Callum Mason

Journalist working at the i Paper. Formerly of MoneySavingExpert.com and Tes.

The i Paper •

I'm a financial journalist but opted out of a pension in my 20s - I'd do it again

Opting out of a pension should be avoided at all costs, but with compressed wages and rising living costs, many will do so regardless without alternative solutions Nearly nine years ago after finishing university, I started my first job in journalism in Edinburgh, aged 22.It paid a paltry figure well below £20,000 a year, but as someone with no formal journalism training, no work experience in any newsroom of note and Government warnings of a deep recession ahead, I decided it was bes...
The i Paper •

Frustrated about paying tax on your state pension? Here's why others have it worse

The fact that the state pension is set to climb above the tax threshold is seen as a symbolic moment for many, but we need to stop acting as if the plight of pensioners is unique Unless you have managed to avoid reading the news for the past three years, you will be aware that since 2022, successive Governments have frozen the level at which you starting paying income tax, and plan to keep it that way until 2028.This means that as earnings rise to keep up with climbing prices, more an...
The i Paper •

The areas where house prices have risen by more than 800% over 30 years, mapped

Property prices have risen throughout the country in the past few decades, but costs in certain areas have been falling House prices have risen by more than 800 per cent in some parts of the country over the past 30 years, according to extensive analysis by Savills estate agency for The i Paper.There is a vast difference in the rate of growth in areas of England and Wales over the past three decades, a study of property price growth figures published by the Office for Nationa...
The i Paper •

The stock market turmoil reveals the reality of Britain’s two-tier pension system

ANALYSIS

Most people working in the private sector see their pensions take a hit when stock markets fall - but many public sector workers are shielded from this disruption If you have been brave enough to check your pension balance since Donald Trump’s infamous Rose Garden press conference last Wednesday, it is likely to have been an uncomfortable read.Since the US President launched his wide-ranging plan to hit imports to the State with – in some cases ey...
The i Paper •

How thousands are cutting council tax by up to £2.5k by challenging their bands

Some households are moving down four council tax bands after submitting challenges, figures obtained by The i Paper show Thousands of households have had their council tax reduced by multiple bands after challenging the Government, resulting in savings of £2,500 a year for some. Properties in England and Wales are assigned into one of eight council bands, rated A to H, which determines how much a household’s annual bill will be.The bands are based on what the value of your ho...
The i Paper •

Inside the scramble to beat the stamp duty deadline

Buyers who don't complete purchases this month face paying thousands of pounds more in stamp duty Given it takes an average of 151 days to complete a property transaction after agreeing a sale, a delay of 24 hours may seem inconsequential. But between Monday and Tuesday next week, this is not the case. In fact, a delay of just a day could mean someone buying an average-priced home has to fork out an extra £2,500.This is because until the end of Monday 31 March, first-time buy...
The i Paper •

Teachers blocked from swapping big pensions for higher wages

A trust of nearly 100 schools planned to offer teachers the chance to take home higher pay in return for smaller pension contributions from April, but has been stalled after a Government intervention A plan to offer teachers the option of swapping big pensions for a higher salary has been blocked by the Government in a move that has big implications for the public sector.United Learning, the biggest academy trust in England, was aiming to offer the scheme to thousands of tea...
The i Paper •

Households who took short mortgages in 2024 to save 'virtually nothing' next year

Mortgage rates have not fallen as quickly as some households predicted they would last year Mortgage holders who took out short term fixed deals in 2024 are set to be dealt a fresh blow as they will likely save “virtually nothing” next year when they refix, experts have warned.Many of the 400,000 households who took out two-year fixed mortgages last year hoping that rates would have fallen significantly when they came to renew are set to find themselves paying effectively the...
The i Paper •

At 66, I haven't saved into a pension, here's how I'm trying to fix it

People in their 50s and 60s spoke to The i Paper about their pension saving regrets Caroline Romero admits that for most of her life pension planning was not “high on her list”.In the 1980s, she and her late husband started running a restaurant, which they continued for more than two decades.Times were tough as they negotiated multiple UK recessions, and Caroline admits that she put nothing away for her later years because she expected to inherit a house and retire with her h...
The i Paper •

Savers could face tax bill of up to £2k if cash ISA scrapped

Cash ISAs allow people to gain savings interest without having to pay tax - but there are concerns Reeves could scrap them Some savers could face tax bills of more than £2,000 over the next few years if cash ISAs were to be ditched, analysis shows.Cash ISAs are a type of account that allow people to earn interest without paying tax on it with savers having a limit of £20,000 a year that can be placed into them. Around 18 million people hold such an account, figures from HMRC...
The i Paper •

I can't sell my flat - I'm losing £500 per month renting it out

Charlotte Mitchell is stuck unable to sell her Croydon flat as a result of cladding issues Charlotte Mitchell bought her London flat in 2018. Six years later, she has moved out but is still unable to sell it, and is making a loss every month that she rents it out, as a result of cladding.The 37-year-old first found out that the one-bedroom flat she owns in Croydon, south London, had issues in 2020.Although the cladding issues themselves have now been fixed, the high service c...
The i Paper •

Thousands of over-60s take out student loans they are 'unlikely' to ever repay

People in their 60s have taken out £37m in tuition fee loans – they could technically face repayments past their 100th birthday Thousands of over-60s are taking out taxpayer-funded student loans they are unlikely to ever repay due to a loophole in the tuition fee system.There is currently no upper age limit on the government loans, meaning mature students can access them on the same terms as young people, repaying 9 per cent of their income over £25,000.However, a person’s in...
inews.co.uk •

Reeves warned more borrowing risks driving up mortgage rates

Moves to loosen rules that limit the amount of money the Government can borrow at next month’s Budget risk interest rates staying higher for longer and banks hitting the brakes on recent mortgage rate cuts, the Chancellor has been warned.Rachel Reeves is considering changes to her fiscal rules – rules that govern how much she can spend and borrow – at October’s Budget.In its manifesto earlier this year, Labour said it would follow a rule that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the...
inews.co.uk •

'Optimistic' mortgage rates could end up having to rise again, economists warn

Mortgage rates could end up ticking back up in the future, economists have warned, claiming they are currently based on “optimistic” forecasts of the speed at which the Bank of England will cut interest rates.Earlier this year, mortgage rates fell below 4 per cent on expectations that the Bank would cut interest rates in the first half of the year, but when it became clear that this would not happen, the price of home loans rose.Economists warn this could happen again.This is because fixed mortg...
inews.co.uk •

Reeves's '£10bn windfall' explained - and why it won't reverse winter fuel cut

A decision by the Bank of England could give Rachel Reeves an extra £10bn of “headroom” at her upcoming Budget, according to reports.This is a term used to describe the buffer zone the Government has while still meeting the Budget rules it sets for itself.Some have called upon Reeves, if she does have this extra windfall, to reverse the controversial decision to cut the winter fuel allowance for many pensioners.But does the Bank’s decision actually give Reeves more space – and could that be used...
inews.co.uk •

700k graduates locked out of housing market by £2k extra tax

More than 700,000 former university students are now paying back £2,000 or more a year towards their student loan – a figure that has nearly doubled in the past five years and is preventing graduates from getting on to the property ladder.Many now pay greater portions of their salaries each month to the Government as a result of retrospective changes to student loan rules, according to a Freedom of Information request made by i to the Student Loans Company.Most students face making these large r...
inews.co.uk •

'Never spend over 30% of income on rent': the golden rule that became impossible

A commonly used rule that households should not spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent has become “impossible” to follow for people in many regions of Britain, analysis for i shows.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses the 30 per cent barometer – which it calculates from pre-tax income – as a proxy for whether a home is affordable, but analysis from Savills estate agency suggests that an average household will be spending more than this in around 60 per cent of parliamentary...
inews.co.uk •

Economists criticise Sunak's 'utterly irresponsible' interest rates claim

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been criticised by former Bank of England economists for “utterly irresponsible” and “nonsense” comments suggesting a vote for the Conservatives at the general election is a vote to cut interest rates.

In an interview with The Times, the Prime Minister was asked if a vote the Tories was a vote for lower interest rates, and said: “Of course it is, because we are the party who has committed to bringing down inflation, which is a necessary condition for bringing down
inews.co.uk •

Labour NHS backlog plan at risk of ‘staff exodus’ without urgent pension clarity

Labour has been warned of an NHS staff “exodus” this summer unless it urgently sets out how its plans to reinstate tax on large pension pots will work.

The party has committed to reintroducing the lifetime allowance cap on pensions – a limit on the amount people can build in pension savings over their lifetime and still receive tax relief – having criticised the Government for removing it.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to reinstate the limit, but said the party would allow a work-aro
inews.co.uk •

Triple lock plus would only save many OAPs £14.60 a year by 2028, analysis shows

Retirees relying on the full new state pension as their sole income could end up saving just £14.60 per year – or 28p a week – in tax payments by 2028 through the Conservative Party’s triple lock plus policy, according to calculations for .

Rishi Sunak has outlined plans to increase the tax-free allowance for pensioners in line with the existing “triple lock” to ensure it rises each year.

It would mean both the state pension and retirees’ tax-free allowance – currently £12,570 – would increase
inews.co.uk •

Why climbing the property ladder is now confined to the wealthy

Climbing the property ladder is becoming “confined to affluent households”, analysis for shows, as the number of home sales coming from existing mortgage holders buying new properties has fallen to the lowest level in at least two decades.

The term ‘property ladder’ is widely used in the UK to refer to a household’s lifetime journey through different homes as their income and financial circumstances improve, but research by a leading estate agency suggests the phrase may no longer be applicable
inews.co.uk •

Why I’m fighting for a law that means businesses have to take cash payments

Martin Quinn remembers the exact moment he started seriously wanting to campaign for cash users.

He was sitting in a branch of a high street coffee shop chain with his children, two and a half years ago, and there was a group of disabled people and their carers sat at their tables ready to get their drinks.

Some of the carers were lined up in the queue with cash, but when they got to the front and tried to pay, they were told they could not use it. They turned around, let the group know, and l
inews.co.uk •

Warning to 200,000 NHS staff that are missing out on pension payments

Hundreds of thousands of NHS workers in their fifties and sixties could be missing out on collecting pension payments as they may be unaware about a rule change to their pension scheme, retirement experts have warned.

A total of 143,632 over-60s and 65,291 over-55s, who are members of the old NHS pension scheme, have not started claiming their pension benefits despite passing what’s known as their “normal pension age”.

This is the age at which they would usually be able to start claiming their
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