Expert Savings Advice

A young couple living in their shed in Hampshire have been ordered to move out by their local authority.

While the garden shed is usually employed to store shovels, rakes and lawnmowers, one NHS worker and her partner used their garden shed as a place to live.

Victoria Campbell, 20, and her 26-year-old boyfriend, senior care assistant Bill Warden, had lived in her parents’ outbuilding whilst saving money which they intended to use for a deposit on a real house. That plan, however, has been scuppered by their local authority which has told them that they must leave the shed.

The council’s planning committee claimed the structure was “not appropriate for primary living accommodation” and “created an undesirable precedent, which would make it difficult to refuse similar further applications”.

The garden shed had no running water and just one oil radiator to supply heating. Electricity was sourced from the main house and the 15ft by 15ft building contained one fold out bed which the couple shared.

Miss Campbell will now seek legal advice from consultants in order to obtain temporary permission to stay in the shed.
The UK’s Shed of the Year 2011 is owned by Somerset resident Jon Earl, who allows local music groups to record their songs in the building.

Whilst it is a growing trend to work and earn a living out of a renovated garden shed, it seems that the opportunities to create living environment within them without sufficient planning permission might not be so straightforward.

We recently had a presentation at work about managing personal finances and it was suggested that we try to look for the cheapest way of insuring everything and search for the cheapest utilities provider at that moment for gas and electricity. Furthermore the speaker went on to say that it was possible to make savings on virtually all household expenditure and illustrated this by doing a life insurance comparison right there in front of us. Armed with this information I have decided that hence forth I will make time to save money wherever it can be done. Unless I have compared prices I will not commit to buying from anyone, until I have used every opportunity to find out if I could’ve bought the same thing elsewhere for less money. I have access to the internet at home and I intend to make it pay for itself so that I can enjoy the benefits.

Director of protection for Aviva,  Richard Verdin says guiding principles, for critical illness cover will refresh the areas of cover that Aviva that offers, and position its critical illness cover plan as one that is “right by the customer” rather than one that fuels the “conditions’ race” and is competition led.

Verdin says: “We have established a set of principles which we are using to govern the development of the product rather than simply doing what seems right by looking just at the market.

From the third quarter this year, all new conditions will be of a similar severity to those already covered in order to start a claim.  New conditions will be added only where it increases the scope of cover and it must be possible for any new conditions to fulfil the definition under current medical best-practice guidelines, and industry benchmark.

“There is too much focus on how many conditions a product covers and not enough on good quality cover at a cost for customers,” Verdin says.

“I am not going to play a conditions’ race.  We want to do what is right by the customer rather than what is needed to compete in the market.”

But Pru Protect director of protection development Kevin Carr says:  “How would principle-based critical illness work? It could bring about uncertainty and subjectivity.”

CBK Colchester principal Peter Chadborn adds:  “The conditions’ race really does very little to add value to the plan, so if this is the first provider to put the brakes on and have its own internal principles-based decision-making process about what we enhance and develop, then I have to say fair play to them.”

PHI Insurance sales increased by 13.5 per cent in 2008, a report by Swiss Re has revealed.

In its annual term and health watch report on the UK protection market, Swiss Re found the number of PHI Insurance policies sold last year increased by 13.5 per cent to 126, 815 from 111,780 in 2007.  But policies sold by IFAs dipped by 5 per cent from 61,455 to 58,350. New whole life business also increased by 28.8 per cent from 219,362 policies in 2007 to 282,438 policies in 2008, making it the highest level since 2000.

However, new term assurance sales, including accelerated and critical illness cover, dipped by 6.1 per cent from 1,514,930 to 1,447,895 policies.

Individual CI sales fell by 4.7 per cent from 536,143 in 2007 to 511,045 in 2008.  But the number of CI plans sold through an IFA increased by 2.5 per cent from 237,345 in 2007 to 243,384 in 2008.

Swiss Re life and health technical manager Ron Wheatcroft says despite the increases, the £2.3trn protection gap still stands.

He says: “Various industry initiatives are now, at last, beginning to get off the ground, but to improve consumer understanding of our services and products, these initiatives need to pull in the same direction.”

Master Adviser IFA Roy McLoughlin says:  “The increase in IP is incredibly positive and I would imagine it is related to  increased awareness among advisers.  The 4.7 per cent drop in CI sales might have something to do with cost and the fact that advisers realise that, out of the two products, IP is arguably the more important product for clients.”

Car insurance is one of those bills that cannot be avoided. It is a must have for drivers and one that cannot be avoided. However, there is a way to purchase affordable car insurance. Nowadays, there is more than one place to buy your car insurance. There are many competitors online that sell car insurance, and you can save hundreds of dollars when you compare car insurance policies. All it takes is a few minutes to fill out a form and get a free quote.

A quick search online can yield hundreds of car insurance companies. Not all are available in your area, but those that are will ask you to fill out a simple form. This form asks for your personal and vehicle information. After you have supplied the website with this information, you are given a free quote on a car insurance policy. You can speak with an agent who is knowledgeable and experienced, and they can answer any questions you might have. Comparing car insurance between a few different companies can help you to decide which agency and policy is right for your budget.

Many insurance agencies offer 50 percent savings on yearly policies and discounts for good driving history, driver’s education courses, good credit, good grades and other things. You also get to save time because instead of phoning or visiting car insurance agencies, you can do all your own research online and get your own quotes from home or work. When you compare car insurance online you can save hundreds of dollars a year.

Some people feel pressured to purchase insurance from the first person they speak with, but when you do your own research, you can pick who you want to work with. There are many different kinds of coverage and sometimes it can be confusing for people, especially those who are buying for the first time. Insurance websites do their best to provide potential customers with information they can benefit from. They want your business, and to do so, they must have competitive prices and experienced staff to answer any questions you have.