Money Video round-up: the personal finance news of the week
Personal Finance Editor Simon Read discusses Good Money Week; MPs' pension scam warning: money help for cancer patients: and a new low-cost energy tariff
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Your support makes all the difference.It’s Good Money Week, celebrating ethical investment
Some believe that you can’t afford to have a social or ethical conscience when it comes to money. Others say the real question is: how can you afford not to have a social or ethical conscience when dealing with finance? In fact making the right ethical decisions may well help improve your financial fortunes – and you won’t be alone: the clamour for a more positive approach to saving and investing is growing.
Research carried out by YouGov for Good Money Week shows that a record high number of people – around 55 per cent – now want their pensions or savings to have some beneficial impact beyond simply making money.
The top three ethical issues that concern people are corruption, tax avoidance and data privacy. In other words they want the companies they deal with to be honest, pay their fair share of tax and be secure. That’s no pipe dream. Many global giants – such as Amazon and Google – are facing consumer anger over their questionable approach to tax, while Volkswagen is the latest company to be caught cheating and will lose business.
Read more about saving a packet while saving the planet
Pensions could become the next mis-selling scandal, warn MPs
There’s another major financial mis-selling scandal looming, this time centred around the pension freedoms launched in April, an influential committee of MPs warned today.
“These reforms have been in operation for six months now: long enough for the scammers to get going, working on defrauding people out of their life savings,” said Frank Field, chair of the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee. He said the government must urgently provide data on how the reforms are working and close gaps that have already become apparent.
Cancer victims offered help with finances by Nationwide
Being diagnosed with cancer can end up being an expensive experience, as well as being a distressing one. It means additional costs – or loss of earnings – for victims that can add up to around £570 a month. This extra cost includes increased energy bills because patients need to be kept warm, changes in food and clothing requirements and being unable to work because of treatment.
So it’s good news that Nationwide Building Society has tied with charity Macmillan to launch a support service for people affected by cancer. It will give patients a range of aid with their finances, from helping them manage their current account to their mortgage payments.
Banks have been urged to follow Nationwide's lead
Deal of the week: GB Energy launches cheapest tariff
Independent supplier GB Energy has launched the cheapest energy deal on the market and the first to drop under £800 since 2011. Its variable duel fuel tariff is just £799 a year and has no exit fees. However, as the company doesn’t pay to appear on comparison sites, you’ll need to select the ’whole of market’ option to find it.
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