All news by author: Levi Winchester

Christmas Day (December 25) and Boxing Day (December 26) are both bank holidays, which means you'll be paid the previous working day if you're due a benefit payment

Pension Credit can be backdated by three months and the deadline to do this, and be entitled to the £299 cost of living payment, is by March 5, 2024

Ofgem has proposed a one-off rise of £16 between April 2024 and March 2025, the equivalent to around £1.33 a month, so energy firms can recover nearly £3billion in debts

Ofgem is now instructing energy companies to contact vulnerable customers if they miss two monthly or one quarterly payment payments

The base rate has now remained at 5.25% for the last three Bank of England meetings - we explain what it means for your mortgage, credit card and savings

Alice Guy, head of pensions and savings at Interactive Investor, has warned pensioners currently need £14,144 each year before tax - but the state pension will rise to £11,501 next April

The budget retailer says it has opened 87 stores in 70 days, from September 30 to December 9 - this includes 64 former Wilko stores, after it took on the leases of dozens of sites

Working parents of two-year-olds in England will be able to register for 15 hours a week free childcare from April 2024, with applications opening from January 2

The payment is worth £299 and will be sent to most eligible people between February 6 and February 22 next year, if you claim certain DWP or HMRC benefits

Aldi has reduced its Specially Selected Cairanne red wine from £8.99 to £3.49 until this Sunday (December 17) - but trying to find a bottle in stores may be tricky for shoppers

There are nine benefits which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is legally required to increase in line with inflation each April, but others should rise too

Most major telecom firms implement price rises that are linked to inflation - but regulator Ofcom has said this does not provide “sufficient certainty” for customers

To help you find the cheapest petrol and diesel, comparison website and app PetrolPrices has rounded up average prices across major fuel retailers including the supermarkets, BP and Esso

It affects anyone who has previously received a “migration notice“ with a deadline date to move to Universal Credit between today, December 11, 2023, and January 5, 2024

The benefit cap, which is a limit on the total amount households can claim, is not being raised next April - and at the same time, benefit payments are set to rise by 6.7%

Smile Direct Club is known for selling clear aligners, the moulds of which can be done at home rather than at the dentist, while appointments are also done online

The “flow temperature” of a combi boiler is often set between 70C and 80C - but experts say they still work efficiently at lower temperatures

"Use by" dates on yoghurt and fresh milk products are being changed to "best before" meaning shoppers will need to sniff the item to check if it is still ok to consume

Waitrose customers are being handed free “Snapper” toys by shop workers, in an act of kindness - with shoppers responding to the surprise treat on social media

Its Specially Selected Cairanne will be slashed in price from £8.99 to £3.49 between December 11 and December 17 - but shoppers will be limited to two bottles per person

Mini Jaffa Cakes are sadly no longer available to buy, with McVitie's having confirmed the news on social media earlier this year, much to the disappointment of fans

The cost of a TV licence will rise to £169.50 next April, in another cost of living blow for Brits - however, not everyone needs to pay for a TV licence

The class action claims EE, O2, Three and Vodafone overcharged existing customers on up to 28.2 million contracts - if successful, it could mean people are owed up to £1,823

Which? has seen an example of a Facebook page titled “Royal Postal Mail” which claims to be running a “clearance sale for three days only” of second class stamps

Jozef Domanski was just 14 years old when he was taken by the Nazis to work on farms in Germany in 1940 - he never went back to Poland, or saw his family in person again