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| DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads |
| Benefits up by 6.7%. Are you missing out on a share of up to £19 BILLION from 21 million unclaimed benefits? Benefits were increased by 6.7% last week (some relating to pensions by 8.5%), impacting the incomes of millions of people, including many who are in work. The increase also means some, at the edges of thresholds, will be eligible who weren't before (as you can now earn a higher amount before you lose benefits). As it's estimated millions are missing out on what they're entitled to, it's worth checking.
ATTENDANCE ALLOWANCE - 1.1 MILLION pensioners miss out on at least £3,778 a year. This is a non-means-tested benefit giving a fixed payout of either £3,778/yr or £5,644/yr to cover some of the costs of providing help for those who need it. Who's likely missing out? Those who've needed help over six months, day or night, with daily living (such as washing and eating) or supervision (someone to watch you if you're a danger to yourself or others). It's common for those with Parkinson's, dementia, terminal illness, blindness, learning difficulties and more. See our full Attendance Allowance help guide, which has had many successes including this one from Patricia: "Dear Martin, thank you for telling us about the Attendance Allowance. My husband has inoperable cancer, which has spread. I help him with medications and with daily tasks. I sent off all the letters three weeks ago, yesterday we received three weeks' higher rate [£5,644/yr] into our bank account. I rang the DWP helpline to see if it was an error, but they said it's correct as he has terminal cancer. The extra £100 a week makes a huge difference to make life easier for him!" COUNCIL TAX SUPPORT (not N Ireland) - up to 3 MILLION miss out on £1,000+ a year. Every council runs its own scheme, so what you get depends on where you live, but it can cut your council tax bill by up to 100%. Who's likely missing out? If you qualify for means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or Pension Credit, you're often due this, but it's not automatic, YOU MUST APPLY, which is why so many miss out. See our Council tax discounts guide. CARER'S ALLOWANCE - 500,000 carers miss out on up to £4,000 a year. This is a specific payment for some who act as unpaid carers - whether for a family member, spouse, child, or even someone you're not related to. Who's likely missing out? You must care for someone who usually gets Attendance Allowance, or some on personal independence payment or disability living allowance; spend 35+ hours a week helping with everyday tasks such as washing or cooking; and earn under £151/wk or have a low state pension. Check using our Benefits Calc. PS: If you care for someone for less than 35hrs a week, you may be entitled to carer's credit, which helps build National Insurance years for your state pension (it's back-claimable too, so click the link to read more). PENSION CREDIT - 850,000 pensioner households miss out on £3,900 a year. Pension Credit tops up your income. On average it's worth £3,900/yr, but claim even if you're only due 50p, as its SUPERPOWER is to qualify you for extra benefits such as council tax reduction and free TV licences. Who's likely missing out? Tough to say, but it's worth a check if you're of state pension age and have a weekly income below £235 (£350 if you're a couple, both of state pension age). See Martin's one thing all pensioners should know blog. HOUSING BENEFIT - 250,000 pensioners miss out on an average £5,000 a year rent help. For eligible under-66s, support for housing costs is part of Universal Credit, but not for those of state pension age. Who's likely missing out? Renters eligible for Pension Credit, for instance, on a relatively low income. When you apply for Pension Credit, you can usually apply for Housing Benefit at the same time. If you already get Pension Credit, apply with your council. FREE SCHOOL MEALS - 250,000 families miss out on £650 a year worth. A cooked meal served to eligible under-18s during the school day. Who's likely missing out? Many new Universal Credit (UC) claimants with very low, or no, income (who don't realise you can only apply once you've had your first UC payment), and others who don't know they must re-register at the start of every year for each child. See Free school meals for more info and how to apply. WATER SOCIAL TARIFFS - 5.7 MILLION households miss out on £160 a year. Every water company (in Eng & Wales) has a social tariff scheme for those on low incomes (each with its own definition). Who's likely missing out? Fewer than 2 in 10 who are eligible get help, with nearly £1 billion in unclaimed support. Read water social tariffs for firm-by-firm info. BROADBAND SOCIAL TARIFFS - 5.3 MILLION households miss out on a £20+ a month discount. Social tariffs are discounted broadband deals offered by some firms to people on Universal Credit, Pension Credit and sometimes other means-tested benefits. Who's likely missing out? Only 3% of those eligible have signed up, so if you're on Universal Credit especially, check it out. Our broadband comparison shows them alongside the cheapest mainstream deals - just tick the 'social tariffs' box (if your current firm doesn't offer one, you can move firm, providing you're out of contract). |
| Ends Mon. The last FREE (£175) cash bank switch available is ending. A few weeks ago, five banks were paying for your custom, now just one's left and its offer ends on Monday. Top customer service bank First Direct* pays new switchers a free £175, gives many a £250 interest-free overdraft, and you get access to a linked 7% regular saver. Full eligibility criteria in Best bank accounts. We hope more switch offers will launch in the coming weeks, but can't be sure. £55 beauty box with £400ish of Elizabeth Arden, Rodial, Supergoop and more products. MSE Blagged. It's from Red magazine, normally costs £75, but we've blagged £20 off. Plus you get a digital subscription. Beauty box It's coupon time... 'free' £2.50 vegan burgers, £1.75 off chicken dippers & more. New supermarket coupons. Car finance: reclaim £1,000s. Free complaints tool - DO IT NOW. The clock is ticking, if you haven't checked out Martin's free car finance mis-selling guide & tool, do it now. It's for anyone who got a car, van, motorbike or camper van on PCP or HP between April 2007 and 28 January 2021. You could be due £1,000s back if you had a discretionary commission arrangement, and the sooner you do it, the less chance you have of being timed out. Can you find an 80% off Boots bargain? In store & online. It's not easy, but there's the odd Boots spring clearance gem out there. New cheap 1yr energy fix 8% less than the Price Cap. Outfox the Market's launched the cheapest standalone fix for many. To see how it stacks up, do a personalised Cheap Energy Club comparison or read more in our Should I fix? guide. Ends Tue (23 Apr). £20 cashback on the LONGEST 0% for purchases card. If you need to borrow, until next Tue the longest 0% deal, Barclaycard's 'up to' 21mths 0%, pays £20 cashback to newbies who put £250+ spending on it within 90 days of opening their account. Golden rules: 1) Never borrow willy-nilly, only do it for planned, budgeted-for, one-off purchases. 2) Always pay at least the min monthly payment or you can lose the 0%. 3) Never withdraw cash. 4) Clear the debt before the 0% ends or it jumps to a horrid 24.9% rep APR. Full help in 0% spending cards. |
| 'I saved £35,000 & will clear my mortgage 10 YEARS early' The days of 1% mortgages have passed. This year alone, 1.5m will see their cheap fixes mature, joining millions of others on higher rates. At the same time, years of low-cost mortgages, plus low pandemic expenditure, mean over £100bn of extra savings have been built up. No surprise then that 'should I save or overpay my mortgage?' is a question I'm asked all the time. So assuming you don't have other, more expensive debt (if so, see should I overpay cards & loans?), here are my need-to-knows... 1. If your mortgage rate is higher than you can earn in savings, overpaying adds up. Let me oversimplify a little... £10,000 saved at 4% earns £400 interest (£320 if basic-rate tax is taken off), yet use it to overpay a 6% mortgage and it saves you £600 interest (try our Mortgage Overpay Calc). So using the savings to overpay is a winner - it's a bit like saving, tax-free, at the mortgage rate. Done right, it can be very lucrative, as this success of the week from Paul shows...
3. If it does add up... TWO KEY CHECKS before you do it. It's not solely about the financial mathematics... Are there overpayment penalties? Many lenders let you annually overpay 10% of your mortgage balance penalty-free. Above that there are often penalties, which wipe out any gain, so do check.Always keep a cash emergency fund. The fact you've overpaid your mortgage doesn't automatically mean if circumstances change and you suddenly can't repay, the lender will say 'oh, no probs' - you'd still be in arrears. So my rule of thumb is always have money to cover 3 to 6 months' bills accessible in savings, and only overpay with any money above that (unless it's a specific offset mortgage). 4. And in some cases where the maths doesn't add up, it may still pay to overpay. If you can save at higher than your mortgage rate, use our Mortgage Overpay vs Savings Calc to see the pound-for-pound difference. If savings are substantially better... SAVE. Yet if they're only trivially better, two things to consider... If you borrow over 60% loan to value (LTV, the amount of your home's current value you're borrowing), reducing your mortgage debt may lower the rate of future mortgage deals - see LTV thresholds which improve mortgage rates.This is a long game. Savings may have improved, but savings rates tend to drop faster and further than mortgage rates, so less mortgage debt could be erring on the safe side. 5. When you overpay, do it the right way - put it towards reducing the term. Overpay and a few firms just reduce your future repayments, and keep you paying over the same period. That may help your cash flow later, but it's not where the big saving comes. The real reduction is from shortening the term so there's an interest gain. So when you overpay, ask it to reduce the capital owed and the mortgage term (also see my old decrease term or overpay? blog). 6. Still on a very cheap mortgage rate? Save the right way. If your mortgage rate is still low, then you'll likely be better off in top savings. Yet save now, so the money is accessible when the deal/fix ends, so it can then be used to reduce the borrowing if needed. You could use fixed savings that mature just before you need the cash. PS: I've focused on overpaying vs saving. There is of course also overpaying vs investing, yet that's impossible to give any definites on as it's comparing a certain outcome with an uncertain one (& investing's outside my wheelhouse). |
| This Sat ONLY. £3 IMAX Oppenheimer, Super Mario Bros & more. At 26 Cineworld locations - normally costs up to £23. Not the latest films, but a rock-bottom price if you want to see 'em on the big screen. See this and more cinema savers. Till 30 Apr, 20 to 25yr olds can join students in getting Santander's FREE 4-year railcard worth £100. The Santander student bank account* bank account has long offered a free 4-year railcard. It's open to current 1st-year students, switchers with at least 2yrs left to study & new level 4 to 7 apprentices. Yet now non-students aged 20 to 25 can apply to get the railcard too by opening either: a) the Edge account*, which costs £3/mth but pays 1% cashback (max £20/mth) on bills and supermarket, fuel & travel spending. b) the Everyday account, it's fee-free but there's no cashback. To get the railcard, you need to deposit £500+ & set up mobile/web banking. Full eligibility / info in Best bank accounts. Are you a mental health professional? Martin wanted to do a quick plug for this toolkit from the Money and Pensions Service, which can help you talk to your clients about their finances, as the link between mental health issues and money problems is so strong. It was developed with help from his charity Money & Mental Health Policy Institute. The Sun '£9.50' holidays are back... but are they ever really £9.50? Our analysis suggests otherwise, though decent savings are still possible. For hols from now to Nov 2024. The Sun holidays Achoo! 180 hay fever tablets for £5.95. It's gettin' in to sneezin' season, so see our Cheap hay fever meds. Chase customer? Check if you can get a boosted 5.1% easy-access saver. It'd top our tables if everyone could get it. See if you qualify in Chase savings boost. |
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| AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
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| CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK Your chance to ask MPs how they make decisions about how your taxes are spent. Ever wondered what data and evidence is used to develop Government policy? If you have a question on this - it can be about energy, childcare, housing, the environment or anything else you care about - or want to raise an issue about how policymakers use evidence, submit it by Fri 31 May via this online form. You could be picked to raise it directly to MPs and their advisers in June as part of Evidence Week in Parliament (or have it asked on your behalf). |
| THIS WEEK'S POLL How do you buy your clothes? With the rise of online marketplace Vinted, eBay's announcement it has scrapped selling fees on clothes and high-street clothing chain Ted Baker's financial woes, this week we want to know where and how you buy your clothes - whether new or preowned, and whether online or on the high street. Vote in this week's poll. One in five spend between 30% and 50% of their income on mortgage or rent. Last week, we asked what proportion of your income you spend on mortgage payments or rent. Nearly 12,000 of you responded, and of those who do pay a mortgage or rent, almost three-quarters (73%) spend 30% or less of their income. Meanwhile, one in five (21%) are spending a relatively high 30% to 50%. Private renters were more likely to be spending a greater proportion of their income keeping a roof over their heads than those with a mortgage. See the full poll results. |
| MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I tell the previous owner of my home he's due a council tax refund? I recently bought a house, and during the sale process the previous owner made various promises he didn't keep, leaving me around £2,000 out of pocket. After moving in, I followed Martin's guide on challenging your council tax band, and was successful, so I'll save £550 a year. This means the previous owner's likely owed around £8,000 as he'd been paying the wrong rate for years. While it'll be his with one phone call, he probably won't know about it unless I tell him. I've no goodwill towards him because of the broken promises... should I let him know anyway? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I tell the previous owner of my home he's due a council tax refund? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs |
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| MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (TUE 16 APR ONWARDS) Wed 17 Apr - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm |
| FISH, FROGS AND FEATHERS - WHAT STRANGE THINGS HAVE YOU SEEN VIEWING HOMES? That's all for this week, but before we go... when one MSE Forumite was rushed around a flat viewing and kept out of certain rooms, we asked on Facebook what strange experiences you'd had when viewing a property. We heard plenty of bizarre bathroom stories, including a shower you had to kneel in, the homeowner using the toilet with the door open, a frog down the loo, a bedroom cupboard with a shower in it and a bath tub in the kitchen. Away from the bathroom, one poster didn't think a home with four fish tanks built into the walls was particularly fin-tastic, and someone else was left saying 'oh my cod' when they viewed a studio flat that could only be accessed through a chippie. One person's feathers were ruffled when they saw shelf after shelf of dead, stuffed birds, yet we like another's Narnia-esque tale of the bedroom wardrobe you can climb through... to get to another bedroom. Read all MoneySavers' strange sights, and add your own, in our Facebook conversation. We hope you save some money, |
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