May 2, 2012 / Posted in  energy, gas, Money, News, power

The scale of debts owed to energy companies supplying households around the UK grew steeply over the course of 2011 and the situation is adding significantly to the financial concerns of many thousands of British families.

According to the price comparison service uSwitch.com, there are close to four million households around the country currently in debt to their energy supplier, with the average level of arrears at just over £140 in early 2012. On a collective scale across the UK energy debts are now believed to be worth in excess of £478million and rising.

The growing scale of the issue reflects the general financial struggles that virtually every family in the UK felt over the course of last year, as well as the significant and remarkable rises in the cost of paying for gas and ele...

February 20, 2012 / Posted in  Advice, Banking, Borrowing, energy, Finance, Loans, Student finance, student loans

Parents in the UK are likely to experience a significant squeeze on their own finances as their children face up to sizeable increases in their tuition fees over the course of the next few years.

Students and young people around the country were angered when the current coalition government announced its controversial decision to increase the cost of attending university but the full ramifications are still to be felt. Parents play a key role in the student finance process and their bank balances are likely to be hit increasingly hard in line with a rapid rise in tuition fees.

In fact, A recent report into the cost of raising children by the insurance company LV= suggests that the cost of helping their sons and daughters through university will soar after 2012.The extent to which parents fund their children’s studies varies from family to family but there is no doubt that the associated financial pressures will increase in years to come.

The study from LV= found that many parents are already cutting back on their own spending in order to give their children the kind of resources they need when it comes to student finances.

However, roughly one in five (21 percent) of the parents quizzed on the subject said that they no longer expect to see t...

December 16, 2011 / Posted in  Advice, bills, energy, Finance, gas, Money, power

It is no secret that the amounts of money being spent on heating and powering our homes and fuelling our cars on a monthly basis have been rising throughout the year but it is less clear what impact all this is having the UK’s household finances.

Recent research from the insurance group Aviva offers us some idea and provides further evidence of just how much average fuel bills and energy prices have been increasing. According to the study, the typical cost of an energy bill in the UK increased by 18...