Happy Easter!!!

It’s a quickie this week, folks! 🙂

First up – a scam alert. There’s a relatively convincing-looking scam doing the rounds this week, targeting parents of kids at private schools, where the email invites you to pay your fees early in return for a discount, here are the bank details, etc. As always, be super careful of any emails inviting you to make payments, particularly with time pressures added to take action quickly. Please be aware and share with any friends this might impact.

Secondly, we’re in a new tax year – Happy New Year to you all! Believe it or not, this is a hugely busy time for ISAs and pensions as the more organised bunnies invest at least some of their annual allowances as soon as possible. If your weekend plans are more money than bunny, check out our Best Buy tables for inspiration and the latest reviews.

Third, the Pension Is Risen Today! Well, nearly. Eggscitement for those of pension age as the increase in the full new State Pension to £10,600 a year kicks in from 10th April.

Not to be a party pooper, but not everyone is eligible for this. And many women in particular do not have the full 35 years of National Insurance (NI) contributions required to get this amount. If that’s you, then do read this article here, with helpful ideas on how to understand your situation and some options open to you.

You have 3 months left to go back to 2006 and effectively pay to top up any gaps. The general gist is that you pay a one-off sum of about £800 to buy one year’s worth of NI contributions – which will bag you an extra £275 every year you draw a State Pension.

Finally – and related – another tip for any family claiming child benefit. If one parent is not working, make sure that the non-working parent is claiming the benefit in their name. Quite often the working parent is also the one who deals with the money. So they claim the benefit in their name – and then the non-working parent doesn’t get the NI contributions. Leaving them with fewer eggs in their future State Pension.

Over and out for this week. Happy Easter everyone,

Holly

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