Government

From energy bills to benefits, here's what the incoming Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised on the big issues affecting the pound in your pocket. It comes as Labour will form the next UK Government after the party won a majority in the House of Commons following the general election on 4 July. 

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has responded to calls from MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis to address high standing charges, fix broken smart meters and tackle the lack of competition in energy switching.

A new online service designed to simplify how you check and pay for voluntary national insurance (NI) contributions is now available. It should make the state pension boosting process quicker and easier for most people. But you WON'T be able to use this initial launch version of the tool if you're already getting your state pension or you're looking to fill gaps from when you were self-employed or working abroad.

An extra 200,000 homeowners on universal credit are now eligible for state help with their mortgage repayments as changes to the 'support for mortgage interest' scheme have kicked in today (3 April). It means you might be able to get help covering a portion of your monthly mortgage repayments if you're struggling. 

Typical household energy bills will remain at £2,500 a year for at least three months from 1 April as the Government has heeded our and others' calls to postpone a planned 20% rise. The announcement ahead of today's Budget follows a month-long campaign led by Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, which has been backed by 130 charities and consumer organisations. 

Energy companies have been called on to voluntarily stop the practice of forcibly moving customers to prepayment meters without taking every step to support households struggling to pay bills first. The message has been put forward in a letter to firms from business and energy secretary, Grant Shapps. It follows a reported surge in households being moved to prepayment meters over recent months.

Millions of struggling households will receive additional 'cost of living' payments in 2023 and 2024, with the rough payment dates now confirmed by the Government. Here's everything we know about these cost of living payments - and what to do if you've still not received your 2022 support.  

The Prime Minister today (19 October) said she was "completely committed" to the triple lock, meaning millions of people claiming the state pension could receive a 10.1% increase in payments from April. However, given the ongoing cost of living crisis and economic uncertainty the Government has yet to officially confirm whether this will be the case, or whether benefits will rise by the same amount. 

New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reversed a host of tax reforms and scaled back energy help previously announced in September's mini-budget in an effort to reassure markets and ease financial turmoil that has triggered a spike in mortgage rates. Here's what the shake-up means for you.

The energy price guarantee, which was introduced on 1 October to protect households from a hideous 80% increase in energy bills, will now only last until April 2023, rather than for the next two years as originally planned. Here's what we know so far, and how the shake-up could impact your future bills.