US student borrowers on the scrapped SAVE plan get final notices, as research finds their payments could rise from 3% to 12% of take-home pay

The rest of the day

10 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Public-service loan forgiveness counts paused

   Borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a US scheme that cancels the student debt of government and non-profit workers after 120 monthly payments, say recent payments are not being counted. [9] A notice from Federal Student Aid, the agency that runs the loans, said the counts were paused because of data problems. [9] Some borrowers have made their 120th payment and are still waiting. [9] At the end of April, 88,000 requests to buy back missed months were also waiting. [9]

   Why it matters — A borrower can ask to stop paying while they wait, but interest keeps growing during that pause. [9] Business Insider reported the paused counts on 8 October, and the department did not answer its questions. [9]

2. 03

   England may charge firms to train over-25s

   Ministers in England plan to make employers pay a quarter of the cost of training an apprentice aged 25 or over, the Guardian reports. [10] Large firms already pay 0.5% of their wage bill into a training pot, the 4-billion-pound-a-year growth and skills levy, and can spend it on apprentices of any age. [10] Under the plan the pot would pay the full cost for 16- to 24-year-olds, but only 75% for older apprentices. [10] It could start in September 2027. [10]

   • Paid from the training pot75 · 75%
   • Paid by the employer25 · 25%

   Why it matters — More than half of new apprenticeships now go to over-25s, while starts by young people have fallen 40% in a decade. [10] The plan pushes firms towards young recruits, and makes training an older worker cost them more. [10]

3. 04

   Northern Ireland doctors to strike over pay

   Resident doctors in Northern Ireland will walk out for 24 hours on Friday 20 November, and consultants will run a much smaller service the next Monday. [13] They are owed a 3.5% pay rise that an independent body recommended and the health minister, Robbie Butler, accepted. [13] It cannot be paid because the Northern Ireland Executive, its devolved government, has no budget seven months into the year. [13] The Royal College of Nursing has opened a strike vote too. [13]

   Why it matters — The Executive says it faces about 1.6 billion pounds of extra costs this year, against a UK government offer of about 525 million. [13] Public-sector pay alone needs about 500 million, and Chris Bryant, the UK's Northern Ireland secretary, says emergency money runs out in January. [13]

4. 05

   Study weighs home insulation against new oil

   Britain's 15-billion-pound warm homes plan would insulate up to 5 million homes and cut household energy bills by about 1 billion pounds a year, says E3G, a climate think tank. [12] Most of that saving would go to households on low incomes, it says. [12] The plan is under threat of cuts as ministers look for savings. [12] E3G puts its jobs at about 50,000, against about 1,100 for the Rosebank oil field off Shetland, which ministers have yet to decide on. [12]

   Why it matters — Oil and gas from a new UK field are sold on world markets, so experts say they would not lower UK fuel bills. [12] Britain's energy department declined to comment on the plan's future. [12]

5. 06

   More UK savers buy a pension bridge

   More people in Britain are buying a fixed-term annuity, which pays a guaranteed income for a set number of years and then a lump sum, the Guardian reports. [11] An annuity is bought with a pension pot, and most buyers choose one that pays until they die. [11] Standard Life said this week that a 62-year-old with 100,000 pounds could get about 13,800 pounds a year for five years, then 50,000 pounds back. [11] Canada Life reports a significant rise in demand. [11]

   13,800 poundsFive-year annuity

   vsvs

   12,548 poundsFull state pension

   Why it matters — That income is more than the full new state pension of 12,548 pounds, which starts at 66 and at 67 from April 2028. [11] From April 2027, money left in most private pensions at death can count towards inheritance tax, and the Guardian says that change has helped annuities sell. [11]

6. 07

   US home loan rates ease, buyers still pull back

   Typical US home loan rates were 7.37% last week, HousingWire, a US housing news site, reports. [15] It was 6.64% in mid-July and rose as high as 7.60%. [15] Applications to buy a home were 16% lower than a year earlier. [15] Pending sales were 51,947 in the week, against 59,775 a year before. [15] 43% of homes for sale had a price cut, against 41% a year earlier. [15]

   Same week, 202559,775

   Last week, 202651,947

   Why it matters — The gap between home loan rates and the US government's 10-year borrowing cost is 2.21 points, against a usual 1.60 to 1.80, which keeps loans dearer. [15] HousingWire says rates could fall below 7% by the holidays only if the Iran war and oil prices calm and US job numbers weaken. [15]

7. 08

   ChatGPT often gets shop prices wrong

   Which?, a UK consumer group, asked ChatGPT where popular products were cheapest, and it named the right shop and amount for only eight of them. [14] In 68% of cases the answer had at least one problem, such as a wrong price or a different product. [14] It said a Lenovo Chromebook cost 399 pounds, when the lowest price Which? could find was 599 pounds. [14] OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said the prices in its first listings may not be the lowest available. [14]

   Why it matters — In a Which? survey of 1,078 people, 32% said they use AI chatbots for shopping, with the autumn sales coming. [14] A shopper who trusts the first answer can pay more, or skip a product wrongly shown as too dear. [14]

8. 09

   Cut-price vet clinic treats 160 pets

   A cut-price vet clinic run by the RSPCA, an animal charity, treated 160 pets in its first 11 days in Medway, in Kent. [16] It is for pet owners on low incomes or benefits, who pay less than a normal vet would charge. [16] The branch says its animal centres are full, and some people give up pets they cannot afford to keep. [16] Its pet food bank has handed out 18,909 food items this year. [16]

   Why it matters — Owners told the BBC they would go without food themselves before their pets did, so a vet bill lands on the family's food budget. [16] Treating pets at home also keeps them out of the charity's full centres. [16]

9. 10

   Squatters out of a dead man's Queens home

   Two people accused of serial squatting have been removed from a house in Bayside, in Queens, New York, now listed at 915,000 dollars, Realtor.com reports. [17] The owner died in 2018 with a large reverse mortgage, a loan against a home that is repaid when the owner dies or sells. [17] Nobody told the county office that handles such estates, and a Covid-era pause on evictions held up the bank's attempt to take the house back. [17] Both deny burglary and other charges. [17]

   Why it matters — Neighbours say it took more than two years and a congressman's help to get them out. [17] The county office says hospitals and funeral homes no longer reliably report deaths to it, and this house sat empty for years. [17]

10. 11

    Pakistan's car loans rise for a 22nd month

    Car loans owed in Pakistan rose to 407 billion rupees in September, from 393.3 billion in August, figures from the State Bank of Pakistan, the country's central bank, show. [18] It was the 22nd monthly rise in a row, Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, reports. [18] Sales of cars, SUVs, pickups and vans still fell 12% from a year earlier, to 15,104. [18] Pakistan's central bank held its main interest rate at 11.5% on 14 September. [18]

    Why it matters — Topline Securities, a Karachi investment firm, says Pakistan's central bank may raise that rate by half a point because oil and food prices are high. [18] Car loans follow the interest rate, so a rise would make each new loan dearer, and Topline expects car lending to grow more slowly. [18]