A spring clean to your finances is on its way, whether you like it or not.
April heralds a deluge of changes to household bills – some going up and some, thankfully, falling.
Here are 20 changes coming up in the next few days – and how you can use them to your advantage…
1) Council tax
Households in England will see their council tax bills rise by 5.1 per cent or £106 on average from April. Bills will hit an average of £2,171 for those in a typical band D category.
Bills are rising by 7.7 per cent on average for band D homes in Wales, to £2,024 on average. Council tax bills in Scotland are frozen for most households. Make sure you claim discounts if you are eligible, for example for single occupancy, or for those on low incomes. Students and apprentices are exempt.
Ring the changes: A spring clean to your finances is on its way, whether you like it or not
2) Broadband and mobile contracts
Providers including Virgin Media, BT, Plusnet, EE, Vodafone and Three Mobile are increasing their mobile and broadband bills. Your bill will rise even if you are locked into a fixed-term contract.
Shop around to get the best deal. However, you may not be able to cancel if you are mid-contract, so put a note in your diary to do it the moment your current one ends.
3) TV licence
This is rising from £159 to £169.50 a year from 1 April.
4) Water bills
These are set to increase by 6 per cent in England and Wales, up £27 to £473, according to trade body Water UK. Bills in Scotland will rise by 8.8 per cent or £36. You may be able to cut bills by installing a water meter, which allows you to pay for only what you use. Be aware if you use more water than average you may pay more.
5) Passports
The cost of a new standard passport is rising on 11 April by £6 to £88.50 for applicants aged 16 and over. If yours is expiring soon, you could apply for a new one now to avoid the higher charge.
6) Train fares
The cost of season tickets on most commuter journeys and some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys rose by 4.9 per cent on 3 March in England and Wales.
On 1 April, more rises are hitting commuters in Scotland. All ScotRail fares will increase by 8.7 per cent.
7) Capital gains tax
Your capital gains allowance is being slashed on 6 April, from £6,000 to £3,000. It dropped from £12,300 this time last year.
Capital gains tax is paid if you make a profit when selling an asset, including property that isn’t your main home. Use your tax-free allowances such as pensions and Isas to shelter your returns from capital gains and dividend tax.
8) Dividend tax
The dividend tax allowance is being cut from £1,000 to £500 from 6 April, which means more than 1.1 million more people could end up paying it.
9) Road tax
This rises by around £10 a year from 1 April to £190 a year on average for cars registered since April 2017. Drivers of older cars may see bigger rises.
10) Flight tax
Duty on standard tickets for domestic flights is rising by £1 from 1 April, from £13 to £14, while the standard charges on mid-distance flights to New York or Dubai, for example, will increase by £3.
The charges will remain unchanged for tickets to European destinations. Duty on flights to long-haul destinations further than 5,500 miles away will increase by £2 on the standard rate.
11) Dental bills
Dental treatments on the NHS in England increase by 4 per cent from 1 April. That means a check up will cost £26.80 – a rise of £1.
12) Energy bills
The cost of energy will fall to a two-year low from a April under the regulator Ofgem’s price cap changes. The average household’s energy bill will decrease by £238 a year to £1,690 a year. Send in your meter reading this week to ensure you are not charged at the old, higher rate.
13) National Insurance
This is being cut from 10 to 8 per cent from 6 April. The Government calculates this will amount to a £450 saving for an employee on an average salary of £35,000. Around 27 million workers should benefit.
14) Tax cut for self-employed
Two million self-employed workers will see their National Insurance bill fall from 8 to 6 per cent of their income. This is worth £350 a year to a self-employed person earning the average income of £28,200.
15) Minimum wage
This is rising by more than £1 an hour to £11.44. For someone working full-time this is the equivalent of a pay boost of £1,856 a year.
16) Isas
Everyone gets a new tax-free Isa savings allowance of £20,000 from 6 April. You will also lose any of your allowance from this year that you have not already used.
17) State pension
Retirees benefit from an 8.5 per cent increase to the state pension to £11,502 a year. It is the equivalent of a rise from £203.85 to £221.20 a week for those with a full, new state pension, and from £156.20 to £169.50 for those on the old.
18) Child benefit
The earnings threshold at which families start to lose child benefit payments will increase from £50,000 to £60,000.
Parents who earn up to £80,000 will receive the benefit, up from £60,000 until now. The payments are also rising, from £24 to £25.60 a week for the eldest or only child and from £15.90 to £16.95 for younger children.
19) Universal Credit
Allowances are rising for all claimants by 6.7 per cent next month. This will mean single people aged 25 and over will see theirs increase to £393.45 per month from £368.74.
20) Sick pay
Statutory sick pay will increase from £109.40 to £116.75 on 6 April.
