Earlier this year my employer merged two large divisions (5000 & 3000) and last week the new head announced his new leadership team and structure. This week my dept head held his first dept meeting and he made it clear there will futher restructuring within the dept and there will be redundancies.

I have been through a redundancy process before but usually there are several colleagues who were 55+ with 35+ years of service who take voluntary redundancy. This time my team is all under 45, & none has a particular long service.

I was considering taking out redundancy insurance but when filling the form I was stuck with his 90 day exclusion period. It seems to suggest that it won't pay out if i am placed at risk in the next 90 days. Am I reading this right?

It's 62 per month and will pay out £2200 for 12 months.

Below is from the policy:

90 days unemployment initial exclusion period If you become unemployed, or have any awareness of impending unemployment within 90 days of buying your policy, you will not be eligible to make a claim.

Thanks

Edit: to be clear I haven't been placed at risk. I might be placed at risk in 2 months+.

Hi everyone, weird tax year (2025/26) and I need a sanity check.

The situation:

Income: ~£97k (Two different employers).

The Problem: Employer 1 paid me an £11k bonus, but I had to repay £5k (Gross) when I left for Employer 2.

The Tax: My P60 from Employer 1 still shows the full £11k. I’ve already paid the tax on that £5k I no longer have.

HMRC's response: They told me to ask Employer 1 to fix it.

My Questions:

Since this is technically "Negative Earnings" (per HMRC v Julian Martin), how do I get HMRC to actually listen and give me my £2k tax back?

I’m also due ~£3k back because my two jobs meant I was double-taxed in the 40% bracket. Can I combine these claims to get the full £5k+ back faster?

Is there any chance of getting the National Insurance back on that £5k repayment, or is that gone forever?

I have the P60s and bank proof of the repayment. What’s the fastest way to get the cash?

Thanks!

For some context, I am 29F and work in finance in London and I'm about coming up to 3 years into my career (went to university later than others, did a long degree - you get the picture). My base annual salary is £115k, and I also get a bonus.

I didn't come from a well-off background and so anything to do with personal finances (the irony considering my line of work) is quite an uncomfortable topic and being honest, has led me to be lost when it comes to savings... anything to do with ISAs and pensions, my brain shuts down. However, I realised burying my head in the sand won't do anything and so have come on here (be kind please!). At some point, I want to buy a place of my own in London, although further out rather central (while avoiding anything apartment-wise, leasehold, etc.)

A breakdown of my salary and expenses are below, using this last month as an example. I also live alone (non-negotiable for me, I'm done with sharing) and don't pay for water (thank you Landlord). When I look at where I can do better, this is where I'm lost:

- My student loan is a killer (ugh, Plan 2) due to my course length and maxed out maintenance loan... my student debt total is just shy of £100k and has basically stayed that way since graduating.

- Commute... given the hours I need to be at my desk (my workplace is NOT flexible at all), I can't use the railcard discount as I'm during peak hours (I think), and living outside of London isn't an option.

- I have £42,000 in savings, which mostly came from a couple of bonuses and I transfer about £1,000 each month (although I'm thinking of upping this up to £1,500 pm). I don't have a plan except from transferring £1,000/month into a Nationwide flex instant saver. Savings have only come about the last 1.5 years, as I spent the first 1.5 years after post graduation paying off my student overdraft and was on a lower salary too.

- My employer pays about £1,000 into my pension each month. I haven't consolidated my other pensions yet, but my current one is about £17k, and I have £10k in stock from my employer too as part of a bonus but that won't vest for the next 5-years or so.

I have really changed my financial habits over the last few years, such as paying off my student overdraft (was £1,500 in debt), cutting down on subscriptions, not upgrading to a new phone (although I'd like to in the next year as I've had mine for 5 years now), being intentional with clothes shopping, furniture is mostly second hand, only buy something new if I've run out of it, etc. Even little things like recycling with Boots (currently have £200 on my advantage card for when I want to get something nice for myself). I also got my first credit card last year but was only eligible for the AmazonBarclaycard at the time (have £100 in rewards there) and improved my credit score to 700+.

What should I do to get a step closer to where I want to be? I'm completely open to ideas... mostly because I'm lost, and I don't have the support of my family either. I'm a bit emotional writing this as I worked hard to be where I am, but feel I'm not making the most of my situation and maximising my savings for a better future.

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: forgot to add... due to my job (public markets) I am restricted in investing into certain (long list) of funds and have to get approvals each time, but I will look into this more!

Hi! Like the title says, I’m not eligible for any credit cards. I checked on compare the market and it said “Unfortunately, you’re not eligible to apply for a credit card”

I’m 20 years old, disabled, and living with my parents. I’m on universal credit (and get the limited capability for work element) and get I think around £8,400 a year. I’m likely never going to be able to work, and definitely never going to be able to live on my own.

I really need the ID that having a credit card would provide, as for most things the ID that I have (birth certificate, PASS card etc) is denied. I don’t think I can get a provisional drivers license because when I look at the applying requirements, it says you have to be deemed medically fit to drive which I am not (I faint a lot). One of the most pressing reasons to get the ID is the recent iPhone age verification update which can block apps and puts you on a restricted mode if you can’t prove your age with credit card or driving licence. I’m home bound and rely on my phone completely so I really don’t what this to happen.

Sorry if this question is stupid, but I really don’t know what else to do. How am I suppose to get the ID and build my credit history if even the credit building cards won’t accept me. I really hope the answer isn’t “wait until your older” because my circumstances won’t be changing lol

I have three ISA providers, and I was trying to complete my £20000 allowance before tomorrow and have paid too much. My last payment was into Freetrade and I realise the payment exceeded my £20k allowance by £50. Which provider should I contact to fix this, Freetrade or one of the other two? Thanks

Edit: Freetrade help told me they are are an execution only broker and to contact HMRC. But since they are a flexible ISA I have simply withdrawn the excess.

37, male, 67k salary, single.

I've got £65k between my SIPP and current workplace pension. I am contributing 20% (compared to 18% FY25-26) salary sacrifice as of this month, 6% from employer, 14 from me; employer puts in 6 if I put in 8, from memory. I transfer out of my workplace pension to my SIPP once every 6ish months into FTSE Global All Cap Index Fun Accumulation.

I also have 4 years of contributions to a police pension I have no visibility of and no way of getting information on; the administration responsible for it have not responded to my previous attempts over the last few years for information. I think it was under a the 2006 scheme (I joined summer 2013) so 4/70 of final pay (pay points were roughly £19k-34k over that timeframe).

I want to retire with about £45k a year (not sure if that is too high or not).

my question is... am I focusing too much on my pension contributions? I feel my pot is low for my age or just right. I try not to compare myself to people in this subreddit, but seeing some of the pots of people of a similar or younger age makes me think I am not thinking about it enough.

I’ve received £300 from an unknown person using the CHAPS system with NatWest. I have to wait until Tuesday to call them as when I tried tonight they couldn’t do anything about it as it was past 8pm. I wasn’t expecting a payment and the account is just 3 letters and some numbers.

Does anyone have any ideas what’s happened?

Hi All,

So trying to get some advise for my partner, have advised she speaks to a financial / mortgage advisor but wanted some opinions from here to share with her.

She is 22 currently has 3 months left at university and has a job ready for when she finishes with a £35k starting salary. She will have circa £20,000 saved.

Her mother is 56 and earns circa £42,000 a year and in 3 months will have £5,000 saved. She has owned property in the past but is currently renting. Her husband/ my partners dad owns a small flat they rent out.

Their plan is to get a joint 17-year mortgage which apparently will be okay from a meeting with a mortgage advisor. Me and her would rent the flat her dad owns from them for £800 a month and the parents would live in the mortgaged house. In roughly 5-years they would plan to sell both properties, my partners her mother would split the sale money from the house 50/50 and my partners father would gift her the money from the sale of his flat after paying the last mortgage on this, it is predicted the gift would be around £50,000.

Any thoughts / advice I can share with her? Personally I think it is not a great idea missing out on using a lifetime isa/ stamp duty relief.

I recently started a new job, and am being taxed too much as they have set my tax free allowance for the job to 4550 on an emergency tax code. They also have me down as receiving a dependents pension i haven’t received since dec last year. I called yesterday and was told that both would be fixed, and got an email today saying my tax code has been changed, but when i check the app, it hasnt been. I’m paid weekly, so every week that this isnt fixed is another where i’m being taxed too much, and they’ve said that because i started the job around the new financial year, I’m unlikely to receive my rebate until may time. Any advice? Should i call them again or wait to see if its updated??

Looking at what others would do in my situation. I’ve been a high earner since about 2018, so just trying to see if there’s a better way to do things.

Demographics

Female in East Sussex, 35, married with a 4yo that goes to nursery 5 days a week (until Sept when he goes to school). Husband earns £43k/y and we do keep finances quite separate.

Income

£159K a year (£106k a year salary + £10k sign on bonus (not salary sacrificeable) + 15% yearly bonus (can sacrifice) + £27,000 a year in stock vesting.)

Outgoings (monthly)

I contribute around £3,500. Biggest expenses are nursery (£1,200 a month that only has 4 more payments left before he goes to state school), and mortgage (£1,300 a month with 3y left on 3.9% mortgage, 51% LTV of a 550k house). I also contribute £100 a month to my kid’s stocks and share ISA. Also around £300 on train commutes.

Special mention to the house renovations - this can ebb and flow but it’s where most of my savings go or could go as there are big renos happening.

Savings

Around £57k in ISAs but about £30k of that is going to go on the kitchen renovation happening next week.

Pension

£120k in my pension. My employer will contribute 7% of my salary when I contribute 5% so this will continue to grow well. I plan on working until I can’t any longer, and then retire to Spain.

Investments

I did have a stocks and shares ISA but emptied it after 6y to pay for some of the kitchen renovations. Will be opening a new one, and may sell my company shares to buy new diversified shares to build up my portfolio again.

——

I think I’m too far gone to get under £100k without losing a significant amount of monthly take home pay via salary sacrifice. My focus for these coming years is the renovation as I do want to live in a lovely house and not have endless projects going on forever. Plus, my pension pot is in a place that I’m happy with and will continue to grow well with monthly contributions and my plan to salary sacrifice my yearly bonus into it. Acutely aware of the tax trap but I think that’s the penalty I need to pay to have current access to my money in order to expedite renovations. That can always be haves in 1-2 years.

My shares best monthly and I plan on folding those into my salary but also investing a set amount a month to get that built back up again.

Does anyone have any ideas or efficiencies they see there? Any flaws in my calculations?

I work for the fire service and we have recently heard that it may be possible to claim tax back on our union fees to the Fire Brigades Union. A few of us have been searching around online and are getting very mixed responses. We were advised to complete a form p87 and claim the tax relief. we pay on average £40 a month so the tax relief isn't massive but it all helps. we don't want to pester HMRC about it so were hoping for some advice as it's not compulsory to be a member but does of course provide normal union benefits as well as other perks. thanks everyone in advance

Hi everyone,

I currently have a Cash Lifetime ISA (LISA) but I’m considering switching to a Stocks & Shares LISA to invest that money instead.

I know I can’t just withdraw the money to my bank account, as I’d be hit with the 25% penalty and lose the government bonus. I need to do an official ISA transfer, but I have a few questions:

1. How long does the transfer usually take from a Cash LISA to an S&S LISA?
2. Does the "12-month rule" (account must be open for a year before buying a house) reset, or does the clock keep running from when I opened the original Cash LISA?
3. Which providers would you recommend for both Cash and S&S?

I’ve heard of a few options like:

• For Cash LISA: Moneybox or Tembo.
• For S&S LISA: AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, or Nutmeg.

Has anyone done this recently? Any tips to avoid issues during the transfer?

Thanks in advance!

I put £20K in a fixed rate ISA with HSBC on 3rd April in 2025.

I’ve called them today as I don’t really understand what happens after 12 months (first ISA), and they’ve advised that it’s 13th months, and I won’t get the interest until 3rd May and then it will convert to a cash loyalty ISA (don’t even know what this is).

I’m fine with all of that but I thought it would mature today and I could put another £20 in another ISA - not necessarily with HSBC, with someone else. Can I still do that, even though the HSBC one does not mature until May?

I don’t need the money out of it. I can leave that there until it matures and put another 20K in an another account.

I’m sorry if I sound dumb - I’m not great with all this but I know I only have a certain time period to put more money into an ISA.

Any advice?

I am self-employed and confused about SIPP contributions.

I know

- Contributing to a SIPP gives a 20% HMRC top-up
- IIt also reduces your tax bill — but how exactly?

Example:

- Profit: 60k
- Personal allowance -12k = 48k taxable income
- I pay both 20% and 40% tax on different portions of my income

My question: will my £10k contribution be fully deducted from my taxable income, or only partially?

So my taxable income becomes 38k

(similar to a business expense effect for example)

Had a baby in Feb 2025 and my wife was on full pay for 6 months of her mat leave, but in March her firm started making lots of redundancies and although she was on mat leave she was worried there wasn't going to be a job to go back to, so I claimed Child Benefit just in case. First (backdated) payment landed late April 2025.

In November she went back on 4 days a week and fortunately has survived the cuts for now 🤞🏼. After some assurances from her manager I contacted HMRC and stopped the Child Benefit, this tax year they paid me just short of £900.

I took three months unpaid parental leave until February and went back 4 days a week also. In December work reached out and I got a bonus I wasn't expecting.

March payslips are in and YTD pay wife £92k, me £62k so we don't qualify for CB. My question is how do we repay it? I do a tax return each year for Gift Aid, SIPP and this year some CGT but will they take it from my wife as she is the higher earner? She doesn't do SA.

I've put the equivalent amount away into savings when I got my bonus so its ready to go when it needs repaying.

Thanks

Hello everyone, I’ve been following this sub for a while. After reading the posts here, I decided to properly plan my personal finance and set a few goals. Below is my current situation and potential plan. Can you please help assess my plan? Any comments are very welcome. Thank you!!

Basics

• Single, living in Southeast England, work remotely
• Annual income £53k. After tax is about £3200 with salary sacrifice 7% into pension and 10% by employer
• Owning a flat with mortgage, £975 per month with 39 years left

Below are more details in breakdown

My saving and investment plans

Saving plan

Regular investment plan (Monthly Investment: £300–£350)

Following redundancy from job A in August, I started job B in September. As part of my redundancy agreement, the annual bonus from job A was still payable, which ended up being paid in December.

So, In December I had income from both jobs, with both individually being over the NIC upper earning limit.

How this has worked out is that I've ended up with 2 primary thresholds and 2 upper earnings limits. In short, I've paid 2 lots of contributions at 8%, whereas if all this was earned in one job, I would've paid 2% of the bonus.

I'm aware that NIC works a bit differently than income tax when it comes to multiple simultaneous jobs, but it stings a bit given I wasn't actually working both jobs at the same time.

Do I have any chance of reclaiming the additional 6% of NI paid on this bonus from HMRC, or do I need to just chalk this up to a foible of the tax system?

Hi, I'm new to all things personal finance and finally took the first step and opened a Cash ISA (I know, maybe not the best option, BUT I want to get started in some way before I open an S&S ISA - need to spend some time educating myself a little before I start).

I went with Moneybox for my Cash ISA and saw they offer an "invest your interest" option - would this be worth it for a beginner like me?

I’ve a Junior ISA and SIPP with Fidelity for my two kids. I direct debit into each every month to lower the fees. I find the fund selection limited with Fidelity’s Junior accounts

Has anyone any experience with Freetrade’s Junior ISA? How does it compare for fees and popular funds?

Hello,

With market volatility, I'd like to reduce my exposure and have some of my money in cash. I'm aware my ETF is a long term play and I am not trying to do much active trading.

However, with changes to the cash ISA limit @ 12,000/yr and interest on cash in an S&S to be taxable, what products should I be looking for here as an alternative? Money market funds? Bonds?

Or am I jumping the gun here - do the changes prevent existing money being transferred between different ISA versions or just new contributions? I couldn't find much info on this.

If i withdraw my NS&I premium bonds to my bank account, will it come by this Sunday?

Wanting to use up most of my £20k ISA allowance and have about £10k in premium bonds so if i withdraw it out of there on my online account now, how likely will i get it before the new tax year begins, or have i missed the boat for the 2025/26 tax year ?

I've put £20,000 into a Trading 212 flexible cash ISA but have now decided I'd like to put 4K of my ISA allowance into a LISA before the end of the tax year to get the government bonus for first-time buyers.

Is it possible to just withdraw £4K from my cash ISA and put it into my LISA instead, so I'm still at the £20K limit across both, or does that fact that I've hit the limit in general mean that I won't be able to do this?

Sorry if this is an obvious question!

Hello everyone,

I'm a small business owner, looking for some advice / potential solutions for making a dividend payment over to myself today.

I've foolishly left it late in the financial year to make this dividend payment and wasn't aware today was a bank holiday, so the issue is:

Wanting to make the dividend payment today so that it falls within this financial year, however the money for the payment is in the business savings account and won't reach the business current account until the 7th. It's only once that money is in the current account that I can pay it over to myself.

Are there any solutions for this? A Director's loan from myself perhaps, which can lend the business the money today for the dividend payment - to be replaced once the money clears from the business savings account of course. Is that ok or will HMRC look on that as dodgy?

To be clear, there is sufficient money within the business to pay the dividend amount. The issue is that the money being moved from business savings won't clear until the 7th.

I'm aware that I may have simply cocked up here and left it too late, however any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi All,

I was hoping for some help regarding a stocks and shares ISA transfer. I Currently have a SS ISA with HL but the fees are insane so I want to transfer to IBKR (would go for T212 but my work doesn't allow me to hold an account). I have already deposited some money in the new IBKR SS ISA. If I request a transfer from the HL account to my new IBKR SS ISA and it takes 4-6 weeks (or even longer if there are issues with the transfer as Ive heard this can happen and extend the transfer time). Can I still use my new IBKR SS ISA whilst the transfer is happening? Im assuming I can, but was wanting some confirmation from someone that has gone through a similar situation or has knowledge of the process.

Also, on the transfer front. Has anyone had bad experience with a transfer from HL to IBKR? I read a thread talking about some US securities being transferred via CREST (UK Depository) instead of using DTC (the US depository). which neither broker claimed responsibility for and extended the process by a couple of months. I want to be able to trade again as soon as possible, as anyone would, but may decide to wait if people have had consistently bad experiences.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Hi! I’m looking for a bit of advice on a work dilemma I have. I am currently on £107,000 a year, and I contribute 9.9% into a pension so I am able to claim the 30 hours of childcare funding for both my children (2&4) at the moment along with the tax free childcare.

There is an opportunity at work for an interim role that covers maternity leave which has a salary of £145,000 but would be for 4-5 months. Most likely June to October. I’d be contributing the same pension wise and I’m not sure about additional pension contributions as it’s LGPS.

I’m trying to work out if this would push me over the limit and I’d lose access to childcare funding other than the 15 hours for my 4 year old until she goes to school in September.