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Today will be the biggest online pre-Christmas shopping day of the year, according to Experian Hitwise.

The online consumer behaviour intelligence service, which has dubbed today ‘Cyber Monday’, predicts consumers will make 85 million visits to retail websites throughout the course of the day, 15% higher than this time last year.

Some 350 million hours will be spent shopping online throughout the month of December, equating to 8 hours and 45 minutes per person, according to the study.

Over 2 billion visits will be made to online retailers throughout December, with record peaks in traffic both in the lead up to Christmas and in the sales. Experian Hitwise forecast that searches for post-Christmas sales items will start earlier than ever this year, with shoppers starting to do their research online as early as Christmas Eve.

James Murray, marketing research analyst at Experian Hitwise, said: “Christmas 2011 looks set to be another record-breaker for many of the online sectors and particularly for retail. Cyber Monday is going to be crucial in the online retail sector and we are predicting 85 million visits… Continue To Read This Post..

Penalties handed out to self-assessment taxpayers by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have risen by 56% over the past five years, according to the results of a Freedom of Information request lodged by the law firm McGrigors.

HMRC will net an estimated £150 million from the 1.5 million self-employed workers who failed to submit their tax return by the January 31 deadline this year. The number of fines handed out has risen by 8% in the last year alone.

Changes to the penalty system this year could see self-assessment taxpayers fined up to £1,500 if they fail to get their return in by the deadline.

The next deadline for those making paper returns is October 31. Those submitting their taxes over the internet have until January 31 next year.

Jason Collins, a tax partner at McGrigors, told the Daily Mail, “Not only are HMRC issuing fines at an increasingly worrying rate but they have now won powers to impose dramatically increased fines. This wouldn’t be such a concern if HMRC had not developed a reputation for unfairly issuing fines and… Continue To Read This Post..

Unemployment in the UK rose by 80,000 to 2.51 million in the three months to July, the largest increase in jobless figures for two years, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics.

Worryingly, 77,000 of the newly unemployed were young people aged between 18 and 24, an 11% increase on the previous quarter.

The number of young people who had been unemployed for a year or more rose by 35,000 to 219,000, while the number of youths out of work for more than two years increased by 12% to 93,000.

Using the internationally agreed measure for calculating joblessness, the unemployment rate rose to 7.9% of the population, up from 7.7% from the previous quarter.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance rose by 20,300 to 1.58 million in August alone, but this figure was down from a rise of 33,700 in July and considerably below forcasts of an increase of 35,000.

Employment across the board was down by 69,000 to 29.17 million.

Samuel Tombs of Capital Economics commented: “Today’s data provide further evidence that the fading of… Continue To Read This Post..

Homeserve and npower have been warned they face fines of up to £2 million for bombarding customers with silent calls.

Ofcom has notified both companies that it has evidence they “persistently misused an electronic communications network or services by virtue of its use of an automated calling system” between 1 February 2011 and 21 March this year.

Both firms are accused of making abandoned calls to their customers, while Homeserve is also charged with repeatedly making more than one call to the same number in a 24-hour period.

The communications regulator is currently investigating the use of predictive dialling technology in call centres, which can result in calls being made without a member of staff being available to talk to a customer. Customers are then greeted by a dead line or a recorded message when they answer the phone.

Both companies have been notified of Ofcom’s findings and have until 10 August to explain themselves and outline what action they intend to take or face further action, including a financial penalty.

A Homeserve spokesperson told the BBC that the… Continue To Read This Post..

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Nearly 20 million people have made cut backs to their spending since the beginning of the year, according to new research.

A poll carried out by YouGov on behalf of insurance firm Axa found that 40% of consumers are budgeting more carefully with many spending less on going out, food and alcohol, car use and holidays.

The poll of almost 2,000 people recorded a sharp drop in consumer confidence over the year to March with a quarter of respondents saying they had been forced to dip into their savings to fund day-to-day living costs.

The report, which Axa said is an in-depth view of financial confidence, behaviour and attitudes, said: “Those feeling financially confident dropped from 23% to 16% in the period between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011. In particular, under-funded seniors’ optimism in their financial future plunged from 19% to 7% and confidence among the stretched fell from 24% in Q1 2010 to just 11% in the same period this year.”

The report defined “the stretched” as people in their 20s and 30s on low incomes with few financial… Continue To Read This Post..

Nearly half of all British pensioners are living on the breadline as a result rising costs, according to new research by Age UK.

The study found that 47% of the over-60s said they were “just getting by”, while 11% described themselves as finding it difficult or “really struggling” to cope.

The survey of 1,258 older people found that one in five pensioners had cut back on their heating over the winter months to save money. Age UK says an extra 25,000 older people have been dying each year during the winter months in recent years.

It was announced last month that pensioners would lose the winter fuel top-up allowance introduced by the last Labour government.

Among poorer pensioners, some 20% say they are going out less in a bid to stretch budgets further. A third said they are buying cheaper or less food.

Age UK estimates that around 1.8 million pensioners are living in poverty with many thousands more struggling to survive just above the breadline.

Recent price rises have hit pensioners particularly hard as a high proportion their income… Continue To Read This Post..