Callum Mason

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

The i Paper •

Banks set for cash ISA rate war to entice savers before Reeves cuts £20k limit

Savings market experts predict that cash ISA providers will compete to attract customers ahead of a cut to the allowance being introduced Banks and building societies are likely to start a “mini rate war” as they compete to attract customers ahead of an expected cut to the cash ISA allowance, savings experts have predicted.


Savers can currently put up to £20,000 per year in ISAs – cash or stocks and shares – to protect the returns and interest from being taxed, but Chancel...
The i Paper •

Mansion tax could force cash-poor pensioners to use equity release

A mansion tax is reportedly on the cards in November's Budget More pensioners are likely to consider releasing equity from their properties to pay their bills if Labour goes ahead with a mooted mansion tax, experts have predicted.


Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering hitting homeowners in properties worth over £2m with a 1 per cent annual charge in her November Budget.


Although only a small fraction of homes in the UK are worth over £2m, they are more comm...
The i Paper •

Thousands of police officers opting out of 'unaffordable' gold-plated pension scheme

Experts have stressed the generosity of police pensions for those who can afford to stay in the scheme Thousands of police officers every year are opting out of their “unaffordable” pension scheme, data obtained by The i Paper shows.


Police officers, like many other public sector workers, get access to generous guaranteed payments every year in their retirement – sometimes referred to as gold-plated pensions.


But members of the police have to pay higher proportions of t...
The i Paper •

Ditch manifesto pledge and raise income tax at Budget, top economists tell Reeves

Labour pledged not to raise income tax in November's Budget, but now a group of economists says it is her best option to get the public finances on a sustainable footing Rachel Reeves needs to abandon the Government’s pledge not to raise income tax in order to get Britain’s finances on a sustainable path, a panel of top economists has warned.


In its manifesto at the last election, The Labour Party promised it would not increase taxes on “working people”, specifically natio...
The i Paper •

Thousands of doctors face £100,000 student loans they will likely never clear

Some experts have called for the Government to introduce debt relief for doctors in the NHS Thousands of doctors face huge student loans of more than £100,000 that they will probably never repay, with experts saying that writing off the debt could be a way to reward long service to the NHS.


Figures obtained by The i Paper via a Freedom of Information request show that 2,864 former medical students have loan balances of more than £100,000, while a further 8,520 have balance...
The i Paper •

Number of retirees delaying taking their state pension for more cash halves

Deferring taking your state pension can mean you receive a larger payment The number of retirees opting to delay taking their state pension in order to boost their monthly payments has more than halved over the past seven years after new rules made doing so less generous.


Only 39,822 people made a deferred claim for the state pension in 2023/24, compared with 87,548 in 2016/17.


Those who reached state pension age before April 2016 and chose to delay taking their payment...
The i Paper •

This tax break lets over-65s pay less than younger workers. It's time to end it

People under 66 can end up paying hundreds more a month in tax than their older counterparts for doing the same job. Is that fair? In the UK, most people pay two forms of income tax on the money they make from work, but we currently allow the over-65s to avoid paying the second.In the name of fairness, this needs to end.If you are a basic rate taxpayer, you pay 20 per cent of all your earnings over £12,570 in income tax. But you also pay a second income tax too, called national insura...
The i Paper •

Is the Bank of England getting it wrong on interest rates?

An ex-ratesetter has said those who voted for a reduction are potentially being 'wildly optimistic' on how quickly inflation will fall Last week, the Bank of England decided to cut interest rates to 4 per cent – the lowest level in more than two years – despite forecasting that inflation will be double its 2 per cent target level in the Autumn.Interest rates determine what the Bank charges commercial banks to borrow money from it. The premise behind this is that if borrowing...
The i Paper •

The three-year 'Trumpbuster' mortgages that avoid US President's market volatility

Donald Trump's economic decisions have had a major bearing on mortgage rates in the UK this year More UK homeowners are choosing to take out three-year “Trumpbuster” mortgages, which take them to the end of the US President’s tenure in the White House and avoid any potential turmoil caused by the administration.Traditionally, two and five-year fixed home loans have been the most popular products for households. Although most deals are still being agreed at these lengths, ther...
The i Paper •

I'm a pension campaigner. The triple lock should stay until it hits £340 a week

Dennis Reed argues the triple lock should stay in place despite the rising cost of maintaining the scheme The triple lock is under pressure.The Government has committed to keeping the mechanism, which ensures the state pension rises annually by the highest of inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5 per cent, until the end of this parliament.After this, its future is uncertain, with some experts saying that as soon as 2030 it could have to go, because of the increasing cost...
The i Paper •

Retirees need £44k for a 'comfortable' life. How are the rest of us meant to manage?

It's hard to save for a 'comfortable' standard of living in retirement, but it's just as hard - or harder - to have it before you retire A person living alone in retirement needs to spend £43,900 a year to live at a “comfortable” standard, according to new figures released by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).This figure is calculated by researchers at Loughborough University and is based on discussions with members of the public from across the UK.Crucially, the nu...
The i Paper •

At 64, I'll never downsize from my four-bed because moving home is horrendous

Experts say that helping retirees to downsize into smaller homes could be a key way to combating the housing crisis - but difficulties moving put some people off doing it After retiring early in his mid-fifties, John Dixon lives in a four-bedroom house with his wife Linda.Their children are now in their twenties and thirties, and so John says that they were open to the concept of downsizing in the future.Experts say that supporting those in retirement to downsize into smaller...
The i Paper •

The real cost of delaying payments into your ISA account

Putting money into an ISA earlier in the tax year can boost your returns, according to analysis by an investment firm Putting the maximum £20,000 in your ISA at the start of the tax year could boost returns by tens of thousands of pounds compared to if you wait before investing cash.Savers and investors can put away £20,000 per year into an ISA and not pay any tax on the interest or returns, with the allowance resetting every April.Aside from in some specific circumstances –...
The i Paper •

I pay £750 a month to flat share at 58 – I've come to terms with renting forever

Research from SpareRoom shows that 14 per cent of renters don’t think they will ever get on the property ladder, and 30 per cent are unsure For the majority of the 36 years he has been living in London, Patrick Loomer has been in a flat share.At 58, he says he is “past coming to terms” with the fact that unless he wins the lottery, he will be renting for life.“I would have loved to own flat, but my life just didn’t work out like that,” he says.Patrick currently pays £750 a mo...
The i Paper •

At 23, here’s how I made £60k by investing during Trump’s stock market plunge

Investment experts say that buying after stock markets fall can give you an opportunity to make strong returns Adam Mlamali bought his first home late last year in the West Midlands.It was a fixer-upper, which the 23-year-old says needed extensive renovations, which have already begun, and have so far cost £20,000.He decided he needed to find some money to complete the renovations, and so, in April, Adam paused the renovation work and decided to go “all in” on investing in st...
The i Paper •

Borrow up to my eyeballs for a mortgage? I’d rather rent

Although there are many advantages to owning a home instead renting, stretching yourself to the very edge of your financial limits to do so is not worth it You would be hard pushed to find someone who has rented over the past few years who says they would love to carry on doing so for years to come.With renting comes the risk of regular price rises at the whims of your landlord, the prospect of being turfed out of your home, and problems that often go unfixed for months on end – thing...
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...
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