Wage gap explained

THE state pension is a regular payment most people claim when they reach a certain age in later life. It's different to your workplace or a private pension , with the time you can apply for it depending on when you were born. In May 2014, the government changed how the state pension system works , with the goal of making it simpler. In order to get a state pension you need to pay National Insurance contributions (NICs), and have built up a minimum number of years' worth. How much is the state pension? Men born on or after April 6, 1951, or women born on or after April 6, 1953, will be able to claim the new state pension. For those who reached the state pension age before April 6, 2016, you’ll be getting the old state pension, known as the basic state pension. The full new state pension is £175.20 per week , while the previous full basic state pension was £134.25 per week. If you've accrued NICs under both the old and new pensions, you'll receive a state … [Read more...] about How much is my state pension and what age can I claim it?

THOUSANDS of parents will lose some of all of their child benefit payments under Rishi Sunak's stealth tax, according to research. Although the Chancellor stopped short of a tax rises in the Budget this week, a raft of threshold freezes equals a pay cut for millions of Brits once you take into account inflation . Mr Sunak decided against raising the salary at which parents stop receiving child benefit , hitting the pockets of around 250,000 middle-income parents by 2025. Child benefit is currently worth £21.05 a week for the first child and £13.95 for younger siblings. Anyone with children under the age of 16 can claim the payout. But families stop being entitled to the full payout when one parent earns an annual salary of £50,000 or more. For every £100 above the threshold parents see 1% knocked off their child benefit payments. Can I claim child benefit? YOU can claim child benefit if you’re responsible for one or more children under 16. You may … [Read more...] about Thousands of parents will lose some or all child benefit under Budget stealth tax

A FRUGAL woman who “hates spending money” has revealed her extreme money-saving ways, including never buying toilet paper. Kate Hashimoto, lives in New York, and has found a way of avoiding paying for almost everything in her life. Speaking on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates, she says: “I have lived in New York for three years, although it’s the most expensive city to live in I have found ways to get around it. “If I have to spend money, I try and avoid it, I will try and pay as little as possible.” With a budget of just $200 a month in living expenses, Kate finds ways to reuse whatever she can to make her money go further. “If I am drying my hands in a public bathroom, I am drying off hands that I washed clean so I keep them and reuse them,” she explains. Kate has never paid money for furniture, and instead sources her stuff from skips and off the street. She says: “I furnished my place by picking up discarded furniture on the street before the trash picks it up, I … [Read more...] about I hate spending money, I haven’t done any laundry for three years and I NEVER use toilet paper

The organiser of a protest over the NHS pay rise offer in Manchester has been fined £10,000 by police. Health workers marched across the UK today, in protest against the government's "insulting" proposed one per cent pay rise for NHS heroes. One woman, 65, was arrested as police broke up the socially-distanced demonstration in St Peter's Square, Manchester, this afternoon. The Manchester Evening News reported she was detained for "obstructing" officers. She was later fined. In a statement Greater Manchester Police said the organiser of the protest, a woman 61, was issued a £10,000 fine. "Unfortunately the police have told us we can't proceed with this despite what's going on in the health service," Karen Reissman, a health worker, told the crowd gathered in the city centre. "We've been told we will not be able to go ahead with this, I'll be fined and reported to my employer and disciplined and people here will be fined as well, so we will therefore be shutting it down. … [Read more...] about Organiser of socially-distant nurses’ pay protest fined £10,000 by police

FAIR play to those sly old dogs at ITV. They’ve discovered something Gordon Ramsay is worse at than hosting BBC1’s Bank Balance. It took them less than 72 hours to do it as well. All they needed was Saturday Night Takeaway ’s Read My Lips game, a pair of headphones to muffle the noise and some bloke in Llanelli called Jamie bellowing mystery food items at Gordon via Zoom. “Sushi. SUE SHE. SUUUUE SHEEEEE,” he kept screaming at the clueless chef, who couldn’t even win poor Jamie the free holiday when he heard himself asking: “Sue who?” Nor was Gordon able to help out any of the other contestants, Rizwan, Lorna or Mala, in Manchester, who almost ate the camera in frustration, shouting: “CAR BON-ARA. CAR-BON-ARA. CAR-BON-ARA,” because it was just one of those nights when anything that could go wrong did go wrong on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Audible obscenities, inappropriate jokes about Stephen Mulhern’s genitals, misfiring props, games where no one won … [Read more...] about Gordon Ramsay’s Saturday Night Takeaway goes straight into the bin