Money, in brief

Spain's parliament voted down two government decrees meant to protect tenants on Friday 2 October. [1][3]

The first fell by 178 votes to 172, and the second by 184 to 166. [2]

The decrees would have stopped evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030 and added two years to rental leases ending before 2028. [2]

The second decree would also have renewed rental contracts automatically when they ran out, a long-standing demand of tenants' groups. [2][12]

Pedro Sanchez's coalition has no majority in parliament, so it needed Junts, a Catalan party, which turned against both decrees the night before. [1][2]

Junts said the rules would cut the number of homes offered for rent and push rents up. [1]

The People's Party, the main opposition, said homes get cheaper when more are built, not by decree. [3]

On Saturday tens of thousands marched in Madrid and other cities, about 50 in all. The authorities counted 70,000 people and the organisers 500,000. [5][4]

In Valencia, police fired rubber bullets and teargas at protesters near the City of Arts and Sciences, a cultural landmark. [5][4]

The protests began after Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was carried on a stretcher from the Madrid flat her family had rented since 1956. [8][10]

Her rent was capped until Urbagestion, an investment firm, bought the flat in 2018 and raised it from 500 euros a month to 2,650. [8]

Spanish media say Sanchez may now call an early general election, possibly in November. [5][1]

Why it matters. Watch whether Sanchez calls an early election, which Spanish media say could come in November, and whether his government brings the measures back in a form Junts will vote for. [5][1]

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives, one of Britain's opposition parties, said on Sunday the party would scrap the 100,000-pound limit on childcare help in England. [14] More than 1.7 million parents there use government-funded hours. [16] Working parents get 30 free hours a week for children aged nine months to four, but only if neither parent earns over 100,000 pounds. [14] The same limit applies to tax-free childcare, worth up to 2,000 pounds a child a year. [14] The party puts the cost at about 700 million pounds a year. [15]

Why it matters. Economists say the limit can leave a parent worse off after a pay rise of tens of thousands of pounds. [14] The party, which is out of power, would pay for the change by cutting jobs at public bodies such as Arts Council England, and Labour says the Conservatives set the limit themselves. [14][15]

The average rate on a 30-year fixed US home loan rose to 7.28% on Thursday 1 October, from 7.03% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac, a company that buys home loans from lenders. [17] It was the biggest one-week jump in four years and the highest rate since November 2023. [17] Home-loan rates follow the interest rate on 10-year US government bonds, which is at its highest in more than two decades. [17] The US central bank raised its own rate in September for the first time in more than three years. [18]

Why it matters. Owners who borrowed at 2% to 3% during the pandemic are staying in their homes about five years longer than they planned, says Angi, a home-repairs website. [19] An economist at Bright MLS, a home-listing service, says that keeps homes off the market and stops prices falling far. [17]

The National Audit Office, which checks how the UK government spends money, has opened a review of how Capita runs the Civil Service Pension Scheme. [20] Capita, an outsourcing company, took over the scheme in December 2025 on a seven-year contract worth 239 million pounds. [20] Since then, many retired civil servants have waited months for lump sums and pensions. [20][21] Capita missed its own deadline to restore normal service by the end of June, and Capita says its service is still below the standard members expect. [20]

Why it matters. Capita says it found 86,000 unfinished cases when it took over, against the 37,000 it expected, and told MPs the number later grew to 120,000. [22][21] Some retirees had planned to pay off mortgages with their lump sums, and one told the BBC he would have to borrow to pay his bills. [22]

The Trump administration says it will send 90 dollars each to 20 million of the more than 60 million people in Medicare Part B, the part of the US health programme for over-65s that pays for doctors' visits. [23] The standard Part B charge is about 203 dollars a month, so a cheque covers almost half of one month. [23] People whose charges are already paid by Medicaid, or who pay extra because of a high income, do not qualify. [23] The money comes from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress set up in 2008. [23]

Why it matters. The cheques are due by early October, a month before the US midterm elections. [23] The fund was created to pay for improvements to traditional Medicare, so this money is now going to rebates instead. [23]

US employers added 29,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, down from 133,000 in August. [24] Economists had expected about 93,000. [25] The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.2%. [24] Figures for July and August were also revised down, by 60,000 jobs in all. [25] It was the last jobs report before the midterm elections. [24]

Why it matters. Weaker hiring makes another US rate rise less likely: futures traders put the chance of one in October at 16%, down from 64.2% a week earlier. [25] The US central bank next meets on 27 and 28 October. [25]

Jim Chalmers, Australia's treasurer, said on Sunday that pressure on the economy is very substantial and intensifying, and that he will look for more budget cuts. [26] Prices rose 4% in the year to August, up from 3.5%, after fuel prices jumped 15% in a month. [27] The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank, has raised its main rate to 4.6%, the highest since 2011. [26] Chalmers blames the war with Iran for much of this and says he is not planning for a recession. [26]

Why it matters. A survey that follows 17,000 Australians found the share who could not afford enough food rose from 13.7% in 2020 to 17.9% in 2024, before this year's rate rises. [28] Australia's government publishes its next budget update in December. [26]

BT paused broadband for a small group of customers who had not answered its letters about the switch from copper phone lines for two years, giving them five days' notice. [29] The UK is retiring its old copper phone network at the end of January 2027, and about 1.3 million lines still have to move. [29] For most homes the switch means plugging the phone into the broadband router. [29] More than 80% of the paused customers then switched. [29]

Why it matters. A campaign group for older people calls it bullying, and about 2 million people use personal alarms that relied on copper lines. [29] Last December, Virgin Media was fined 23.8 million pounds for leaving customers without working alarms during an earlier switch. [29]

Criminals often go back to people they have already scammed, the Guardian reports. [30] The actor Lisa Riley paid 16 pounds on a fake copy of Esta, the US travel-permit website, and 17 months later still gets scam calls and texts every week. [30] Nationwide, a British building society, says 15% of people have given personal details to someone who turned out to be a fraud. [30] Criminals sell those details on, or use them to make fake calls from a bank sound real. [30]

Why it matters. Riley lost only the price of an Esta, but she also typed in her passport and bank details. [30] Those details stay with the criminals and are used again in later frauds. [30]

Influencers are promoting work as home-based travel agents for InteleTravel, a US company, through recruiters at PlanNet Marketing. [31] Seven recruits told the Guardian they struggled to make money once fees were paid: about 150 pounds to sign up, then 30 to 40 pounds a month. [31] Agents keep about 70% of the roughly 10% commission on a booking, so a 10,000-pound holiday earns them about 700 pounds. [31] PlanNet's own figures put its representatives' average yearly earnings at about 40 dollars. [31]

Why it matters. Recruiters earn about 3 pounds for each new agent they sign up, so some recruits ended up recruiting instead of selling holidays. [31] InteleTravel says no self-employed business can guarantee a profit, and it offers refunds under set conditions. [31]

Since 30 September, crypto firms in the UK can apply to the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial regulator, for permission to operate. [32] For the first time they will have to meet its rules on protecting customers and keeping their money safe. [32] Firms must apply by 28 February 2027, and the new rules take effect on 25 October 2027. [32] Firms that do not meet the standards will not be allowed to keep offering crypto services in the UK. [32]

Why it matters. The regulator says buyers of crypto in the UK will get protections they have never had before. [32] Those protections start only in October 2027. [32]

Across Arizona Tours, a guiding company at the Grand Canyon, sued the US government on Monday 28 September to stop higher park fees for foreign visitors. [33] Since 1 January, non-residents have paid a 100-dollar surcharge per person at 11 popular national parks, on top of the normal fee of up to 20 dollars. [33] A yearly pass costs them 250 dollars, against 80 for US residents. [33] The company says only Congress can set different prices, and that it has lost bookings from would-be visitors. [33]

Why it matters. The extra charge falls on tourists from every other country, and on the guides who lose their bookings. [33] The case is in a federal court in Arizona, which has not ruled. [33]

Americans who paid a fee at an independent cash machine, one not owned by a bank, can claim from a 167.5-million-dollar settlement until 10 February 2027. [34] The lawsuit, filed in 2011, said Visa and Mastercard's rules stopped those machines from charging less. [35][34] Visa pays about 88.8 million dollars and Mastercard about 78.7 million, and both deny wrongdoing. [35][34] Fees paid between 24 October 2007 and 14 August 2026 count, if the customer's bank did not refund them. [34]

Why it matters. Each person's payment depends on how many people claim, and lawyers' fees come out of the fund first. [34] The claimants' lawyers said they would ask for up to 30% of it. [35]

House prices across the European Union rose 4.7% in the year to the second quarter of 2026, faster than prices in general, which rose 3.2%, Eurostat figures show. [13] Portugal rose most, by 16.5%, then Bulgaria by 15.5%. [13] Spain rose 12.1% and Germany only 0.6%. [13] Prices fell in Finland, Luxembourg and France. [13] An expert at Global Property Guide puts Portugal's rise down to too little building, foreign buyers and tourism. [13]

Why it matters. Spain's rise is the background to Saturday's marches there, where rents have climbed fast too. [13][3] Spain's own statistics office puts the rise there at 12.2%, close to Eurostat's 12.1%. [6][13]