Beat
How money actually works — pay, homes, bills, debt, savings and the rules around them.
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 →
About 6 million US borrowers still on SAVE, a student-loan plan that set payments by income, face being moved to fixed plans; a former bankruptcy judge expects more filings, and Britain's tight budget reaches apprentices, home insulation and doctors' pay.
The UK's real Living Wage, paid by choice by about 17,000 employers, rises 65p to 14.10 pounds an hour, and to 15.45 pounds in London, for almost half a million workers →
It is set from what living costs, not by law, and now sits 1.39 pounds an hour above the legal minimum. The Budget on 28 October is expected to set next April's legal rate, while a Conservative frontbencher has backed freezing it for five years.
More than four in ten US adults had trouble paying for medical care, rent, travel or food in the past year, and 71% of lower-income adults, a Pew survey finds →
A Pew Research Center survey of 5,166 US adults found 44% struggled to pay for at least one basic need in the past year, and 53% have no three-month savings. Also today, skimmed food-stamp money nobody repays, Texas hospitals that bill before checking for free care, and a 3.6% US pension rise.
Britain's competition watchdog fines Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Gold's Gym 6m pounds for fake deadlines and hidden fees, and orders refunds from two of them →
Wayfair pays the biggest fine, 4.8m pounds, for countdown offers that were not real, and the report names no refund for its customers. Ofwat moves water bills by missed targets, and US home loans reach 7.5%.
UK car finance payouts slip to 2027 at the earliest, as a court sets February to hear challenges from three lenders and a consumer group →
No driver mis-sold a car loan will be paid before 2027, the UK regulator says, and lenders have been told to plan for the scheme being struck down.
UK ministers promise rules for heating oil, the fuel 1.5 million homes burn, after its price nearly doubled in a year →
The UK will regulate heating oil sellers, as its competition watchdog asked in July, but there is no price cap and no start date. Also today, parking apps in England add fees the sign leaves out, only one UK mortgage under 4% is left, Australian cafes raise prices after a card-fee ban, and US home sales fall to their lowest since 2014.
A US lenders' group expects home loan rates to stay above 7% through 2027, as the US central bank keeps raising its rate →
The Mortgage Bankers Association told its convention on Sunday that 30-year US home loan rates will stay above 7% until the end of 2027, and that fewer loans will be made. In Britain, lenders expect more missed card payments, and roofing tops the list of scams.
US Supreme Court hears Anderson v. Intel, on when savers can sue over weak returns in a 401(k) workplace pension, and the justices lean towards Intel →
The case decides how hard it is for US workers to challenge the funds their employer picks for their retirement savings. Elsewhere, US Medicaid dropped refugees, and England's 2012 student borrowers wait on the Budget.
Almost one US family in five is behind on a loan payment, the most since 2010, the US central bank's survey finds →
The Federal Reserve's survey of American family finances, taken every three years, shows the middle family's income up 7% since 2022 while the share behind on loan payments rose from about 12% to almost 20%.
E.ON Next completes its takeover of Ovo Energy, and three suppliers now serve almost three in four homes in Great Britain →
E.ON Next takes on Ovo's 4 million households after Britain's competition watchdog cleared the deal without a deeper look. Also today, a New York Fed study finds tariffs raised everyday US prices, and UK government borrowing costs hit a 19-year high.
Kemi Badenoch says a Conservative government would end inheritance tax on family homes and let couples leave another 1m pounds tax-free →
Britain's Conservative leader promised to take the family home out of inheritance tax, a tax about 5 in 100 estates pay. The IFS says the biggest gains go to the most valuable homes.
Ireland's budget raises the income at which the higher tax rate starts to 46,500 euros, cuts heating fuel tax and lifts childcare help by up to 2,220 euros a child →
Ireland's government spent a surplus on tax cuts for most workers, cheaper heating fuel and childcare. Britain's chancellor, with no surplus, is weighing help aimed only at poorer homes, and car loans, rates and diesel kept squeezing households elsewhere.
BT buys TalkTalk out of administration, keeping broadband running for its 1.5 million homes; a competition review must report by 19 October →
TalkTalk ran out of money, so BT, the UK's biggest broadband provider, bought it over a weekend. Customers keep their prices and contracts for now, rivals call it a stitch-up, and the UK government will make the final call after a competition report due on 19 October.
Glasgow's council threatens to sack and rehire 23,000 staff to bring in equal-pay grades that cut wages for about one in nine →
Glasgow City Council is replacing pay grades the courts found unfair to women. The new grades raise pay for 63% of staff and cut it for 11%, some by 11,500 pounds a year, and the council has threatened to sack and rehire everyone to force them in.
Spain's parliament votes down new protections for tenants, and tens of thousands march in about 50 cities →
Spain's minority government lost two votes on Friday on decrees to stop evictions and stretch leases, after an 87-year-old was evicted from the flat her family had rented since 1956.
Hammersmith and Fulham warns its council tax may rise 150% as England's new funding formula cuts its government grant by more than half; Wandsworth has floated 94% →
Six councils in and around London lose much of their government money and may lift bills past the usual 5% cap. Also today: UK diesel passes 2 pounds a litre, energy firms ask for winter help, Wales raises its minimum alcohol price, and US health cover gets dearer for 2027.
The US SEC proposes opening private funds to more ordinary savers, and asks whether passing an exam should also let them in →
Private funds lend to companies or buy into firms that are not on a stock market, and many are sold only to people with $1 million or a high income. The SEC also wants fund advisers to be able to take up to a fifth of the gains.
A new tax on vapes starts in the UK today, 2.20 pounds on every 10ml of liquid. The tax on cigarettes went up by the same amount. →
The UK government wants vapes to cost more so fewer young people take them up, and it raised the cigarette tax too so smokers still save money by switching. Shops have six months to sell old stock at the old price.
Andy Burnham plans to stop the state pension rising with pay from 2030, to help fund free care in England. It would still rise with prices, or by 2.5%. →
Britain's prime minister wants to end the pension triple lock after the next election and spend the savings on a national care service. The IFS, a research group, and the UK government's own forecaster say the savings come late and fall short of the care bill.
Aviva's boss says rumours before recent Budgets pushed its pension withdrawals to 30 times normal. She has asked the chancellor to stop floating ideas. →
Savers took tax-free cash early before the 2024 and 2025 Budgets, and the rule was left alone in November 2025. Also today: UK diesel hits a record 199.18p a litre, Trump weighs a ban on diesel exports, and a court orders two crypto fraudsters to repay 851,402 pounds.
Andy Burnham's government will lend people buying their first home in England 20% of the value of a newly built home. They need a 2.5% deposit. →
The loan is for new-build homes only and carries no interest at first; the details come in the 28 October Budget. Also today: US home-loan rates pass 7%, the US removes 760,000 people from health plans over fraud claims, and Amazon's Prime refunds rise to $200.
Apple has put $250m into a fund for US iPhone buyers over its AI Siri. Each iPhone could get $25 to $95, depending on how many people claim. →
About 36 million iPhones bought in the US from June 2024 to March 2025 are covered. Claims close on 21 December 2026, and a buyer who does nothing gets nothing.
Clients of WealthTek, a collapsed wealth firm, are getting more than 57m pounds back. The bank guarding their assets had checked the register three times. →
Britain's financial regulator has now secured over 57m pounds for clients of WealthTek from three firms that were meant to keep the money safe. None of the three is paying a fine.
The US central bank wrote its rules for digital dollars. Holders may not be paid interest, even through a partner. →
The US Federal Reserve proposed how the stablecoins it oversees must work. Each coin needs at least a dollar behind it, holders get their money back within two business days, and nobody may pay them interest for holding one.
Britain paid 8.8bn pounds in interest on its debt in August, a record for the month. The Budget is on 28 October. →
Britain's government borrowed 18.3bn pounds in August, and a quarter of what it owes grows with prices. The chancellor has five weeks to find the money, with income tax, VAT and national insurance ruled out.
Britain's full state pension is on course to pass the tax-free allowance next April. Only pensioners with no other income have been promised no tax. →
Wages grew 3.9%, so the triple lock points to a full new state pension of about 13,036 pounds a year from April 2027, above the 12,570 pounds a person can earn before income tax. Also today: the Bank of England expects prices to rise past 4%, the euro area raises its interest rate, Trump promises two payments, and Britain's regulator widens its hunt for dirty money.
England now offers a free school meal to every child in a Universal Credit home. Nobody is signed up automatically. →
England removed the GBP 7,400 income limit on free school meals in September. About 500,000 more children can have one, once a parent applies.
The US finalised its car loan tax break today. Drivers can deduct up to $10,000 of interest, but only if the lender reports it. →
The US Treasury and its tax office published the final rules for the car loan interest deduction on 21 September 2026, fourteen months after the law that created it. The same rules put a new duty on lenders: report $600 or more of interest a year, or face a penalty.
American shoppers paid most of the tariffs. The $166bn refund is going to importers instead. →
The US Supreme Court cancelled the emergency tariffs in February. Only the companies named on the customs paperwork can claim the money back, and most of them cannot say what any one shopper paid.
The typical US household earned a record $87,460 in 2025. The official poverty rate fell, and a fuller measure did not move. →
The Census Bureau's yearly report shows the middle household's income up 2.6% after rising prices, and 1.5 million fewer people under the official poverty line. A second measure, which adds food aid and subtracts medical bills, stayed at 13.1%, and older Americans did worse on it.
The US central bank raised its rate for the first time since 2023. Card interest follows within weeks; savings rates may not. →
A credit card's rate is tied to the US central bank's rate and moves within a billing cycle or two. A savings rate is set by each bank, and in the last round of rises the biggest US banks barely moved theirs.
In England the NHS treats the illness and the council charges for the care. The line is GBP 23,250 of savings. →
Hospital treatment in England is free. Help with washing, dressing and daily life is means-tested, and once someone moves into a care home the value of their house is counted too. Andy Burnham has asked Louise Casey to report on it a year early.
A car dealer could pick the interest rate on the loan he was selling. The higher he picked, the more the lender paid him. →
Britain banned that in 2021 and has ordered 9.1 billion pounds of compensation on 12.1 million car loans. A court froze the payments on 2 July 2026 while four challengers wait to be heard.
Australia now guarantees food delivery riders about A$31 an hour. It pays only for the minutes spent on a job. →
Australia's first earnings floor for Uber Eats and DoorDash riders took effect on 17 August, and it leaves the wait between jobs unpaid. Seattle's floor shows why that gap decides what riders take home.
Kalshi and Polymarket sell sports bets as financial contracts. Twenty US states are in court to call them gambling. →
Prediction markets register each bet with a federal markets agency, which lets them skip state gambling licences, taxes and age limits, and the Trump administration is suing states on their side. Elsewhere, US mortgage rates passed 7% and a record 7.4 million low-income UK families went without essentials.
Five million Americans dropped marketplace health insurance after a 2021 subsidy ended on schedule →
Congress did not vote to raise anyone's premium. It let extra health credits reach the end date written into them, and enrollment fell from 24.2 million to 19.2 million.