Money, in brief

Amanda Blanc, the boss of Aviva, a big UK pension and insurance company, says its pension withdrawals ran at 30 times their normal level in the last year. [1]

She links the rush to talk before the last couple of Budgets that pension rules would change. [1] The rumour in 2025 was that the tax-free part of a pension would be cut or limited. [2]

Rachel Reeves, the previous chancellor, left the tax-free cash rule unchanged in her Budget on 26 November 2025. [2][3]

Savers aged 55 or over can usually take a quarter of a private pension tax-free, up to 268,275 pounds. [4] From 2028 the earliest age becomes 57. [4]

'Once you take your tax-free lump sum out, you can't put it back in,' Blanc told the BBC. [1] The FCA, Britain's financial regulator, says taking the cash carries no right to cancel. [5] Tax law decides whether it can be paid in again, and whether a tax charge follows. [5]

The same rush happened in 2025. In October Tom McPhail, an independent pensions commentator, wrote that he was taking his tax-free cash in case the allowance was cut. [4]

It happened in 2024 too. Before Reeves' first Budget, AJ Bell, an investment platform, said the number of people taking tax-free cash was about a third above its yearly average. [7] Quilter, a wealth management firm, reported a surge in calls from people wanting to withdraw. [6]

Blanc has asked John Healey, the chancellor, not to 'fly kites' before his first Budget on 28 October. [1][2] Flying a kite means floating an idea in public to test it. [1]

In August she said Healey had promised her in person not to brief possible policy changes before the Budget. [2]

The UK government says it is trying to keep speculation to a minimum this year. [8] Talk of a change to Capital Gains Tax, the tax on profits from selling assets, is already running. [8] Reports say an extra council tax charge on homes in England worth over 2m pounds may be widened to homes over 1.5m pounds. [8]

Why it matters. The next test is Healey's Budget on 28 October: whether it touches tax-free pension cash, and whether talk of changes stays as quiet as he promised. [2][8]

Diesel at UK pumps averaged 199.18p a litre on Monday, a record, the RAC motoring group said. [10][11] That beats the 199.09p of June 2022, and is up from 142.38p on 28 February, when the US-Iran war began. [11] Filling an average family car now costs almost 110 pounds, 31 pounds more than before the war. [11] Britain's four refineries make enough petrol but not enough diesel, so the country relies on imports. [10] A 5p rise in fuel duty, a tax on each litre, was put off in May until the end of December. [13]

Why it matters. About 15.1 million diesel vehicles were licensed in the UK in June, and the RAC expects the cost to reach shoppers through lorries and vans. [11][10] Since February every UK forecourt must post its prices within 30 minutes, so apps can show the cheapest nearby. [14]

Amanda Blanc, Aviva's boss, says England is building homes that may become impossible to insure because of flooding. [1] At the current pace, 115,000 new homes will go up in flood zones over the next ten years, she said. [1] Aviva found that one in nine homes built from 2022 to 2024 is at medium or high risk of flooding. [1] Insurance spreads risk across many people, and it gets much harder to offer once a flood is almost certain, she told the BBC. [9]

Why it matters. About 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are already at risk of flooding, the Environment Agency says. [1] The Met Office says record wet winters like 2023-24 now come about once in 20 years, not once in 80. [1]

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he is thinking 'very seriously' about stopping US refiners selling diesel abroad. [15][12] US diesel is near a record 6.45 dollars a gallon, the AAA motoring group says, and he wants it cheaper before the midterm elections. [15] US refineries make four to five million barrels of diesel a day and export 1.2 to 1.5 million. [15] Most goes to Latin America, and some goes to France, the Netherlands and the UK. [15] Healey says the UK is in talks with the US and preparing for a ban. [15]

Why it matters. Britain buys much of the diesel it imports from the US. [12] David Fyfe, an energy analyst at Argus Media, warns a ban would push world prices up and damage trust in US supply. [15]

John Healey gave his first Labour Party conference speech as Britain's chancellor on Monday. [17] He said the money Labour had in the 1990s 'is simply not there now', and promised to keep to the UK's borrowing rules. [17] Every mayor can now run a local apprenticeship service, paid for by 100m pounds of savings at the benefits department. [17] 'The best thing we can offer a young person is not a benefit payment,' he said. [17] The triple lock, which raises the state pension by the highest of wage growth, inflation or 2.5%, is being debated. [1][18]

Why it matters. The OBR, the UK's official spending watchdog, forecast in March that debt interest will cost 135bn pounds in 2026-27, more than the Home Office, justice and defence together. [17] Analysts at the firm KPMG think the spare room under the borrowing rules may have shrunk from 23.6bn pounds to 12bn. [8]

A court in London ordered two convicted fraudsters on Monday to repay 851,402 pounds, which the FCA will return to their victims. [19] Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga cold-called people from 2017 to 2019, and at least 65 investors lost 1.54m pounds on their fake crypto deals. [19] In July the same court ordered John Burford to repay 655,951 pounds. [20] With his earlier payments, about 99% of what his roughly 70 victims invested will have been returned. [20] In June it ordered Daniel Pugh to repay 452,287 pounds of the 1.3m pounds he took. [21]

Why it matters. A confiscation order can only take what a court finds the fraudster still has, so victims get back what is left. [20][21]

Twenty-one firms selling contracts for difference, or CFDs, have closed since 2025 after an FCA crackdown, and three more are giving up their permission. [22] A CFD is a bet on whether the price of a share or other asset rises or falls, without owning it. [23] The FCA says the firms did little UK business and used their UK licence to make linked companies abroad look safer. [22] Customers could think they had UK protections when they did not. [22] A review in November 2025 found some CFD firms may not give customers fair value. [24]

Why it matters. UK protections are unlikely to apply to an overseas firm with a name like a UK one, the FCA says. [22] In October 2025 it said its CFD rules stop nearly 400,000 people a year risking more than they put in. [23]

The FCA announced in February that seven social media influencers had been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for promoting a currency trading scheme it had not approved. [30] They included Lauren Goodger, Yazmin Oukhellou and Scott Timlin, and all pleaded guilty to issuing unauthorised financial promotions. [30] The FCA said they 'betrayed the trust' of the people who followed them. [30] In October 2025 it said over 90,000 people had lost about 75m pounds over four years at one firm promoted this way. [23]

Why it matters. The FCA says it will keep going after influencers who put their followers' money at risk. [30]

A court in Scotland made Arthur Temlett bankrupt on 27 August, at the request of the FCA. [25] Temlett traded as Abacus Insurance Consultants and sold home and car insurance. [25] The FCA barred him from regulated work in January 2025 over concerns that he sold policies without passing the payments to insurers. [25] He is awaiting trial on embezzlement charges after a Police Scotland investigation. [25] A trustee, Emma Porter of Aver Chartered Accountants, will try to recover money and share it among people he owes. [25]

Why it matters. A customer who paid Abacus may have had no cover at all. [25] The FCA asks anyone who paid for a policy that may not exist to report it to Police Scotland. [25]

Recent rulings suggest the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which hears claims brought for millions of shoppers at once, is getting stricter about which go ahead, the FT reports. [26] Its president, Mrs Justice Bacon, said in May that the people claiming, not lawyers and funders, should be the main winners. [26] One case over unfair train tickets won 25m pounds for passengers, but only 1% of them took their share. [26] In July the High Court rejected most 'Dieselgate' claims by 1.6 million owners of cars from Peugeot, Renault, Mercedes and others. [26]

Why it matters. The UK government is consulting on tougher rules for approving claims and checking who pays for them. [26] The Law Commission is also looking at a new system for shoppers' group claims. [26]

UK banks, insurers and other financial firms closed 1,720,632 complaints in the second half of 2025, FCA figures show. [27] They found for the customer in 55.5% of them and paid 235.8m pounds in redress, the money paid to put a wrong right. [27] The average payment on an upheld complaint was 215 pounds. [27] Current accounts drew the most complaints, 492,149, followed by credit cards and car insurance. [27] The FCA revised the figures in May after finding a reporting error at one firm. [27]

Why it matters. That is fewer than the 1.82 million complaints closed in the first half of 2025. [27] Almost 45 in every 100 were closed within three days. [27]

The IRS, the US tax agency, launched a new phone app on 25 September, replacing IRS2Go, which it ran for more than a decade. [28] Taxpayers who sign in can see their balance, payments, some letters and tax records. [29] Checking a refund, making some payments and finding free filing help still work without signing in. [29] The app is free, and people who already have IRS2Go get it as an update. [28] The IRS warns of look-alike apps, and says it will not ask for personal or financial details by an unsolicited text, email or pop-up. [28]

Why it matters. Frank Bisignano, the IRS's chief executive, calls the app part of a 'digital-first' push. [28] Phone and in-person help remain for people whose problems the app cannot solve. [28]