Money, in brief

The US Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP, issued a proposed rule on Friday ordering all 50 states to switch food-aid cards to microchips and tap-to-pay. [1]

SNAP is the US food-aid programme: money is loaded onto a card each month, and about 42 million people used it to buy groceries in 2024. [28]

Most SNAP cards still use a magnetic stripe, a 1960s technology that a hidden reader in a card machine can copy. [2] Bank cards moved to chips in the 2010s. [2]

Thieves took 470 million dollars from SNAP families' cards in 2025, and more than 990,000 households lost benefits, by the count of Propel, an app SNAP users check balances on. [2]

Much of it is organised crime: gangs, many based in Romania, copy card data and buy energy drinks and baby formula in bulk to resell. [2][1][5]

Confirmed fraud by SNAP recipients themselves comes to 64 million dollars a year, about 0.08% of benefits, by the US government's own reports. [2]

Stolen benefits are usually gone for good. [3] The US government repaid more than 320 million dollars to nearly 670,000 households from October 2022 to December 2024, then stopped. [3]

A deal to keep repaying victims until 2028 collapsed in December 2024, after Elon Musk attacked the spending bill and Donald Trump sank it. [2]

California began issuing chip cards in early 2025, and theft of food and cash benefits there fell 83% in two years. [3][1] New York said in January it would switch too. [4]

The rule now has 60 days of public comment. [1] Once it is final, states have two years to switch. [1]

The switch is estimated to cost 283 million dollars in federal and state money, against more than 600 million dollars of SNAP and other benefits stolen every year. [1]

The US Congress has not paid for it: the US Senate's version of the farm bill holds money for chip cards, and the House of Representatives' version does not. [1]

States also have less to spend. [3] Since 1 October the US government pays 25% of SNAP's running costs instead of 50%, under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. [3][6]

Why it matters. The next test is the US farm bill, because the Senate's version pays for chip cards and the House of Representatives' version does not. [1] That decides how fast states can switch once the 60-day comment period ends. [1]

Angela Eagle, the UK environment secretary, has written to water companies in England and Wales and their regulators about the next review of bills. [7] Ofwat, the water regulator, holds that review every five years, and no government has stepped into one before. [7] Her letter puts affordable bills and value for money first, with early work on leaks and sewage, but does not demand bill cuts. [7] The last review let average bills rise 36% by 2030, and Southern Water's 53%. [7] The next is expected to end in 2029. [7]

Why it matters. Under the last review, Southern Water's customers face bills of about 642 pounds a year by 2030. [7] Campaigners for public ownership say the letter will do little to cut bills or sewage. [7]

Households must earn under 110,000 pounds a year to use Your First Home, the UK government's new loan for first-time buyers in England, or 140,000 pounds in London, the BBC reports. [8] The scheme lends 20% of a new-build home's price, interest-free at first, so buyers can put down as little as 2.5%. [8] Ministers first planned limits of 90,000 and 110,000 pounds, then raised them so couples such as teachers and nurses qualify, The Times reported. [8] The limits are expected to be confirmed in the Budget. [8]

Why it matters. The earlier Help to Buy scheme had no income limit and mostly helped higher earners, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a UK research group, found. [9] The UK government says the loans come from existing budgets, has named no cuts, and will ask builders in the scheme to pay towards running it. [8]

John Healey, the UK chancellor, sets out his first Budget on 28 October. [10] In March the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK's official forecaster, found a 23.6 billion pound margin under the rule against borrowing for day-to-day spending. [10] KPMG, an accounting firm, thinks it may have shrunk to 12 billion pounds. [10] The Institute for Fiscal Studies puts it nearer 20 billion. [10] Reports say Healey has ruled out extending the mansion tax to homes worth over 1.5 million pounds. [10]

Why it matters. Labour promised before the 2024 election not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT, so its room on tax is limited, and bank bosses expect Healey to raise taxes on banks. [10] A 3p rise in fuel duty, delayed in May, is due at the end of this year unless the Budget delays it again. [10]

Shops in Great Britain sold 0.4% less by volume in September than in August, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. [11] Economists had expected a fall of 0.1%. [11] Clothes shops sold 0.9% less, partly because a warm September cut online sales of winter clothes. [11] Fuel sales rose 2.2% as drivers filled up before prices rose further. [11] August's rise was revised up to 0.7%, from 0.5%. [11]

Why it matters. Economists quoted by the Guardian warn of more gloom for shops going into Christmas. [11] The figures land days before the Budget, where Healey is reported to be weighing help with energy bills for households on some benefits. [10]

Foreclosure auctions, where lenders sell homes whose owners stopped paying, rose 25% in the US in July to September from a year earlier, says Auction.com, a site that runs them. [12] That is the most since early 2020. [12] Auctions of loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a US government agency, rose 73%. [12] Loans made in 2022 or later were 46% of all auctions. [12] Auctions scheduled for November are up 31%. [12]

Why it matters. Loans taken out at higher rates since 2022 are now reaching foreclosure, HousingWire says. [12] Buyers at these auctions paid about 65% of what the homes are estimated to be worth. [12]

Gregory Deivert, a home buyer in Pennsylvania, has sued Keller Williams Elite, a franchise of a big US estate agency, over a 650-dollar 'broker fee'. [13] He says the fee first appeared on his closing statement in 2023, when a buyer would not walk away from the purchase. [13] The suit says the fee paid for paperwork the agency had to do by law anyway. [13] He wants other buyers who paid it to join the case. [13]

Why it matters. Other Keller Williams firms charge similar flat fees under names such as 'compliance fee', the filing says. [13] One report, from the Consumer Policy Center, claims such fees cost US buyers up to 2 billion dollars a year. [13]

Voters in North Carolina, a US state, decide on 3 November whether to make the legislature limit rises in property tax. [14] The amendment sets no figure; lawmakers would choose the cap. [14] A second amendment would cut the highest allowed income tax rate from 7% to 3.5%. [14] Governor Josh Stein calls both 'con jobs'. [14] The NC Budget and Tax Center, a research group, says the cap would save an average of 84 dollars a home a year. [14]

Why it matters. Opponents say a cap could squeeze schools, emergency services and parks, and an NC State scholar says sales taxes and fees could rise instead. [14] Six other states, including Florida and Tennessee, vote on property tax the same day, and the average US bill on a family home reached 4,427 dollars last year. [15]

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has agreed a deal that keeps its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, living in California. [16] He had considered moving because of Proposition 40, a one-off 5% tax on the wealth of California's billionaires that voters decide on 3 November. [16] Meta will give him new shares that carry no votes, which he can sell to pay the tax. [16] In return he must stay in the state for eight years. [16] His bill could be about 12.5 billion dollars. [16]

Why it matters. Backers say the tax would raise about 100 billion dollars, mostly for health care, from about 200 of California's 21 million tax returns. [17] Washington state votes on scrapping its tax on incomes over 1 million dollars, and Tennessee on banning wealth taxes. [17]

Three big US housebuilders, PulteGroup, NVR and M/I Homes, reported lower profits for July to September this week. [18] PulteGroup's fell to 476 million dollars from 586 million, NVR's fell 27% and M/I's 37%. [18] Builders keep sales going by paying to lower the buyer's loan rate, a deal called a buydown. [18] M/I's chief executive said rising rates made those buydowns cost more. [18]

Why it matters. A buydown lowers the buyer's monthly payment, and the builder carries its cost, which rose with rates. [18] PulteGroup's boss said a lower price does not always bring more sales and can make every sale less profitable. [18]

The average US 30-year fixed home loan rate fell to 7.08% on Friday, 0.20 points lower than Thursday, NerdWallet reported, using rates from Zillow, a property website. [19] It was the lowest daily average in a month. [19] Investors worried about tech companies' profits and moved money into US government bonds, which pushed down the bond yields that loan rates follow. [19] Rates were still above 7%. [19]

Why it matters. The drop follows a summer and early autumn of rising rates, as investors sold US government bonds. [19] NerdWallet warns it may not last, and says Friday's rates are unlikely to move before Monday. [19]

The order on home loan costs that President Trump signed on Thursday is narrower than a draft seen earlier, HousingWire, a US property news site, reports. [20] It tells Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big US firms that buy home loans from lenders, to test cancelling mortgage insurance using automatic home valuations. [20] The signed version covers only loans made after the test starts. [20] Industry estimates had said the draft might reach roughly 40% of borrowers. [20]

Why it matters. Mortgage insurance is a cost that drops off the monthly payment when it is cancelled, and borrowers who already have loans are left out of the test. [20] The order also starts tests of cheaper title insurance and refinancing. [20]

Prices in Jersey, an island in the English Channel, rose 3% in the year to September, up from 2.8% in June, Statistics Jersey said. [21] Heating oil and other fuels cost 47.7% more than a year earlier. [21] Petrol and oil cost 22.7% more, and food 3.5% more. [21] Jersey's rate was 0.6 points below the UK's 3.6% on the measure that includes housing costs. [21]

Why it matters. Housing costs, which include rents and mortgage interest, added most to the rise. [21] Statisticians blamed energy markets still hit by the war in the Middle East. [21]

The Bank of England has named a strong El Nino as one thing that could push up food prices in 2027, writes Narmin Nahidi, an economist at the University of Exeter. [22] El Nino is a natural weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean that brings drought to some regions and floods to others. [22] This year's is already the strongest on record. [22] Britain imports about 42% of its food. [22] The Bank expects any effect to come slowly, because food firms protect themselves against sudden price changes. [22]

Why it matters. Central banks treat El Nino as a reason they might raise interest rates, which reaches mortgages as well as shopping. [22] The UK government pledged 15 million pounds in September to help Malawi, Kenya and Zambia prepare for drought and floods. [22]

Only 3% of married couples have talked about what would happen to their pensions if they divorced, a survey by Which?, a UK consumer group, found. [23] Half have talked about what happens to their pensions when one of them dies. [23] The number of pensioners getting divorced is rising, Which? says. [23] Pensions can be divided on divorce in more than one way, including pension sharing and pension offsetting. [23]

Why it matters. Which? says the number of pensioners in poverty is rising, and that divorced retirees, especially women, make up a greater number of them than married couples. [23] Divorce also changes a will and a power of attorney, its legal team says. [23]

Britain's basic state pension is low next to other rich countries, a BBC analysis of figures from the OECD, a club of wealthy countries, finds. [24] Counting the workplace pensions people are signed up to automatically, a UK worker on average pay can expect 54.2% of their earnings after tax in retirement. [24] The average across wealthy countries is 63.2%. [24] The UK state pension is set to cost over 150 billion pounds a year, its most expensive benefit. [24]

Why it matters. People who live on the state pension alone are worse off than many retirees elsewhere, the analysis says. [24] Women in the UK typically get a pension a third smaller than men's, against a gap of about 22.8% across rich countries. [24]

The share of UK workers on low pay failed to fall for the first time in 15 years, official earnings figures out on Thursday show. [25] The Resolution Foundation, a UK think tank on living standards, pointed this out. [25] Separately, Carnegie UK, which measures how people feel about their lives, says the country's wellbeing score fell to 61 out of 100 this year, its first fall since the index began in 2023. [25] Its score for economic wellbeing fell two points, to 70. [25] Social renters scored 50 on it, against 75 for homeowners. [25]

Why it matters. Low pay had shrunk every year for 15 years, so the pause lands first on the workers at the bottom. [25] People aged 55 and over scored six points higher on wellbeing than younger adults. [25]

California's new Fifth Climate Change Assessment says 24% to 75% of the state's beaches could disappear by 2100 without action, Realtor.com reports. [26] In Long Beach, a city near Los Angeles, a seafront home listed at 4.95 million dollars in August was cut to 2.9 million after storms ate the beach. [26] US Geological Survey data puts about 6.6 billion dollars of property in zones at risk with 1 metre of sea-level rise. [26] Long Beach now plans an 11.4 million dollar project to put sand back. [26]

Why it matters. Home prices in these counties have risen about 39% since 2020, so the real value at risk is likely higher, a Realtor.com economist says. [26] California's Proposition 13 limits tax assessments to 2% growth a year until a sale, so long-held homes are taxed well below what they would sell for. [26]

Hundreds of thousands of workers around the world are paid to film themselves at work, so the video can train AI that controls robots, the BBC reports. [27] Mohammed Ashim, a barber in Bengaluru, India, wears a head camera five or six hours a day. [27] Rashdan Technologies, a company that collects such video, pays 5 to 10 dollars for eight to 10 hours of recorded work. [27] Clients now ask for headsets with four to six cameras. [27]

Why it matters. For workers like Mohammed Arman, a garment worker sending money home to Bihar, it is a little extra pay for work he already does. [27] A professor in Mumbai says it is too early to tell whether they are training machines that will take their jobs. [27]

Dubai Police have arrested six people they say ran a fake online shop to collect shoppers' bank card details, The National, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, reports. [29] The gang then used the details to buy goods and move money out of victims' accounts into digital wallets. [29] One victim, a woman who works for a private company, woke to texts showing years of savings had gone while she slept. [29] Police say the gang also sold card details to other fraudsters. [29]

Why it matters. Police found victims' bank cards the gang meant to sell on, and say it used digital wallets from a telecoms company to receive the money. [29] Dubai Police asked anyone who sees deductions they did not make to report them on 901, its contact number. [29]