Money, in brief

The FTC, the US government agency that protects shoppers, and 20 US states sued Dollar General on Monday in a federal court in Tennessee. [1][2][3]

They say the chain, the biggest dollar-store business in the US with more than 20,000 stores, charged more at the till than its shelf tags and adverts showed. [1][2]

Dollar General logged at least 29,265 complaints that it did not honour a marked price between January 2023 and March 2026, from all 48 states where it trades. [5]

FTC staff posing as shoppers found overcharges on every visit. At one store in Cleveland, Ohio, 8 of 58 items rang up dearer than marked. [1]

Its customers have the least room for it. Households earning 35,000 dollars a year or less bring in 60% of its sales, and about 80% of its stores are in towns of 20,000 people or fewer. [5]

Workers told the Guardian they were often too busy to change old price labels. The suit says the company does not check whether new labels ever reach the shelf. [1]

In December 2025 a Guardian review found Dollar General stores had failed more than 4,300 government price checks in 23 states since 2022. [7]

Fines were small. North Carolina caps them at 5,000 dollars per failed check, and the head of its inspections said paying can be cheaper than fixing. [7]

Utah raised its penalties after the Guardian's report, and the new law took effect in May. [10]

Less than two weeks ago Dollar General settled with New York. It agreed to give 1.875 million dollars of food and goods to a food bank, without admitting or denying wrongdoing. [6]

The Guardian found the same pattern in September at 7-Eleven and Circle K, the two biggest US convenience-store chains. [11] Five members of the US Congress then asked the FTC to investigate them. [12]

Dollar General's app bars users from group lawsuits and sends disputes to private arbitration, a practice 30 members of the US Congress questioned in December 2025. [8]

Dollar General says it aims for 100% accuracy and will fight the case. It says the FTC sued instead of answering its counteroffer. [1][4]

Why it matters. The case now sits with a federal court in Tennessee, and the next test is whether Dollar General settles, as it did in New York, or fights the FTC to a ruling. [2][6]

Britain's finance minister, John Healey, will create a new tax-free allowance for pensioners on low incomes in Wednesday's Budget, the BBC reports. [13] From April the full new state pension rises 3.9% to 13,036 pounds a year. [13] The ordinary tax-free allowance, what anyone can earn before income tax, has been frozen at 12,570 pounds since 2021. [14] This year the full pension is 12,547 pounds, just under it. [14] Without a change, a pensioner living only on the state pension would owe about 90 pounds a year. [14]

Why it matters. About 9.6 million pensioners already pay income tax because they have other pensions too. [14] Steve Webb, a former UK pensions minister, warns that a pensioner with even a small private pension could lose the whole extra allowance. [14]

Carer's allowance pays 86.45 pounds a week to people in Britain who care for someone at least 35 hours a week. [15] Today a carer who earns even a penny over 204 pounds a week loses that whole week's payment. [15] About 180,000 carers ran up overpayment debts worth 300 million pounds from 2019 to 2025. [15] Healey will announce on Wednesday that the allowance will instead fall by one pound for each pound earned over the limit. [15][16] The new system will not start before the end of the decade. [15]

Why it matters. Carers UK, a charity for carers, says many turn down extra hours, pay rises and bonuses for fear of crossing the limit. [15] Until the new system is built, the cliff edge stays. [15]

The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to leave its rate unchanged. [17][18] It raised the rate last month to between 3.75% and 4%, its first rise since 2023. [17] US prices rose 3.7% in the year to September. [17] A typical 30-year fixed home loan rose to 7.20% on Monday, from Zillow's figures. [19] The rate on 10-year US government bonds, which home loans follow, sits a little above 5%. [39]

Why it matters. Most US credit cards follow the US central bank's rate, and the average new card now charges 23.96% a year, LendingTree says. [17] Savers earn more for as long as rates stay high. [17] US home builders' confidence is at its lowest in 14 years, Redfin says. [20]

Prices in British shops rose 2.1% in the year to October, up from 1.4% in September, the British Retail Consortium, a shops' trade group, said. [21] Food prices rose 2.9%, and clothes and other goods 1.7%. [21] Its head, Helen Dickinson, said shops can no longer absorb the costs they have taken on for two years. [21] The group links the rise to dearer energy and food ingredients since the Middle East war began. [21] In a study of 100 low-income families, 63% had left the heating off when cold in the past month. [21]

Why it matters. The Bank of England is expected to raise its rate from 3.75% to 4% next week, which would make many loans dearer. [21] In the same study, 73% of families had shopped in the reduced-price aisle in the past month. [21]

Healey will freeze fuel duty again in Wednesday's Budget, the BBC understands. [16] Fuel duty is the tax charged on each litre of petrol and diesel. [23] It has been frozen since March 2022. [23] A 5p cut first made in 2022 for one year is also set to continue. [16] Diesel reached a record high in Britain this month, says the RAC, a motoring group. [22] A florist in Winchester and a charity running minibuses in Dorset told the BBC their fuel costs are threatening them. [22]

Why it matters. The charity says its minibuses now cost more than 2,000 pounds a year more to run. [22] Because the duty is a fixed number of pence on each litre, every year it stays frozen it costs drivers less than it would if it rose with prices.

Pakistan's government raised petrol by 1.54 rupees to 379.25 rupees a litre, and diesel by 2.16 rupees to 395.82, from Tuesday, Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, reports. [24] Petrol cost 266 rupees in early March, after the US-Iran war began, and peaked at 458.41 in April. [24] Taxes and duties make up 114 rupees of each litre. [24] Cooking gas sold in cylinders, called LPG, sells for 700-800 rupees a kilo in remote areas against an official price of 280, an MP told Pakistan's parliament. [25]

Why it matters. Petrol mostly fuels motorbikes, rickshaws and small cars, so its price falls on middle- and lower-income families, Dawn says. [24] The petroleum minister said 50-60% of the country's LPG came from Iran, whose border with Pakistan is closed. [25]

Healey will drop import taxes on more than 100 products, including marmalade and gherkins. [16] With earlier cuts on foods such as pasta and tuna, the UK government says a household could save up to 21 pounds a year. [16] A tax-free rate of 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles driven for work becomes permanent, and the rate above that rises from 25p to 35p. [16] Britain's Treasury says about 3 million people use their own car for work. [15] Self-employed fathers will get two weeks of paternity pay, worth up to 194 pounds a week. [16]

Why it matters. The Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the offer of cheaper gherkins an insult to families. [16] Insiders at Britain's Treasury say the bigger tax and spending choices are being put off until next year's spending review, the Guardian reports. [15]

More than 2,000 salon owners have signed a letter asking Healey to cut VAT, the sales tax, on hair and beauty services from 20% to 10%. [26] The British Hair Consortium, which backs the letter, says rising wage, pension and employer tax costs make it harder to hire staff. [26] More stylists now rent a chair in a salon as self-employed workers instead of being employees. [26] Healey will reportedly raise the minimum wage by about 4%, to about 13.20 pounds an hour. [15]

Why it matters. 53% of salon owners say they have cut the number of apprentices they train, a Future of Hairdressing report found. [26] A higher minimum wage raises pay for the lowest-paid staff, and raises the wage bill of the small firms that employ them. [15][26]

FICO, the company behind the credit score most US home lenders use, will keep its price at 10 dollars for a bundle of two scores in 2027. [27] The price applies only to lenders that agree to pull a FICO score on every home-loan application. [27][28] Its rival, VantageScore, sells for 99 cents, or free alongside a FICO score. [27] Bill Pulte, head of the agency that oversees the big US home-loan companies, said abusive monopolies will not be allowed. [28] FICO's shares fell about 7% on Monday. [27]

Why it matters. From 1 January, home loans backed by the US Federal Housing Administration can use VantageScore as well as FICO. [27] Pulte says his agency is also studying using one or two credit reports per loan instead of three, to cut costs for borrowers. [27]

Just 17% of the US is zoned to allow communities of manufactured homes, which are built in a factory and moved to their site, a Realtor.com report finds. [29] President Donald Trump signed an order last week creating a task force to speed up building them. [29] A law passed this year dropped the rule that they sit on a permanent steel frame, which saves about 10,000 dollars a home. [29] Local councils still decide where homes can go. [29]

Why it matters. Starter homes make up a smaller share of homes for sale than before the pandemic, and their prices have risen sharply. [29] Factory-built homes can be put up quickly, so they are one way to add cheaper first homes. [29]

The city council of Akron, Ohio, has voted unanimously to scrap minimum plot sizes in its older neighbourhoods. [30] Until now a single-family house needed a plot of 4,000 square feet. [30] A local developer counted 11,286 empty plots below the old minimum. [30] Akron has lost people for five decades, and its typical home is listed at about 149,000 dollars, a third of the US figure. [30] A councillor said large-plot rules spread after 1968 to keep people of colour out of nicer areas. [30]

Why it matters. Land for US homes now costs nearly four times its 2012 level, while wages rose about 1.5 times, HousingWire reports. [30] Researchers at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, say rules demanding a big plot for every house make new homes dearer than they need to be. [30]

Prosecutors in Sacramento County, California, have charged brothers Austin and Colton Paulhus with taking more than 1 million dollars from customers on 13 projects they never built or finished. [31] Their firm, Anchored Tiny Homes, sold small extra homes for back gardens. [31] California's contractor licence board had more than 200 complaints from 18 counties and took away the firm's licence in 2024. [31] Each brother faces 33 felony counts, and both have filed for bankruptcy. [31] They are due back in court in January 2027. [31]

Why it matters. One family paid 211,000 dollars and was left with a shell. [31] With both brothers bankrupt, customers fear they will never get their money back. [31]

About 59 million Americans cared for an adult relative or friend in 2024, says AARP, a group for people over 50. [32] A study by Edward Jones, an investment firm, found family carers spend an average of 8,737 dollars a year of their own money. [32] A third of carers have less than 10,000 dollars saved, against a quarter of other people, a 2026 survey found. [32] In 43 close US House races, 77% of voters over 50 told AARP they would be more likely to back a candidate who wants a tax credit for unpaid carers. [32]

Why it matters. Some cuts to Medicaid, the US health programme for people on low incomes, start in January. [32] A university professor told CNBC that would push more of the cost of care onto families. [32]

Microsoft is offering buyouts, a lump sum to leave, to more than a quarter of its workforce, and about 60,000 staff are eligible, Business Insider reports. [33] Offers it reviewed give staff at lower levels one week of base pay for every six months worked, up to 39 weeks. [33] Staff have until early December to decide. [33] Skydance, the company formed from Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, told staff to work in the office five days a week or take two weeks' pay per year served. [34] They must decide by 8 November. [34]

Why it matters. Both offers pay most to the longest-serving staff, so a worker's years in the job set the size of the cheque. [33][34]

An inquest found a Hoover tumble dryer, model DX C10DCER-80, was 'more likely than not' the source of a fire that killed Sohaib Ahmed and his nine-year-old daughter in West Yorkshire in June 2025. [35] Which?, a UK consumer group, reports a warning that 1.6 million current Hoover and Candy dryers may share that model's features. [35] Haier, which owns Hoover, says its review found no extra risk. [35] No recall has been issued. [35]

Why it matters. The UK's product safety regulator, the OPSS, says it is investigating whether Haier's dryers meet the safety rules. [35] Which? is calling on it to act urgently. [35]

Chandler King (City), a UK firm that advised people on investments and pensions, went into liquidation on 17 September, the FCA, Britain's financial regulator, said on Monday. [36] The ombudsman for financial complaints had upheld complaints that it gave unsuitable advice without explaining the risks. [36] Liquidators will try to return clients' money and assets. [36] The FSCS, the UK scheme that pays out when a financial firm fails, covers shortfalls of up to 85,000 pounds for eligible clients. [36]

Why it matters. The costs of returning the money, including the liquidators' fees, can be taken out of it. [36] The FCA warns that firms offering to reclaim it for clients usually charge fees that cut what they get back. [36]

Students on the master's course in fine art at Goldsmiths, University of London, want compensation after 10 of their 12 tutors went on strike. [37] The strike is in its 21st week, the longest in living memory in British universities, the Guardian says. [37] It began in April as a boycott of marking over job cuts. [37] The university docked 100% of pay from staff who took part, and a strike followed in June. [37] The two-year course costs nearly 15,000 pounds a year for UK students and 33,000 for international students. [37]

Why it matters. The university says only about 8.5% of its staff are on strike. [37] One mature student has paused his studies, while a US student says his visa and funding mean he cannot. [37]

Two drivers were each sent a 100-pound charge for stopping 18 seconds in no-stopping zones at Leeds Bradford and Bristol airports, the Guardian's consumer column reports. [38] One stopped to deal with a wasp, the other to read a 24-line sign about the car park she had paid for. [38] Both charges were refunded after the newspaper raised them. [38] Airports run on their own bylaws, so the law that lets private parking firms chase a car's registered keeper does not apply there. [38]

Why it matters. The UK government's new private parking code will cancel charges on appeal for short stops such as a medical emergency, but it has no start date yet. [38]