Nearly a decade ago, in June 2012, MSE joined the Moneysupermarket Group and I pledged £10m to go to charity. As that was a public pledge and I feel I've a duty of transparency, every year or two I bash out a blog report to explain where I'm up to, and who's got what money.

If you're under 22 or on a low income, a pension is probably the furthest thing from your mind, but what if I were to tell you there's a totally legal way, that doesn't need any negotiation, to make your employer pay you more money – possibly £1,000s over the years? Hopefully that piques your interest, and means you'll forgive me for not mentioning pensions in the blog title – but I wanted to ensure you read this.

If your employer requires you to work from home, you've always been able to claim for increased costs, eg, heat or electricity, for the specific time at home. Yet during the 2020 lockdown, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) launched a 'microservice' which, even if you only needed to work from home for a day, allowed you to get a WHOLE year's tax relief.

In 2016, I founded the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity. It very quickly established itself as the go-to institute for trying to divorce the marriage made in hell that is debt and mental health issues.  

We've just agreed the final payments for my Coronavirus Poverty Emergency Fund. The total distributed is £3,414,143 to 415 small local charities (or organisations with charitable status). That's an average of over £8,000 per charity. For transparency, I want to run through how we organised, selected the charities, and where the money has gone. I hope this may also help others planning similar things in future.

Beware student loan statements, they're dangerous and misleading. I wish I could tell you to rip 'em up without looking at them, but occasionally there's practical info you need. Over five million uni leavers still have outstanding loans. Many panic seeing £100s interest added each month – a financial canker that's led some into making catastrophic decisions.