What I told the Chancellor he should do to improve the marriage tax allowance take-up

Introduced in April 2015, the marriage tax allowance (MTA) is free cash worth £432 for many married couples and those in civil partnerships. Yet surprisingly only 16% of the 4.2 million eligible have claimed it. I’ve been talking about it a lot (well, free cash is free cash), and a good chunk of the low uptake is...

The viral letter about mis-sold student loans due to retrospective interest hikes is well meaning, but wrong

The papers are full of an angry letter from recent graduate Simon Crowther to his MP, which has been shared over 20,000 times, complaining about retrospective hikes to student loan interest.  The letter is well meaning and does a good job in raising awareness. It’s been in all the newspapers, and indeed in articles in Huffington Post and...

Quote, misquotes and the truth about my appearance in the ‘Stronger In Europe’ leaflet

Arriving home a few days ago, I picked up the Stronger In Europe leaflet that had dropped through my letterbox, and almost dropped my wallet (and you can imagine how tightly I cling to that) to see my picture at the top of it. After all I’d not been asked, nor had I given my permission, nor...

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute – what’ll it really do?

A month ago I announced I was founding the new Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. It has just gained charitable status, and as this is Mental Health Awareness Week, I wanted to explain more about it. The article below is primarily one that was first published in The Telegraph on the launch of the institute. Debt and...

Two sides to every story – apparently I was ‘prickly’ to a journalist when he followed me in the street!

I was slightly shocked today to read a journalist having a go at me for being ‘prickly’. That certainly isn’t my way. Here’s what Jim Armitage wrote in The Independent… Too grand to talk to journalists? I interviewed MoneySupermarket boss Peter Plumb for a big profile article at his swanky corner office near Soho on Wednesday evening. On my...