Surge in cold weather payments

Cold weather payments are set to surge as a result of the freezing weather engulfing much of the UK.

The Department for Work and Pensions revealed that bitter conditions had already triggered payments to 2 million people over the last week alone, a total of £50m.

They go to those on Pension Credit and several other income-related benefits. Each 7 day period of freezing temperatures results in an automatic £25 addition to benefit to help families keep warm.

The coldest areas this year have been Aviemore, Braemar and Loch Glasgarnoch in the Scottish Highlands, which have each had four 7 day trigger periods.

There have been a number of areas in England which have had qualifying cold spells, including Bingley, Sheffield, Norwich, Nottingham, Bedford and High Wycombe.

And several in Wales have had the money, among them Capel Curig, Lake Vyrnwy and Sennybridge.

However, around 1.5m pensioners are missing out, the result of not claiming Pension Credit even though they are struggling on low incomes.

They need to put in a Pension Credit claim in order to get the cash. The Minister for Pensions Steve Webb said: "I want to ensure the most vulnerable people know about the support that is available."

"With more cold weather expected in the next week people shouldn't have to worry about turning up the heating when temperatures plummet."

Payments so far this winter are behind last year's £129m and well short of 2010-11 which saw £430m disbursed in 17 million payments.

Here's some more info.

Barclays: improve standards or leave

Barclays new chief executive has sent a memo to his 140,000 staff telling them to sign up to a set of ethical standards or go and find work somewhere else.

Antony Jenkins was promoted to the top operational position at the bank after it was rocked by the LIBOR scandal over attempts to rig interest rates.

He told staff: "we must never again be in a position of rewarding people for making the bank money in a way which is unethical or inconsistent with our values."

He warned anyone reluctant to toe the line that "Barclays is not the place for you."

Barclays new code of conduct would be based on Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship.

In contrast Mr Jenkins admitted that banking had become too aggressive and too focused on short-term gain.

He told employees that in Barclays there was "a tendency at times, manifest in all parts of the bank, to pursue short-term profits at the expense of the values and reputation of the organisation."

The bank is training a task force of 1,000 staff to spread the message to other employees over the next few months.

Barclays was the first of several international banks to be implicated in the LIBOR affair. Last June it paid fines of £290m and its then chief executive, Bob Diamond, was later forced to resign.

Mervyn condemns bank bonus ruse

The Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King has condemned investment banks in the City of London for considering a delay in bonus payment to avoid 50% top rate tax and take advantage of the cut to 45%.

Giving evidence to MPs in the Treasury Select Committee, Sir Mervyn said it was "depressing" that people who earn so much could consider such a move, "knowing that this must have an impact on the rest of society".

He said it would be "clumsy" and "lacking in care and attention" and pointed out that financial institutions depend on goodwill from the rest of society.

It has been reported that Goldman Sachs and other investment banks have been considering plans to delay bonus payments in the UK to take advantage of the cut in top rate tax which applies from April.

What Mervyn said:
"It's clearly not unlawful. I find it a bit depressing that people who earn so much seem to think that it's
even more exciting to adjust the timing of it to get the benefit of the lower tax rate, knowing this must have an impact on the rest of society, when even now it is the rest of society that is suffering most from the consequences of the financial crisis.

"I think it would be rather clumsy, lacking in care and attention to how other people might be. And in the long run, financial institutions, like all large institutions, do depend on good will and the rest of society. They can't just exist on their own."

Savings rates plummet

It's true: banks and building societies really have been cutting the rates they are prepared to offer to savers, as a result of the government's much-trumpeted Funding for Lending Scheme.

Funding for Lending is supposed to give a boost to lending to homebuyers and businesses, by channelling billions of pounds in cheap money to lenders.

But what that means is that the lenders, in other words banks and building societies, don't have to raise so much from people like you and me trying to build up savings.

Competition has been extinguished.

This has been acknowledged by a senior Bank of England figure, Andrew Bailey (the one who used to sign our banknotes) in evidence to MPs today.

He said "What the introduction of the Funding for Lending Scheme has already shown us is that competition for deposits has eased off quite a bit actually, and that has been reflected in a change in the rate paid on deposits."

He said rates had been going up before the summer as banks competed hard to win our custom, but since then they had eased off.

Of course plenty of you have seen this effect on our High Streets and on internet websites already, and Moneyfacts has highlighted it - here as well.

Benefit cap hits single parents

Highlights of who's affected by the 1% limit on benefit and tax credit increases in 2014-15 and 2015-16, culled from the DWP impact assessment.

Worst hit in cash terms are single parents, who lose £5 a week, or 1% of net income.

Poorest families are hit hardest, the bottom tenth seeing an average £4 a week loss, or 2% of income. It's because they rely more on benefits.

Average loss for the 30% of households who are affected by the cap on increases is £3 a week, or 1% of income.

Just be clear, these households will still receive cash increases in benefit or tax credit income. But the increases will fail to keep pace with price rises, which are expected to be 2.6% and 2.2% in the two years in question.

More pain for savers

Banks and building societies are withdrawing special bonus rates for savers, leaving them struggling to find a decent return for their money.

Savings accounts often come with a first year bonus of around 1%, to add to the normal interest rate, to attract new customers.

But the number of easy access accounts offering bonuses has fallen from 73 to 46 since August last year. The number of notice accounts with bonus rates has more than halved: only 11 remain.

The financial information firm, Moneyfacts, blames the government's new Funding for Lending scheme, which is channelling cheap money to banks to encourage them to lend.

There's already been a drop in the underlying rates of interest on offer to savers.

300,000 in dark on Child Benefit cuts

WHAT'S GONE WRONG?
The first thing to say is that the 300,000 who have had warning letters are still going to be paid their child benefit when the cuts kick in next week.

It's just that they may have to pay it back later, and fill in a tax return so it can be taken back through the tax system.

Here's the situation...

If one of you in the home earns £50,000 or more the tax office will start clawing back any child benefit being claimed. And if you earn over £60,000 they will take it all back.

Revenue and Customs estimate that 1.1m households will be affected.

But they've only written to 800,000 warning them, so 300,000 may not have heard, though the Revenue says they should have seen adverts.

WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE DO ABOUT IT?
If you know you're earning so much you'll never be able to keep your Child Benefit, you can simply opt out and save yourself the trouble of doing extra paperwork in future.

170,000 have done that already. You need to opt out by Sunday night to be sure that you've made a clean break and won't have to enter the benefit in a Self Assessment tax return.

If you're not sure - you can just carry on receiving Child Benefit but the high earner in the household will need to fill in a tax return, declaring the money.

Then it'll be clawed back during the following year, in most cases as part of the monthly tax deduction from wages.

There's plenty of time to fill in the form but there is a deadline. For this tax year, it has to be in by the end of January 2014 if you do it online.

You could be fined if the form doesn't arrive.