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42 MoneyMailEasy access Shawbrook Bank Easy Access 15 1.48
Fixed-rate bond Atom Bank One-year fix 2.00Easy-access cash Isa Shawbrook Bank Easy Access Cash Isa 5 1.43
Fixed-rate cash Isa Cynergy Bank One-year fix 1.56ONLINE ACCOUNTS
PROVIDER ACCOUNT RATE %
BRANCH ACCOUNTS
SAVINGSSTAR BUYS
OUR expert’s pick of this week’s top deals on different types of accounts
PROVIDER ACCOUNT RATE %
Easy accessKent Reliance Easy Access Account 34 1.3
Newcastle BS Community Saver 2 1.16Fixed-rate bondMetro Bank One-year fix 1.85
Tipton & Coseley BS Fixed to October 31, 2020 1.6Easy-access cash IsaMkt Harborough BS Easy Access Isa 2019/2020 1.25Newcastle BS Community Saver Isa 2 1.16Fixed-rate cash IsaMetro Bank One-year fix 1.55
Newcastle BS Fixed to October 20, 2019 1.5SYLVIA MORRIS’S
TYPE
TYPE
FOR MORE BEST-BUY SAVINGS TABLES GO TO: THISISMONEY.CO.UK/SAVEBy Sylvia Morris
Easy access outshines fixed deals
SAVERS are being warned against locking
away their money as they can often get a
better rate with an easy-access account.
It used to be the case that the longer you
tied up your cash, the higher the interest rate.
But banks and building societies are now
slashing rates on longer-term deals.
It means the gap between what you can
earn with a one-year fixed account and a
three- or even five-year deal has narrowed to
nearly nothing. And in some cases, you can
earn more interest by foregoing fixed rate
deals in favour of an easy-access account.
Kevin Mountford, chief executive of savings
platform Raisin, which offers fixed rate bonds,
says: ‘I don’t see why anyone would go for any
term of more than one year. Now that the
difference between one-year and longer-term
bonds has fallen, there is a disincentive for
people to lock their money away.’
Skipton BS’s new fixed-rate bonds pay
1.3 pc on up to £20,000 for all terms between
one and five years. For larger sums the rate is
just 1.4 pc. Aldermore Bank and Santanderpay an extra 0.05 pc if you tie your money up
for two years rather than one, giving you an
extra £5 annual interest on a £10,000 sum.
They pay 1.75 pc and 0.5 pc respectively for
one year and 1.8 pc and 0.55 pc for two.
Shawbrook Bank, often among the top
payers, offers 1.75 pc for two years.
This is just 0.1 percentage points more than
its one-year deal paying 1.65 pc — or £10 extra
interest a year on each £10,000.
Some providers are even paying higher rates
of interest on accounts which give you easy
access to your money than fixed deals.
Yorkshire BS pays 1.25 pc on its one-year
bond and 1.35 pc on its three-year deal. And
you cannot touch your money during the
term. Meanwhile, the society pays a higher
variable 1.4 pc rate on its One-Year Limited
Access Saver, which lets you make as many
withdrawals as you like on one day a year.
Principality BS pays 1.43 pc on its easy-access Online Saver and just 1.33 pc on its
one-year fixed rate bond. AA Savings pays
1.21 pc on its easy-access Member Saver and
1.2 pc on its fixed rate bond.
Virgin Money pays 1.5 pc on its three-year
fixed rate bond, with no withdrawals
permitted. This is the same rate it pays on its
variable-rate Double Take E-Saver which lets
you take out money twice a year.
James Blower, founder of Savings Guru, says:
‘Rates on two- to five-year bonds have
dropped as interest rates are forecast to fall,
rather than rise, over the longer term. There
is huge price competition in the mortgage
market which lenders are funding by offering
easy-access and short-term bonds rather
than more expensive longer-term ones.’
At the start of this year the top two-year
rate was 2.35 pc with Aldermore Bank. Now
it’s 2.05 pc from Masthaven Bank, a 0.25
percentage point drop. Three-year bonds
have seen similar falls, while the top five-year
rate is down from 2.7 pc to 2.4 pc.
[email protected]Barclays hits
savers’ rates
BARCLAYS is the latest big bank to
cut rates for loyal savers.
Its Instant Cash Isa rate will fall
by 0.2 percentage points from
October 9. If you have a balance of
less than £30,000 your new rate
will be 0.4 pc. Those with £30,000-
£100,000 will get 0.45 pc more.
Higher balances will earn 0.55 pc.
It means savers are earning less
now the Bank of England base rate
is 0.75 pc compared to when it
stood at a lower 0.5pc. Then,
Barclays paid from 0.55 pc-0.75 pc.
TSB rates will fall next month. On
September 10, savers in its Easy
Saver, eSavings and Cash Isa Saver
will earn 0.15 pc.
Nationwide cut rates on some
accounts to 0.1 pc this month.campaign group, adds: ‘First I
heard I wouldn’t get my pension
until 66, now I discover it won’t
even be a full pension.
‘He gets the NI contribution and
I get a bill. This is so unfair. Womencomplicated and might cause
people to lose out, surely you have
a duty to warn them?’ she adds.
The Low Incomes Tax Reforms
Group in 2012 lobbied the
Government to change guidance
after hearing from a woman whose
partner did not need the credits,
but was given them anyway, as his
was the first name on the form.
Victoria Todd, head of the LITRG
team, says of Judie’s case: ‘There
was a decision for them as a couple
to make and HMRC did not pro-
vide the guidance for them. Clearly
HMRC has fallen short.’
Steve Webb, director of policy at
Royal London, says it would be
‘totally unreasonable’ to penalise
claimants for not being aware of
the ‘Byzantine’ credits system.
‘HMRC needs to make sure that
if things have gone wrong claimants
can ... get the credits allocated to
the right person.’
HMRC says Judie did not make
enough NI contributions or getenough credits over 14 years —
including seven while making the
joint working tax credits claim.
An HMRC spokesman says:
‘HMRC continuously looks to
improve its communication
products for customers.’
Working tax credit was mainly
replaced by universal credit, dealt
with by the Department for Work
and Pensions. A spokesman says:
‘All eligible adults within a Universal
Credit award will receive a National
Insurance contribution, which
counts towards entitlement to the
state pension.’
In June, campaigners took the
DWP to court over claims that rais-
ing the state pension age discrimi-
nated unlawfully against women
born in the Fifties. A judgment is
expected in September. They
argued women were not warned
that their retirement age was
changing from 60 to 66 and they
would lose out.
[email protected]need to be told and HMRC should
make this clear on the forms.’
HMRC says it cannot apply NIC
credits to records retrospectively
unless it made a ‘clear error’.
In letters to Judie, HMRC has
apologised for the omission, but
denies making an error.
The taxman wrote in April: ‘I’m
sorry there was no information at
the time of your claim that was
included on the claim form to help
you make an informed choice on
which one of you was to be the pay-
ment recipient.’
Another explains that those mak-
ing a joint claim for working tax
credits can pick which of the two
will receive the NIC credits by
putting their name first. But the
letter states: ‘Unfortunately, this
advice was only included [in the
notes] after 6 April, 2012.’
Ex-pensions minister Ros
Altmann says it was ‘a clear error’
that people were not informed. ‘If
you have a system, that is very500,000 couples were claiming
them at the peak in 2010/11.
Judie was earning less than min-
imum wage while she ran a
camping holiday business in West
Wales with her former partner.
The pair were living together so
had to make a joint claim for
working tax credits, and the cash
went into a shared bank account.
However, her ex-partner put his
name first on the form — meaning
the NI contribution credits went
on his record. After the couple
split and the business closed in
2017, Judie learnt she had missed
out on six years of the credits.
Her pension is now set to pay
out £139 a week — nearly £1,000 a
year less than she once thought.
Judie says: ‘Nowhere did it say
on the form that only one person
would get the pension credits. It
feels like sex discrimination. Many
people must be in the same situa-
tion — but do not know it.’
Judie, a member of the Women
Against State Pension InequalityBy Ben
Wilkinson
AFTER working steadily since the age of 16,
Judie Jancovich was looking forward to retiring
on a full state pension.
But she is set to lose about £1,000 a year in
retirement income as government guidelines
were not properly explained on official forms.
The university lecturer, now 64, is among
possibly thousands of women whose names
were put down second on joint working tax
credit claims — and will not get crucial National
Insurance credits towards their pension.
In Judie’s case, the credits went to her ex-
partner whose name went down first. HM
Revenue & Customs admits the consequences
of this were not made clear on claim guidance
notes until 2012.
She now faces paying up to £3,000 in missing
contributions in order to get a full state pen-
sion at her retirement date in two years time.
Workers now need 35 full years of NI contribu-
tions for a full state pension. These are usually
collected from your wages by the taxman.
Anyone out of work or not earning enough
can collect NI credits through benefits like
working tax credits. The credits were brought
in to help those on low incomes in 2003. Over
The women left
short when their
men claimed the
pension credit
Lost out: Judie JancovichPicture: GARETH EVERETT(^) Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019