Callum Mason

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

The i Paper •

I helped create the student loan system, I can't defend what's happened since

Nick Hillman was a special adviser for the universities minister when Plan 2 student loans were launched. He says some of the changes made since then are 'regrettable' The team that introduced a new student loan system in 2012 were “maybe naive” to assume that the rules would not be altered by future governments to make borrowers pay more, a policy adviser that worked on the terms has said.


Tuition fees were trebled to £9,000 a year in 2012, whilst the then government intr...
The i Paper •

Home sellers forced to slash prices despite mortgage rate cuts

Experts say that property purchasing remains a buyers market Property sellers are being forced to slash the asking prices on homes despite reductions to mortgage rates making it cheaper for buyers to borrow money.


Some 7 per cent of sellers in London and 6.6 per cent in the rest of England have cut the asking price on their home by more than 5 per cent in the last four weeks, data from property portal Zoopla shows.


These figures are the highest since 2023, when mortgage...
The i Paper •

Property prices are falling – and it's leaving new home owners trapped

While some property types are rising in prices, others are falling, making it harder for first-time buyers to upgrade their home As an aspiring first-time buyer, falling property prices don’t generally worry me personally as much as they do others.


The backdrop of falling prices – usually a struggling economy – is obviously not something to aspire to, but as an individual, a slight reduction to the price of homes wouldn’t be so much of a bad thing.


Although Land Registry data in...
The i Paper •

University dropouts owe £12bn in student loans after being 'pushed' into degrees

Campaigners say students are being 'shepherded' into debt at university due to a lack of alternatives University students who dropped out of their courses owe more than £12bn in student loan debt, with figures obtained by The i Paper showing the amount is growing every year.


Hundreds of thousands of people who withdrew from higher education currently owe money for their degrees, according to statistics shared by the Student Loans Company.


The data, obtained via a Freedo...
The i Paper •

Teachers pensions are very good value, experts say, but only one in 10 agree

The Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) is 'one of the most generous in the UK', one expert says Teacher pensions offer the “gold standard” of retirement income, according to experts – but research shows only one in 10 (11 per cent) of teachers think they offer “very good” value.


Like other public sector pensions, the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) is often referred to as a gold-plated pension plan, because it offers a guaranteed income for life in retirement, unlike most priva...
The i Paper •

Streeting called Tory student loan changes 'mis-selling' - before Labour copied them

Campaigners said Streeting's comments exposed the hypocrisy at the heart of the Government student loans policy Cabinet minister Wes Streeting called student loans a “mis-selling scandal” and said a choice by the Conservatives to freeze the salary level at which the loans must be repaid had “misled” graduates – before this Labour Government did exactly the same thing.


When tuition fees were trebled in 2012, a new loan repayment system was introduced. Students who went to u...
The i Paper •

'Mis-sold' student loans to cost graduates £14,000 more than they were told

The terms under which school-leavers were persuaded to take out student loans have been changed retrospectively multiple times Thousands of graduates who went to university after tuition fees were trebled are set to pay back £14,000 more than they expected due to changes to their student loan terms.


Tuition fees were hiked to £9,000 for those who went to university from 2012 onwards, with this increase coinciding with a new repayment system for loans.


But promises the c...
The i Paper •

The areas where second-time buyers are trapped and can't move up the housing ladder

Moving to a bigger homes can cost families thousands of pounds extra per year Second-time buyers in some areas of the country are finding it a “nightmare” to upsize, according to analysis produced for The i Paper.


When buyers move up the property ladder, they typically have to put down bigger deposits and stomach larger mortgage costs for their second home than their first.


Part of the way to bridge the gap would be selling their first home for a higher price than they...
The i Paper •

Grieving families and home buyers face £100m 'back door tax'

Experts warn those going through probate process could lose out on hundreds of pounds in interest under new proposals Grieving families are among those set to be hit by a proposed £100m “tax” on the interest made from money sitting in lawyers’ client accounts, experts have warned.


Lawyers often handle money from a deceased person’s estate when they are going through probate, or when their clients are going through property transactions.


This cash generates interest, som...
The i Paper •

My student loan is over £80,000 and growing - here's why I think we were lied to

Those who took out student loans after 2012 have had the goalposts moved multiple times, leaving many of us with decades of debt with no escape Every month, I repay hundreds of pounds towards a student loan I took out when I was 18, in the year 2012.


When I left university in 2016, this loan totalled around £60,000. A decade of repayments later, and it is £84,000.


Each year, the interest on my loan outstrips the thousands of pounds I pay towards it.Last year alone, I accrued £5,...
The i Paper •

'Inheritance tax insurance' being taken out by increasing numbers of pension savers

Whole-life cover can be used to cover inheritance tax bills, though experts warn it may not be right for everyone There has been a “clear increase” in families using life insurance policies to fund future inheritance tax bills ahead of pensions becoming subject to the charge, financial planners have told The i Paper.


Inheritance tax (IHT) is owed on the estate – savings, property and other assets – of someone who has died, but tax-free limits and various exemptions mean th...
The i Paper •

Pensions blow as millions of pounds withdrawn early in 'irreversible' pre-Budget panic

Pensioners and people close to retirement have risked harming their savings by withdrawing lump sums sooner than planned Thousands of savers made the “irreversible” decision to withdraw hundreds of millions of pounds in tax-free cash from their pension pots due to uncertainty in the run up to the Budget, The i Paper has been told.


Pensioners and people close to retirement have risked harming their savings by withdrawing lump sums sooner than planned – and the Government sh...
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...
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