East Coast Financial Services

“To date, DWP has not acknowledged its failings nor put things right for those women affected. DWP has also failed to offer any apology or explanation for its failings and has indicated it will not compensate women affected by its failure.”

www.ombudsman.org.uk

UK’s ‘zombie’ firms will be wiped out by interest rates, says insolvency specialist

UK’s ‘zombie’ firms will be wiped out by interest rates, says insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor’s profits leap 50% as insolvencies in England and Wales hit a 24-year high

Sea haar heading in. Time for a chilled beer in the garden. Cheers 🍺

Hundreds of thousands of couples have been declining to claim Child Benefit in order to avoid the High Income Child Benefit charge, but in doing so have risked jeopardising their future state pension because of the loss of the NI credits which go with claiming Child Benefit for a child under 12.

Hundreds of thousands of parents to get state pension boost following Government announcement The Government has today announced a plan to address a longstanding issue which caused many mothers to fall short of a full state pension.

Interesting article on Women and the state pension

Women could be owed 'lottery-winning' pension sums Up to 5,000 women pensioners could be entitled to huge refunds under a little-known-rule, the BBC has learned.

The State Pension age goes up to age 66 today. Check your State Pension here.

Check your State Pension forecast Find out how much State Pension you could get (your forecast), when you could get it and how you could increase it

The new Winter Economic Plan

Rishi Sunak announces plan to top up wages of workers during Covid crisis Boris Johnson warns ‘things will be tough’ amid fears for jobs as chancellor confirms furlough will end on 31 October

New funding available for B&B owners

Bed and Breakfast Hardship Fund Find out about the coronavirus hardship relief available to Bed & Breakfast and other Small Serviced Accommodation businesses in Scotland

Update 1st June 2020.

The Chancellor has announced plans to extend the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) for those people whose trade continues to be, or is newly, adversely affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus). Eligible self-employed people will be able to claim a second and final SEISS grant in August; this will be a taxable grant worth 70% of their average monthly trading profits for three months, paid out in a single instalment and capped at £6,570 in total.

The eligibility criteria for the second grant will be the same as for the first grant. People do not need to have claimed the first grant to claim the second grant: for example, their business may have been adversely affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus) more recently.

Claims for the first SEISS grant, which opened on 13‌‌ May, must be made no later than 13‌‌ July. Eligible self-employed people must make a claim before that date to receive the first SEISS grant (a taxable grant of 80% of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months' worth of profits, and capped at £7,500 in total). So far, we’ve seen over 2.3 million claims worth £6.8 billion.

It's really important to note that as with the first SEISS grant, the eligible individual must make the claim themselves. The claims process is simple: HMRC will calculate the amount of self-employment support individuals will receive, they don’t need to do this yourselves.

More information about the second SEISS grant will be available on GOV.‌‌UK on 12‌‌ June.

Take care and stay safe 👍