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New. Top British Gas 1yr fix or EDF '£150' off Standing Charges tariff
 In the morning, Ofgem'll announce the 1 April Energy Price Cap... predicted to drop 7%ish. It's still pants though - ditch it if you can. Fixes undercut it by 14%, and if you fix now, unprecedentedly your fix's rate will drop in April too!
Martin: Tomorrow's news (I hope) explained tonight...

Tomorrow (Wed) morning, the new April Price Cap is announced and it will include the biggest change to energy bills for a few years. This is on the back of a policy announcement in the last Budget - and thankfully it means everyone's bills, both Price Capped or fixed will - all else remaining equal - be reduced. So I wanted to tool you up and tell you about the new top deals in advance...

• Underlying policy costs on ALL energy bills will be permanently cut from 1 April. For all households' energy bills (doesn't apply to N. Ireland), 75% of the cost of the 'Renewables Obligation' will be shifted off bills and instead paid by the State for the next three years. The government is also closing the 'Energy Company Obligation' scheme. Overall the govt says these savings are worth '£150 off a typical energy bill'. Yet that's a blunt phrase, in practice the cost of each unit of energy used reduces (so bigger users save more, lower users less) by...
  
  - ELECTRICITY: A reduction of 3.5p for each kWh used (very roughly a 13% cut)
  - GAS: A reduction of 0.33p for each kWh used (very roughly a 6% cut)
  
  Overall, once Standing Charges are factored in, this equates to a rough 8-9% reduction (use dependent) for all fixed tariffs. Of course, this doesn't mean prices will always be lower, as they move for many reasons, just that if everything else was unchanged they'd be reduced due to this. Related: Some standing charge costs are reducing too as about £40 worth is shifted to the unit rate.
  
  
• Analysts predict Ofgem's Price Cap will fall around 7% due to this. The Energy Price Cap (again not in N. Ireland), is set quarterly and dictates the max Standing Charge and unit rates firms are allowed to charge specifically on their standard tariffs - which, currently, nearly 2/3rd of homes are on. This is everyone on a bog-standard, not switched, or fix ended & did nowt, tariff. 
  
  Including the policy cost reduction, the range of predictions for April to June's Cap is a drop of between 6.7% and 7.1% (based on four analysts' views). Without this, we'd likely see a rise of up to 1% due to a slight increase in underlying wholesale rates and network costs during the assessment period. So while the govt says its policy move 'reduces typical bills by an estimated £150' a year, the reduction for those with typical bills will likely be just shy of that. Yet even after the Price Cap falls, it'll still be a Pants Cap and if you can ditch it, you should. 
  
  
  
  
  
• New. TOP FIXES: Save 14% fixing now and, unprecedentedly, your rate will still fall by typically 9% on 1 April. Today's cheapest 1yr fixes include a new exclusive we have with British Gas (for new & existing customers) which has relatively low Standing Charges and the open market top Outfox. Both are roughly 14% less than the current Cap (£240/yr on typical usage), including any MSE cashback. British Gas is dual or single fuel, pay by monthly Direct Debit or on receipt of a bill. Outfox is dual-fuel, monthly Direct Debit only. Neither require a smart meter. As your winner depends on location and usage, the comparison result will show your cheapest. 
  
  And crucially even if you fix now with both these, due to the policy cost cut, the rate you pay will drop by roughly 9% on 1 April (it depends on your usage as the cut comes off unit rates), so the 14%ish gap over the Cap rate should actually increase. And if the analysts' predictions in the graph above come true, it should remain similar for the rest of the year. This unprecedented reduction in existing fixes is something we pushed hard for, and I'm pleased to see it's now confirmed with 'almost' all firms. 'Almost', as some smaller firms weren't part of the ECO scheme that's been closed, so their bills won't reduce the full amount. See our firm-by-firm breakdown.
  
  
• New. Low standing charge 'tracker' tariff. The EDF Simply Tracker tariff matches the Price Cap unit rates (so when they move, it moves) but with lower Standing Charges for a year. From today, it's £100 lower (it was £50), plus via our link you get £50 dual-fuel EDF cashback + £20 MSE cashback (half both for elec only). So that's £170 under the Cap all in. Smart meters aren't required (unless you're on prepay), it's dual fuel or elec-only. Whether it works for you over the cheapest fixes depends on usage... On Direct Debit? Use roughly under £100/mth of energy in total and it beats top fixes in the first year when factoring in the cashback. On Smart Prepay? As there are no decent fixes, it's worth it for all but the highest users.
  
  
• Specialist tariffs can be winners too... There are plenty of specialist tariffs that can work out cheaper, including those for very low users, EV drivers, and solar panel owners, while sophisticated energy users can look at rapid-change time-of-use tariffs. I've been told the April policy change savings will be incorporated into these tariffs too, though I don't have official confirmation yet (I'll ask Ofgem on my show tonight), nor how it'll be incorporated into more complex tariff structures.
  
  
• I can't afford to pay my energy bills - what do I do? It's always worth first talking to your energy firm. There can be hardship & debt grants from suppliers. For far more guidance, see our full What to do if you're struggling to pay energy bills guide.

Are you married (or in a Civil Partnership)?
Check NOW if you're among 100,000s missing out on a £1,260 tax break (£1,000 of which may be paid into your bank account!)

The clock's ticking to claim the lucrative Marriage Tax Allowance as unless you do it soon, you miss the maximum back-dating and could lose out on £260 of it. This allowance is a piece of deliberate social engineering to encourage marriage (or Civil Partnership) through the tax system - it's not available to those who cohabit, even if you've lived together 20 years and have 40 children. So let's go through the fundamentals...

PS: If you are married or in a Civil Partnership, watch Martin's The financial benefits of marriage ITV show from two weeks ago, covering inheritance tax, savings, investments, wills, marriage allowance & more, or read his old 9 benefits of marriage blog.

• Are you eligible for the Marriage Tax Allowance (it can be backdated)? The FOUR key checks:
  1. You must be married or in a Civil Partnership. Just living together doesn't count.
  2. Both of you must've been born AFTER 5 April 1935. If not, there's the Married Couple's Allowance instead.
  3. One spouse needs to be a non-taxpayer in that tax year. For most, that currently means total income under £12,570/yr. What you do is irrelevant, so it doesn't matter if you volunteer, don't work, are retired, work part time, work full time or work seasonally. The only thing that counts is: do you earn enough in the year to pay income tax? Of course, the fiscal drag from freezing tax thresholds means fewer people are non-taxpayers, but this can be backdated if that's no longer you (more on that below).
  4. The other spouse must be a basic-rate (20%) taxpayer in that tax year. Eg, usually earning from £12,570 up to £50,270/yr (up to £43,662/yr in Scot). Higher 40% rate taxpayers can't do this, though if you're only a smidge above that threshold, increasing pension contributions or similar to reduce your salary could make you eligible.
• How the Marriage Tax Allowance works. The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570/yr, which means most people can earn up to that and pay no Income Tax. With the Marriage Tax Allowance, the non-taxpayer can apply to move 10% of this (it must be all 10%) to their taxpaying spouse.
  
  So then the taxpayer has an extra £1,260/yr they can earn tax-free, which they would've paid 20% tax on (saving £252/yr in tax). Watch Martin's marriage tax video briefing to help understand it (it was recorded at a time when backdating applications were closed, but the main explainer is still correct).
  
• You can backdate claims up to 4 tax years - so currently back to 2021/22 - but go quick! As long as you were eligible you can backdate claims (even if your spouse has now passed away). Currently you can go back to the 2021/22 tax year. Yet as a new tax year starts on 6 April, you'll then lose the ability to go back to that year (worth £252), so speed is of the essence, especially as the application process can be slow. The current year's gain is paid by altering your tax code, past years are paid straight into your bank account via BACS or cheque. 
  
  As Lynne emailed us: "A big thank you to Martin for covering this topic. I stopped working 3 years ago and my little pensions (I'm not yet 67) were about half of my tax-free allowance. I requested the spare allowance be transferred to my hubby and we just received a cheque for £1,026. Thank you so much." 
  
  
• How you claim Marriage Tax Allowance. It's crucial to remember it is the non-taxpayer who shifts their allowance to the taxpayer, so it is the non-taxpayer who must claim. How you claim depends on whether you're just doing a current year claim or backdating. So see our step-by-step Marriage Tax Allowance claiming made easy. Once you've claimed, it's then automatic year after year, so you needn't do it again.
  
  
• Martin: 'Is the Marriage Tax Allowance always a winner (Spoiler: mostly...)?' Before I explain it, a very simple rule: As long as the basic rate taxpayer earns over £13,830/yr from work, this is always a winner in combination, even if the non-taxpayer has to pay a little tax. Now to explain the ifs and buts... 
  
  As the non-taxpayer must pass over the FULL 10% of their allowance, on standard tax rates that means if they earn over £11,310/yr (10% less than the normal allowance), they will then pay some tax on the amount above that. Yet as long as their spouse earns over £13,830/yr they will save 20% tax on the full amount they've been given, so the amount they gain outweighs what the non-taxpayer now pays in tax.
  
  But in the edge case that the 20% taxpayer earns less than that, the question then is: Is the non-taxpayer paying tax on a bigger amount due to marriage tax than the taxpayer is saving due to their increased allowance? Check using our Marriage Tax Allowance calculator.
  
  PS: Some people also find that when they apply, HMRC looks at other tax issues too, so it crystallises those. That's not a reason not to apply, as that would've happened at some point anyway.