UK debt advice charity warns that cost of living crisis and higher rents are pushing younger full-time workers into difficulties A rising number of people in full-time work, including those in jobs such as nursing, have been seeking advice on debt, amid warnings that a growing cohort of younger workers is struggling to make ends meet. Figures seen by the Observer suggest rising rents and the use of credit to cope with the cost of living crisis in recent years are driving more full-time workers to seek help ..read more

Alarm grows over possible pension cuts as research suggests Jeremy Hunt tax cut announcement was ‘blunder’ Labour is to wage a new campaign to win over Tory-supporting pensioners in an attempt to neutralise one of the government’s last remaining electoral strengths, amid evidence the Conservatives are now performing as badly among the age group as they did under Liz Truss’s leadership. With less than a fortnight to go until local elections in England, which some Tories fear could trigger an attempt to topple Rishi Sunak, the Observer understands that Keir Starmer’s top officials are reorientin ..read more

The prospect of home loan rates staying high for longer is not the tonic for lenders’ financial results it once was Mortgage borrowers who had been holding out for more affordable rates had their hopes dashed last week, as disappointing economic data raised the likelihood of borrowing costs staying higher for longer. A drop in the annual rate of inflation to 3.2% in March fell only just short of City expectations for a drop to 3.1%, but that was enough to prompt investors to trim their bets on an imminent cut to interest rates. Financial markets, which had until recently been pricing in a firs ..read more

Whether the deal auto-renewed without your knowledge or you forgot a free trial had ended, try asking for your money back How many subscription services are you signed up to? It may be more than you think. According to recent research from Citizens Advice, the amount consumers are spending on “accidental subscriptions” has risen sharply: it estimates unused subscriptions cost us £688m in the past year. The charity found that many of those affected said the subscription “auto-renewed” without their knowledge, or they signed up for a free trial but forgot to cancel later ..read more

Charges to go up by as much as 75% for widest vessels under five-year licence increases that started in April Finding an affordable place to live on land is hard enough. Now, those who call canals and rivers home face being priced out of the water after plans came into effect to start increasing licence fees by up to 75%. Houseboats have long been the reserve of those living alternative lifestyles, but in recent years young people and families have flocked to them as rents across the country, especially in London, have soared ..read more

Andy Leek, creator of Notes to Strangers, made the move after finding himself unable to afford rising rents in UK capital An artist who was made homeless after being evicted by his private landlord in London has started effectively commuting from Argentina where the rent is so much cheaper that it covers the cost of air fare. Andy Leek, 38, whose Notes to Strangers works are pasted on to walls and junction boxes across more than 20 British and European cities, has moved to Buenos Aires where the rents are several times cheaper and he travels back to the UK roughly every two months for work. Th ..read more

Rents are soaring, housebuilding is lagging and long-promised eviction reform has still not been enacted Artist cuts rent by commuting from Argentina Andy Leek’s escape to Argentina from Britain’s soaring rents is no doubt extreme. But the fact that this relatively successful artist feels he is better off paying transatlantic air fares than stumping up for ever-rising landlord demands is indicative of a crisis that only ever seems to get worse. Polls show 23% of voters now rank housing as the most important issue facing the country, up from 14% at the December 2019 general election. More peo ..read more

PM criticised for personal independence payment review amid ‘spiralling’ disability welfare bill Rishi Sunak is considering withdrawing a major cash disability benefit from some people with mental health conditions, prompting claims he has launched a “full-on assault on disabled people”. The prime minister announced fresh curbs on disability benefits on Friday, saying he wanted to explore whether some cash payments to claimants with mental health conditions could be replaced by treatment or access to services. Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, formerly known as sicknotes, away fro ..read more

The scandal, revealed by the Guardian, didn’t occur in a vacuum. The right’s casting of the poor as parasitic benefits cheats underpins it all The unpaid carer’s allowance in this country is £81.90 a week. It’s hard to see what serious thought went into arriving at that figure – any calculation of how much it costs to live on, for instance, or how much an unpaid carer is saving the government. Being without discernible curiosity about the lives of unpaid carers, or their contribution to society, it looks very much like a benefit handed down from on high; so at the very least, you’d expect the ..read more

Davina Ware applied for benefits to help look after husband Mike, 72, who has lived with Parkinson’s for 20 years The pain cuts through Davina Ware’s voice as she describes her experience of carer’s allowance, the meagre weekly benefit given to those heralded by the government as Britain’s “unsung heroes”. She feels “humiliated,” “devastated,” and “treated like a conniving thief” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) since she received its demand, three months before her retirement, to repay nearly £4,000 ..read more