 in April 2026, and the change will take about two years. [34][33] The first people affected were born between 6 April and 5 May 1960 and wait one extra month. [34] Official figures show men in Wokingham can expect good health until nearly 70, against nearly 52 for men in Blackpool and 53 for women in Barnsley. [33]

    Why it matters — The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the people most affected are those least able to keep working or draw on savings. [33] Past rises lifted employment among the affected ages by 10 percentage points. [33]

12. 13

    Triple lock lifts the state pension 4.8%

    The UK state pension rose 4.8% in April 2026, more than 500 pounds a year, because average earnings grew faster than the September 2025 inflation figure of 3.8%. [34] Under the triple lock, introduced by the coalition government in 2010, the pension rises each April by the highest of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5%. [34] The Office for Budget Responsibility said in July 2025 the guarantee will cost three times what was expected, reaching 15.5bn pounds a year by 2030. [34] The state pension now costs 138bn pounds, about half of all benefit spending. [34]

    Why it matters — More than 12 million people receive the pension, and the chancellor has promised to keep the lock until the end of this parliament. [34]

13. 14

    The two-child limit ends and payments rise from May

    Tracey Morris is a single mother of five from Huddersfield who works full-time for the council. [35] Since the two-child benefit limit ended she receives just under 300 pounds more a month for each of three children. [35] The child element of universal credit rises automatically from May, and 59% of the families gaining are in work. [35] But the health element, paid to claimants whose disability limits work, is halved for new claimants, while 2.8 million existing ones are protected. [35]

    Why it matters — Income tax thresholds stay frozen until 2031, so more people pay tax or move into higher bands as wages rise, which economists call a stealth tax. [35]

14. 15

    Cash ISA allowance cut to 12,000 pounds from 2027

    From 6 April 2027 the amount an adult under 65 can put into a cash ISA, a tax-free savings account, falls from 20,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds. [36] Some providers already report a spike of money into cash accounts ahead of the cut. [36] From April 2027 the basic rate of tax on dividends rises from 8.75% to 10.75% and the higher rate from 33.75% to 35.75%. [36] From the 2027-28 tax year, tax on savings interest outside an ISA rises by two percentage points at every rate, to 22%, 42% and 47%. [36]

    Why it matters — The UK government's stated aim is to push savers from cash into shares and pensions. [36] Every one of these changes carries a date that is already fixed.

15. 16

    Sole traders now report tax every quarter

    Making Tax Digital, the UK's move to quarterly tax reporting, started in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords earning more than 50,000 pounds from that work. [36] They must now send income and expenses to HMRC every quarter instead of one annual return. [36] The 31 January deadline stays, as the date for a final declaration of the year's affairs. [36] The same April brought the National Living Wage to 12.71 pounds an hour for those aged 21 and over, and cut venture capital trust tax relief from 30% to 20%. [36]

    Why it matters — A self-employed cleaner or a landlord with one flat now has four filing dates a year where there was one. [36]

16. 17

    US Social Security payments rise 2.8%

    More than 72.5 million Americans on Social Security get a 2.8% cost-of-living rise in 2026, taking the average retired worker's monthly payment from $2,015 to $2,071. [37] The maximum for a worker retiring at full retirement age is $4,152 a month. [37] A 1983 law raised that age from 65 to 67 in stages, and the phase-in ended with people born in 1960 or later, whose full retirement age is 67. [37] Wages up to $184,500 now carry the 6.2% Social Security tax, up from $176,100. [37]

    Why it matters — The trustees project the combined trust fund can pay full benefits until 2034; after that, incoming tax would cover 81% of what is promised. [37]

17. 18

    Medicare Part B premium up 11.6%

    The monthly premium for Medicare Part B, the part of the US health programme for over-65s that covers doctor visits, is projected to rise from $185 to $206.50 in 2026. [19] Its annual deductible goes from $257 to $288, and the Part D drug deductible from $590 to $615. [19] The cap on out-of-pocket drug costs, set by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, rises from $2,000 to $2,100. [19] Premiums for private Medicare Advantage plans and standalone drug plans are expected to fall on average. [19]

    Why it matters — George Huntley of the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition says the lower and more fixed a person's income, the more they feel these rises. [19]

18. 19

    A $1 premium cuts sign-ups by 12%

    About 34% of marketplace plans chosen for 2025 had a net premium of zero after the credit, roughly eight million people, Brookings economist Matthew Fiedler estimates. [17] Studies in Massachusetts found enrollment 12% lower among people asked to pay $1 a month instead of nothing, mainly because paying adds a step that some people never complete. [17] A minimum premium would have pushed about 960,000 people out of coverage in 2025 and saved the US government about $7bn. [17] A Trump administration rule now re-enrols people with $0 plans at $5 a month, waived if they re-verify their income; it is tied up in court. [11]

    Why it matters — The people who drop out over a dollar tend to be younger and healthier, which raises everyone else's premium and eats into the saving. [17]

19. 20

    Insurers priced for the healthy leaving

    About 85% of people buying their own cover get a subsidy, and for them a rise in the sticker price changes nothing, because the credit rises with it. [9] When the subsidy formula shrinks, the enrollee's share jumps instead, which Brookings' Matthew Fiedler says has never happened on this scale in the marketplaces. [9] Insurers raised 2026 sticker prices partly because they expected the people left behind to be sicker than today's average. [9] Chloe Chalakani, a 31-year-old pasta maker in Maine paying $460 a month for the highest-deductible plan, said she would go without cover in 2026. [15]

    Why it matters — KFF's Cynthia Cox describes the danger: the least sick person drops out, prices rise, and the next least sick person drops out the following year. [15] She says the markets are not there yet. [1]

20. 21

    Every dollar of excess credit must now be repaid

    The credit is paid in advance to the insurer based on the income a household expects to earn. [18] It is then reconciled on the tax return with Form 8962. [12] For tax years before 2026 a cap limited how much of any overpayment had to be returned. [12] The 2025 budget law removed that cap, so for 2026 onwards the whole excess is subtracted from the refund or added to the bill. [12][7] Enrollment specialists said this year it mattered more than ever to report income changes to the marketplace as they happen. [7]

    Why it matters — A freelancer whose income comes in higher than guessed in January now owes the full difference the following April. [12]

21. 22

    EU pay-reporting deadline passes

    EU member states have just passed the deadline to write the bloc's pay transparency directive into national law. [39] From June 2027 every organisation with more than 250 employees must publish annual data on what it pays men and women, overall and in similar roles. [38] An unexplained gap above 5% must be assessed and a plan made to narrow it. [38] An FT analysis found the median country with mandatory reporting cut its gap 25% since 2014, against 17% for those without. [38]

    Why it matters — UK research found firms just above the 250-employee line closed their gap faster than firms just below it. [38] But in the UK and Denmark the gap narrowed partly because men's pay grew more slowly, not because women's grew faster. [38]

22. 23

    Australia's pay gap narrows under the spotlight

    Australia's Workplace Gender Equality Agency has published the pay gaps of large employers since 2024. [40] Across more than 7,000 organisations the average gap in total pay fell from 13.1% to 12.7% between 2023-24 and 2024-25. [40] It still widened at about 45% of them. [40] Qantas and Virgin report gaps of 40.1% and 45.1%. [40] The average gap in the federal public sector is 7.5%, about half the private sector's 12.3%. [40] Around two in three employers now analyse their own gap, and a quarter have a target to reduce it. [40]

    Why it matters — Bonuses, overtime and shift loadings drive much of the gap; on base salary alone it is 10% in the private sector. [40] Employees can look up their own employer's number on the agency's website. [40]

23. 24

    UK women paid the same as men by 2056

    Women in the UK will not be paid the same as men until 2056 at the current rate of progress, the Trades Union Congress said in February. [41] The gap stands at 12.8%, or 2,548 pounds a year, which the union says means women have in effect worked for nothing so far this year. [41] It is 27.2% in finance and insurance and 17% in education. [41] Research published in August 2025 found the Office for National Statistics had understated the gap for 20 years. [41]

    Why it matters — The Employment Rights Act will make employers publish action plans on their gaps; the TUC says weak plans will change nothing. [41]

24. 25

    Parliament's own staff paid less by race and gender

    Staff of colour working for MPs and peers earn about 2,000 pounds a year less than white colleagues, a GMB union report based on 174 cases found in October 2025. [42] Women earn about 1,000 pounds less than men in similar jobs and disabled staff 646 pounds less; women of colour earn almost 6,000 pounds less than white men. [42] These workers are employed by individual MPs, not by Parliament, and only employers with more than 250 staff must publish pay-gap data. [42]

    Why it matters — The UK government plans to require ethnicity and disability pay-gap reporting; today there is no legal duty to publish either. [42]

25. 26

    Canada's racial pay gap gets a fraction of the attention

    Women in Canada earn about 84 cents for every dollar men make; racialised men earn 78 cents for every dollar non-racialised men earn, and racialised women 59 cents. [43] The 1977 Canadian Human Rights Act defined wage discrimination only between men and women, and the 2018 Pay Equity Act makes federal employers correct gender gaps but not racial ones. [43] Even with the same education, Black male graduates earn 11 to 13% less than non-racialised peers. [43] Employers must count the representation of visible minorities but need not fix their pay. [43]

    Why it matters — The 'visible minority' label covers more than 450 origins with very different outcomes, which makes a single campaign harder to run. [43]

26. 27

    Two in five Bangladeshi workers in the UK are in poverty

    Over 40% of working-age Bangladeshi adults and 35% of Pakistani adults in the UK are in poverty despite paid work, against 11% of white workers, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports. [51] Workers from these groups and Black workers are more likely to be on zero-hours contracts and in part-time jobs that do not give enough hours. [51] Almost a quarter of ethnic minorities in gig work say it is their main income, against 19% of white workers. [51] An estimated two-thirds of Black and minority ethnic people report racial harassment or bullying at work. [51]

    Why it matters — The foundation says visa rules that tie a worker's right to stay to one employer raise the risk of exploitation, including debt bondage. [51]

27. 28

    AA fined 4.2m pounds over a 3 pound checkout fee

    Britain's Competition and Markets Authority fined the AA 4.2m pounds and ordered its AA and BSM driving schools to repay more than 760,000 pounds to over 80,000 learner drivers. [44] The schools added a mandatory 3 pound booking fee late in the online booking, a practice called drip pricing. [44] UK law requires a mandatory fee to be in the price from the start, and the average payout is about 9 pounds. [44] It is the regulator's first financial penalty for a consumer-law breach under new powers that let it decide cases without going to court. [44]

    Why it matters — A 2023 government review found 46% of online businesses used hidden or dripped fees, costing consumers up to 3.5bn pounds a year. [44]

28. 29

    StubHub UK told to refund hidden fees

    Between 6 April and 7 December last year some customers buying gig and sports tickets on StubHub UK paid unavoidable delivery and service fees. [45] The Competition and Markets Authority found the fees were only added at the final checkout. [45] StubHub UK admitted breaking the law, which cut its fine by 40%, and must refund the customers affected. [45] Under a 2024 law the regulator can now order compensation and fine a company up to 10% of its global turnover. [45]

    Why it matters — The same review that caught the AA in March is now working through eight companies, including Gold's Gym, Wayfair and Appliances Direct. [44][45]

29. 30

    A parking firm fined for ignoring the regulator

    Euro Car Parks is a private parking company known for issuing fines. The Competition and Markets Authority fined it 473,000 pounds for failing to answer seven requests for information over three months. [46] The company said it had blocked the regulator's emails because it thought they were a scam; the regulator did not accept that. [46] It is the first use of fining powers the regulator was given in 2024, and the penalty was set at 75% of the maximum, imposed in December 2025. [46]

    Why it matters — The regulator said it has no consumer case open against the company; the fine is for silence, not for its parking charges. [46]

30. 31

    A bank is the dearest way to send money abroad

    Sending money abroad through a bank costs an average of nearly 14.55% of the amount sent, according to the World Bank's March 2025 survey of remittance prices. [47] A typical international wire from the United States costs about $45. [47] Licensed transfer companies are usually cheaper: Wise charges under 1% when the transfer is funded from a bank account, though the recipient needs a bank account to receive it. [47]

    Why it matters — For someone sending $200 home each month, the difference between 14.55% and 1% is about $325 a year. [47]

31. 32

    Owe the US tax office $66,000 and lose your passport

    By law the IRS certifies taxpayers with 'seriously delinquent' tax debt to the US State Department, which then refuses to issue or renew a passport and may revoke an existing one. [48] The threshold is $66,000 for 2026, up from $51,000 when the rule began in 2018, and the IRS must already have filed a lien or issued a levy. [48] A person applying for a passport gets 90 days to arrange payment before the application is denied. [48] Once the debt is settled the IRS lifts the block within 30 days, or nine to 16 days for someone with travel booked. [48]

    Why it matters — A tax debt of that size can be paid down below the line and still count: only full settlement or a payment plan removes the block. [48]

32. 33

    The IRS audits 0.4% of returns and has lost a quarter of its staff

    The IRS audits about 0.4% of individual returns, rising to 1% for incomes between $1m and $5m and about 8% above $10m. [49] The agency has lost about 25% of its workforce since January 2025, including many enforcement staff, and is on its seventh commissioner or acting commissioner in that time. [49] The IRS estimates it wrongly paid $21.9bn in earned income tax credits in fiscal 2023, a 33.5% error rate. [49]

    Why it matters — Fewer staff means fewer face-to-face audits, but the computer checks that match a return against employer forms keep running. [49]

33. 34

    A $6,000 deduction for Americans over 65

    For the 2025 tax year, US taxpayers aged 65 and over may claim a new $6,000 deduction, on top of the standard deduction, subject to an income limit. [50] A married person must file jointly to claim it. [50] The existing extra standard deduction for age or blindness is $1,600 for 2025, or $2,000 for someone unmarried. [50]

    Why it matters — The deduction is separate from the standard deduction, so a person over 65 can claim both. [50]