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60 second news round-up: the top money stories of the week

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
16/09/2016

Missed this week’s big money stories? Here’s our one-minute summary of the key facts and figures from the last seven days.

UK economy

It’s been a bumper week for UK economy statistics which seem to show that we’re not doing too bad post-Brexit: Unemployment in Britain fell between May and July, inflation remains static at 0.6% despite the weaker pound and August’s retail sales have also defied the expected negative impact. Interest rates were also held at their unprecedented 0.25% low, though there was some bad news as August was also the worst month for savings rates and overall, 2016 is set to be the worst year ever for annuity rates.

Tips from the experts

With the dawn of pension freedoms, people have been given much more choice in how to draw on and spend their retirement money. However, many are simply withdrawing their pension cash to put it into a bank so we’ve expert tips on why this isn’t good practice. Elsewhere, if you’re thinking about getting on the property ladder, we’ve got the low-down on how to write a winning property offer letter. If you’ve kids, it’s best to introduce financial education at home so we include a number of practical steps on how to teach your children about money.

Household bills

Dealing with death can be traumatic and stressful but new research shows the cost of a funeral is also on the rise as the average basic funeral now costs nearly £4,000. Many people are drawn to ‘cheap’ broadband deals but you could actually be overpaying by £100s and if you’re struggling with energy costs, the regulator plans to cap prepay meter installation costs to a maximum of £150 from the up to £900 cost suppliers pass on to indebted customers.