Sunday’s Money pages

by | Apr 19, 2020

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The Sunday Times advises how to juggle your loyalty points: fears for the future of airlines are making people think twice about holding Avios.

They also report a reprieve for relatives as care homes pledge not to raise prices during this unprecedented crisis where the elderly are particularly vulnerable.

With regard to tech stocks and coronavirus, they see the sector offering up a “byte of hope”. While global markets have plunged, the lockdown seems to suit some companies, and the technology sector has been having a relatively good crisis. While UK shares have plunged more than 20% this year and US shares almost 15%, UK technology funds have, on average, fallen just 2.7%. This makes them the best-performing equity sector apart from China & Greater China.

 
 

Readers are also reminded that in hard times, there is a moral imperative to save, if they can.

The Mail on Sunday asks “Where is Rishi’s lifeline?” They are concerned that the Chancellor’s business loans scheme was launched to a great fanfare – but they feel the reality has been a huge letdown.

A bit of good news is that the new tax year means those investing for their children can now benefit from a much higher Junior Isa annual allowance – £9,000 up from £4,368; the increase in the allowance means a parent starting a Junior Isa this month for a newborn child could build a tax-free pot of more than £240,000 by the time their child reaches 18.

 
 

A bit of bad news is that the lockdown is providing rich pickings for criminals; so far they have cheated victims out of £2 million, using the fear of Covid-19 to launch a wave of scams that experts describe as ‘sick’.

The Sunday Telegraph reveals that the rental market faces chaos as tenants struggle to pay and 80,000 landlords fear bankruptcy; worse still, there are concerns that properties may not be in a habitable state after lockdown.

They wonder if Covid-19 has killed off value investing, observing that value stocks tend to perform better than average during market dips – but have not this time.

 
 

For the self-employed, there’s news that the Government has promised to pay self-employed people negatively impacted by coronavirus up to 80% of their earnings – but how do they claim government help, or Universal Credit? And of course, there might be a sting in the tail…

Just a thought – “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.” (Spike Milligan)

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Hope you’re all staying well and finding positives from lockdown; I for one am mildly surprised at the degree of domestic harmony we’re enjoying and have therefore  put the patio plans on hold.

For now.

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