Month: September 2016

  • Personal financial planning – what you need to know

    No one should be without a financial plan. Read our guide to get started. Achieving your financial goals is made harder when you don’t have a plan laid out on paper. Without a timescale, a sense of priority and an idea of how you will use your money in the future, how can you be…

  • National insurance planning

    An overview of the types of national insurance and advice on how to make sure you don’t pay too much. Since its introduction in 1911, national insurance (NI) has changed from a form of protection against ill-health and unemployment to include a wider range of benefits. Today it helps people build entitlement to the state…

  • IHT receipts increase year on year

    Inheritance tax (IHT) receipts totalled £4.7 billion in 2015/16, a 22% increase on the previous year. Without taking inflation into account, this is the highest receipts have been since the IHT system was introduced in 1986.

  • Hourly minimum wage 1st October 2016

    New hourly national minimum wage (NMW) rates come into effect on 1 October 2016. Employers are already legally required to pay eligible workers who are 25 or over the national living wage (NLW) of £7.20 an hour.

  • Property wealth exceeds savings and pensions

    69% of over-45 homeowners say that their home is worth more than their pensions, savings and investments combined, research by Aviva has found.

  • Apprenticeship training costs

    Employers with 50 employees or fewer will have up to 100% of their apprenticeship training costs funded by the government. The government has announced more details about its apprenticeship programme and the funding that will be available to businesses that take on apprentices. The proposals relate to the reform of apprentice funding in May 2017.