Article by Christina
Certified Financial Planner – July news:
- Latest mortality figures show that life expectancy rates have fallen by 7 months since the pandemic. Life expectancy for men is now 86 and 89 for women.
- According to the Office for National Statistics 2.6 million people are currently unable to work as a result of sickness or injury. Of which over 500,000 would like to return to work as soon as they are better. That means over 2 million apparently do not want to return to work!
- The economy grew by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023.
- Over £4.6 billion was withdrawn from Bank and Building Society accounts in May. The highest figure since records began back in the 1980’s.
- Certified Financial Planners and other experts claim that inflation will be 50% lower by the end of the year, predicting a rate of 3-4%. Let’s wait and see.
- Despite the cost of lockdown crisis characterised by high interest rates and inflation, mortgage lenders have reported little impact on arrears rates. In fact, the numbers in arrears are below pre pandemic levels and less than half the rate of customers during the crash of 2008. So perhaps things aren’t as bad as they are being painted?
- National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has increased rates on its Guaranteed Growth and Guaranteed Income 1-year Bonds to 5.0%, up from 3.9%.
- According to the latest ONS survey, only 54% of people are happy with the NHS. I’m surprised it’s so high.
- Unemployment rose from 3.8% to 4.0%
- Inheritance Tax receipts reached an all-time in June with £795 million paid in one month.
- The Chancellor announced a number of measures in his Mansion House speech to improve the pensions market for savers. The main measure was to allow pension providers to invest up to 5% of their funds into unlisted UK companies. This would be a big change and the Chancellor believes that it could spark major growth in the private sector and boost pension returns. Certified Financial Planners are waiting for more details.
- A recent report has claimed that there are now 14 crypto billionaires worldwide. These are the people who run the various crypto companies, not the investors themselves of course!
- The latest FCA Financial Lives survey found that 49 million people were now using online banking. That’s 88% of the population. But importantly 6% or 3 million people still use cash only banking services.
- The latest survey from My Pension Expert showed that the average pension transfer now takes 28 days on average. With significant differences between providers. Clerical Medical for example, takes 18 days on average whereas Nest takes 60 days. As Certified Financial Planners working with transfers every day, we think these numbers might be too low.
- 60% of workers have now returned to work in the Office after the move to working from home during lockdown.
- 87% of people said they used Google to evaluate a local business in 2022 before visiting or calling and 81% use online reviews.
- 60% of under 40’s base their investment advice choices on social media posts according to FCA research.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.
