Money, in brief

US wages and salaries rose 3.1% in the year to September, the slowest since early 2021. [2]

Prices rose 3.6% in the same year, so pay bought about 0.6% less. [2]

What employers paid for workers' health insurance rose 6.4% over the year. [1]

So workers with health plans through their jobs are getting smaller raises. [3][1]

Health costs are a big issue in Tuesday's US elections, beside fuel and power bills. [1]

The index measures total compensation: everything an employer spends on a worker, not just the wage. [7]

Many firms facing dearer health plans answered with smaller raises, the New York Fed found. [3]

Berger says the figures may still understate the squeeze, as plans also cover less. [1]

Nobody yet knows how much of 2027's 8.2% rise employers will pass on to workers. [4]

Many workers pick plans this autumn and will see bigger deductions from their pay in 2027. [4]

In the US, health cover is eating into pay: employers' spending on workers' health insurance rose 6.4% in the year to September, while wages rose 3.1% and prices 3.6%. [1][2]

A pay rise that goes up feels like a gain, even in a year when prices and health deductions went up faster.

Dearer hospital and doctor care and weight-loss drugs are what push employer health premiums up, insurers' figures show, the New York Fed says. [3]

Firms facing dearer plans gave raises about a point smaller than they otherwise would, the New York Fed found. [3]

US union workers' pay and benefits rose 4.3% in the year to September, faster than prices.

Sign-up for 2027 marketplace health plans runs from 1 November to 15 January in most states. [8]

The marketplace sells health plans under the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. [1]

Buyers using an agent on the federal site must now approve them with a one-time code. [8]

First-time buyers, movers and anyone paying $30 a month or less must also prove their identity. [8]

The rules aim to stop fraud, including agents who sign people up without asking. [8]

Agents new for 2027 cannot sign anyone up until February, after sign-up ends. [8]

Many legal immigrants, including refugees, can no longer get federal help with premiums. [8]

A 40-year-old's benchmark plan costs $704 a month in 2027, up from $624 in 2026. [1]

Joshua Brooker, who runs an insurance agency, fears up to 1 in 5 face extra checks. [8]

He fears some will give up and go without cover. [8]

In health policy the subsidy is tied to a benchmark: an area's second-cheapest silver plan. [8]

So when that plan's price rises, most buyers' help rises with it. [8]

A single person earning over $63,840 gets no help at all. [8]

Why a stricter check also turns away honest people

A check uses clues to guess who is honest

Some honest people look risky, and some cheats look fine

So every check makes two kinds of mistake

Tighten it: fewer cheats pass, more honest people are stopped

Loosen it: more cheats pass, fewer honest people are stopped

Only a better clue cuts both mistakes at once

Raising the bar on a check stops more cheats. It also stops more honest people, because the clues stay the same; only better information cuts both.

Moving the bar swaps one mistake for the other. No setting avoids both.

The US government now makes buyers paying $30 a month or less prove who they are, which catches honest low-cost buyers as well as fake sign-ups.

Every purchase is now checked, and a non-profit found nearly half of the shoppers likely to fail had never missed a payment.

People check a caller by whether they know their name and birthday, and once those details leak, the check lets a criminal through.

DraftKings' check for problem gambling let a reporter who bet like a problem gambler become a VIP, and that miss is what Louisiana and Ohio are now looking at.

A better clue can cut both mistakes at once, and the firms and agencies running checks rarely publish how many honest people they turn away.

Everyone in today's stories meets a check from one side: the health-plan buyer, the shopper, the bettor, the person answering the phone.

They keep big staffs all year, while agents new for 2027 are frozen out until February, a Florida broker says. [8]

They can fail the identity questions even though they are real, a Georgetown researcher says. [8]

How fast US marketplace premiums are really rising for 2027.

KFF puts the rise in the benchmark plan at 13%, while a KFF Health News report carried by NPR says premiums are set to rise 15%. [1][8]

How many honest buyers will give up at the new US sign-up identity checks.

One agent fears up to 1 in 5 buyers who use agents will need extra checks; none of our sources gives an official estimate. [8]

Most people buying 2027 health plans on the US marketplace will still get a federal subsidy, and it rises when the price of the benchmark plan rises.

Social Security, the US state pension, could cut retirement payments by 22% in 2032. [9]

Its retirement trust fund, a store of reserves, is projected to run out then. [9]

After that, the taxes coming in would cover about 78% of promised payments. [11]

The US Congress's budget office expects it sooner, in mid-2032, with a 26% cut. [9]

A 24% cut would take about $500 a month from the average payment, by one estimate. [9]

Senators elected on 3 November serve six years, so they will be in office in 2032. [10][11]

35 Senate seats are being decided. [10]

Candidates in only 9 close races have said what they would do, CNBC found. [10]

In close Senate states, 81% of voters polled favour a candidate who plans to stop cuts. [10]

Workers and employers each pay a 6.2% tax on pay up to $184,500 to fund it. [11]

In pension terms it is pay-as-you-go: once reserves are gone, payments shrink to what comes in. [11]

A tax expert says payroll tax rises are very unlikely in the next couple of years. [9]

Merging the retirement and disability funds would move the date to 2034, with a 17% cut. [9]

A 24% cut would take about $500 a month from the average Social Security payment, by one estimate. [9]

When Social Security's reserve actually runs out, and how deep the cut would be.

Its trustees say late 2032 and 22%; the US Congress's budget office says mid-2032 and 26%. [9]

Whether the US Congress fixes Social Security before the reserve runs out.

A tax expert says payroll taxes are very unlikely to rise in the next couple of years, and candidates in only nine close Senate races have given plans. [9][10]

On 15 October, Louisiana's gaming board put off renewing the licence of DraftKings, a betting app. [12]

Instead it got a four-month permit while investigators look into press reports. [12]

ProPublica, a US newsroom, had a reporter bet like a problem gambler for weeks. [13]

After he lost $1,800 in one night, DraftKings invited him to try for VIP status. [13]

A day after Louisiana's meeting, Ohio's regulators proposed a 48-hour rule. [12]

Apps could not send ads for 48 hours after a user sets limits. [12]

In ProPublica's test, betting offers arrived 30 minutes after the reporter set his limits. [12]

DraftKings says it "does not market to customers based on indicators of potential problem gaming." [12]

Three US lawmakers have asked betting firms how many customers are VIPs, and what they earn. [12]

The industry calls its guardrails responsible gaming: limits and pauses a bettor can switch on. [12]

The lawmakers say VIP rewards push the most at-risk customers into debt and addiction. [12]

A former head of a problem-gambling council warns the rule could put people off setting limits. [12]

Ohio's rule still faces more public hearings and comments before it can take effect. [12]

DraftKings' check for problem gambling let a reporter who bet like a problem gambler become a VIP, and that miss is what Louisiana and Ohio are now looking at.

How many DraftKings customers are VIPs, and how much the company earns from them.

Three US lawmakers have asked; DraftKings said it would respond once it had reviewed the letter. [12]

Since July, UK buy now, pay later lenders must check every purchase is affordable. [14][16]

Buy now, pay later splits a price into instalments, usually with no interest. [15]

Lenders such as Klarna, the UK's largest, now need the financial regulator's approval. [15]

The checks apply even to purchases under £50. [16]

A shopper who fails a check has the purchase blocked. [14]

In 2025, 8.5 million people made over 100 million such purchases, worth over £7bn, Experian says. [15]

Fair4All Finance, a non-profit, estimated 10% to 30% of users would fail the checks. [15]

Nearly half of those likely to be rejected had never missed a payment, it said. [15]

With Christmas near, more shoppers may meet the checks just as money is tight. [14]

Debt charities see people using pay-later plans for food and energy bills. [15]

UK credit rules call for a 'proportionate' affordability check, run on every purchase. [16]

Klarna says "the new rules largely formalise what we already do." [15]

Fair4All warns that people turned away may turn to loan sharks. [15]

Every purchase is now checked, and a non-profit found nearly half of the shoppers likely to fail had never missed a payment.

How many UK shoppers have been blocked by pay-later checks since July.

Fair4All Finance estimated beforehand that 10% to 30% of users would fail; no count since July is in our sources. [15]

Shoppers in the UK who split payments with pay-later lenders can now take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, a free independent referee. In 2025, 98.5% of pay-later balances were repaid on time.

UK chancellor John Healey would not say when 18-to-20-year-olds will get the adult minimum wage. [17]

From April, workers aged 21 and over get at least £13.21 an hour. [18]

Workers aged 18 to 20 get at least £11.27 an hour. [18]

Both rates rise 3.9%, so the gap between them stays. [18]

Labour's 2024 election manifesto promised to close that gap. [17]

On Sunday, Healey told the BBC: "It's a question of when." [17]

He said he must weigh jobs against wages for young people. [17]

More than 1 million 18-to-24-year-olds are not in work, education or training. [18]

Economists weigh a higher wage floor against the risk of fewer jobs for young workers. [17]

Firms employing 18-to-20-year-olds can keep paying them less per hour while the gap stays. [18]

The promise to close the gap before the next election is now in doubt. [17]

Criminals call people posing as their bank, reading out their name, address and birthday. [19]

Knowing those details makes the call seem real. [19]

Birthdays are often stored when people sign up at shops or loyalty schemes. [19]

Customers' birthdays were taken in a recent hack of Asos, an online clothes shop. [19]

A scam investigator found 8 of 14 online shops asked for a birthday at sign-up. [19]

Shops need only card details and a delivery address, he says. [19]

Banks, lenders and tax offices use a birthday to match a person to official records. [19]

With a name and phone number, a birthday helps criminals steal identities, a security adviser says. [19]

Security experts call it a jigsaw: small leaked details joined into one full profile. [19]

The investigator says shops keep asking because a birthday tells them a customer's age for adverts. [19]

People check a caller by whether they know their name and birthday, and once those details leak, the check lets a criminal through.

More than 1 million Americans borrowed against their homes in the first half of 2026. [20]

That was the most for a first half since 2022, says data firm Intercontinental Exchange. [20]

US homeowners hold a record $35.8 trillion in home equity: the value they own outright. [20]

Cash-out refinancing, replacing a mortgage and taking cash, rose 12% in a year. [20]

Lines of credit with a rate that moves are still the most used way to borrow. [20]

This autumn's US interest rate rise made such borrowing dearer, at 7% to 8.5%. [20]

Families use it to pay off dearer debts, pay for college or cover living costs. [20]

Even so, it costs less than most other borrowing, says the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist. [20]

Each rise in rates makes a moving-rate line of credit cost more to repay. [20]

New checks on US health-plan sign-ups and UK pay-later loans now stop some honest people, while a US betting app's check let a reporter who bet like a problem gambler become a VIP. [8][15][12]