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The Bank of England boss hinted about where interest rates were heading and changed his mind, creating a gentle form of disarray. After all, Mark Carney has gone and done it all over again. Having gained the nickname for his attempts to hint about where interest rates are heading and then later changing his mind, he did precisely that in the run-up to today's decision.
Legal & General has launched a new critical illness upgrade option, available via intermediaries and advisors. Clients taking out CIx are provided with an offering which includes the same protection provided by Legal & General’s standard critical illness cover and supports 95 conditions in total. CIx comes as part of a continuing improvement and adds further choice to the CIC range, including the recently launched optional Children’s Critical Illness Extra, and GP24 virtual GP service. Nurse Support Services continues to be of potential benefit and will continue to be included for all critical illness customers.
The new tax year starts on Friday and with it comes a hotchpotch of changes to the tax rules which makes the system even more complicated. There are some winners and some losers. Investors face a raid on their dividends incomes, buy-to-let landlords face higher tax bills, homeowners will be able to pass more to their children without being hit by inheritance tax — and different income tax rates will apply in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK. Here, are your new tax bands and rules for 2018-19
A Conservative minister has suggested that the elderly should sell their homes to pay for care and houses should not be seen as "an asset to give to their offspring," sparking new fears of a "dementia tax." Social care minister Jackie Doyle-Price said: "The taxpayer shouldn’t be propping up people to keep their property and hand it on to their children when they’re generating massive care needs."
The latest predictions on when the Bank of England will up the base rate again. It was July 2007 when interest rates last rose – going from 5.5% to 5.75%. It happened less than 10 days after Tony Blair left office, while Steve McClaren was England manager, Fernando Torres was still waiting to make his Liverpool debut and Rihanna's Umbrella was Number One. But in the decade since then they've only headed one way – down. And that's not normal.
