Welcome to the Money blog. It’s Monday, so our feature about what jobs are really like is back – this week, we speak to a child psychiatrist. Listen to Money reporter Jess Sharp on why energy and food bills are ticking up as you scroll.
Monday 1 September 2025 06:44, UK
If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you. Each Monday, we speak to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. This week we chat to consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Dr Guy Northover…
The pay is good, but the career path is a long one… After five or six years at medical school, you are usually earning about £36,000. This salary goes up as you progress through the resident doctor stages to £70,000 – it takes a minimum of eight years. Once you become a consultant, the salary increases again, and for a full-time consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, you can expect to earn between £105,000 and £140,000 depending on experience.
A great advantage of working in the NHS is that you get a really good pension… through a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme. This means that for each year of membership, a fraction of your pensionable earnings is added to your pension pot and then revalued annually until you retire. Contributions are tiered, starting at 5.5%; however, I contribute 12.5% of my salary to this pension, and my employer adds a further 22%.
Children and their families can be affected by money worries… Parents often need to stay at home to look after their children, taking them to appointments, which can require a lot of travel time and cost, while also taking a step back from work so that they can do this. Young people on the road to recovery won’t just need therapy or medication but also opportunities to engage with society through clubs, the gym and meeting friends which all ends up costing money as well.
My job does make me cry… I think that every child and adolescent psychiatrist will find themselves struggling with the emotions that arise out of supporting very unwell young people. Fortunately, this is well recognised, and in my experience, I have been supported right from the beginning of my training. Psychiatry trainees are expected to be part of support groups, we have peer supervision to discuss complex cases and the impact that it is having on us, and mentoring is encouraged at all levels of expertise. It’s important that psychiatrists (as well as the wider healthcare workforce) can access comprehensive mental health and wellbeing support. I know the college is calling for ring-fenced funding for this. Holidays and finding ways to relax outside work are also really important.
Demand for child and adolescent mental health services is far greater than what can presently be offered but… the biggest issue is the understanding of the difference between emotional wellbeing and mental health in children and young people. There has been a significant increase in mental health issues and a significant decrease in emotional wellbeing, but when the two things become confused, it makes support for both worse.
Emotional wellbeing can be how you feel about exams… peer pressure, how you cope with day-to-day challenges and how you recover from feeling sad. If this is seen as a mental illness, then there is a risk that people who could help (schools, parents, community support) feel that they cannot help, so you end up being referred for specialist help and waiting a lot longer for a level of support you may not need. On the other hand, if mental illness is seen as an emotional wellbeing problem, then you may not be referred for the right level of support and people may start thinking that feeling sad is the same thing as feeling severely depressed and set up the wrong services to help. This can lead to a situation where there is not enough expertise or services for people with severe depression, and those young people end up with support that does not help them. However, it is obviously the case at the moment that there are not enough child and adolescent mental health services to meet the level of need, and there is not a situation of overdiagnosis (most likely we are still underdiagnosing).
I would encourage parents to find time and space to talk to their child from an early age… let them build up the confidence to talk to you about difficult things when their life is going well so that when it is not going well, they are still able to talk to you. If your child is not talking to you as a parent, if you don’t know what their worries, fears, anxieties or ambitions and goals are, then they may have a lot going on that is affecting their emotional wellbeing.
The impact of social media is a really big subject… which does not have an easy answer. We are seeing more and more research showing that having a mobile phone and using social media at a young age may impact someone’s mental health but exactly why is still not clear. There are obvious things that can harm our mental wellbeing through social media, and we should absolutely be ensuring that young people are not exposed to these things, but there are also positives such as sharing useful information and experiences.
Parents and carers can support children with smartphones… by having open discussions about how they can stay safe on them and what they may encounter in online spaces. It’s also important to balance screen time with other activities such as socialising, exercising and sleep.
All the young people I see are memorable for one reason or another… and I believe that I learn from every young person I meet in clinic. Many of the young people I see are initially struggling with their own thoughts, not able to go to school, not able to leave their home. It is amazing to see them get better, recover and find themselves happy with their lives.
I focus on young people who are presenting with psychosis… Psychosis is a very severe symptom of mental illness where a person is not able to think clearly, and their brain starts making links between thoughts and ideas where there are no links. This usually results in someone believing that very strange things are happening when they are not and hearing/seeing things that are not there.
There has been a definite increase in the number of child/adolescent referrals for mental health difficulties… such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, autism and ADHD; however, there has not been an increase in psychosis.
The biggest source of stress for young people is… school. Of course, not every young person finds school stressful but when school goes wrong, either because of learning challenges or friendship challenges, it becomes hugely challenging. I think in part this is because of how society links poor school grades with failure (which it absolutely should not) and how you can no longer leave school problems at school.
As a young person, you are continuously linked to school through homework and social media… If you are bullied, this can now continue at home. If you are struggling at school, you are reminded of this both through the way homework is set through apps and through the social media messages of other young people who are not struggling.
One thing everyone can do to improve their mental health is… sport, sport and more sport! Sport is fantastic, it is an exercise which we know improves mental health, but it is also a social activity. Socialising improves mental health, gets us away from our phones and gets us fresh air. 
We work in sessions that are each half a day… I complete 10 sessions every week, which equates to 40 hours or five days. On top of this, we usually do “on calls” which is out-of-hours work where we usually do not need to see a young person but may give telephone advice. This varies from area to area, but I am on call around two nights a month. We also get dedicated time for professional development to stay up to date. I use some of this time to be involved in research and some to work at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which sets and aims to raise the standards of doctors in mental health care.
I usually get into the office between 8am and 9am… to check any emails I have received around my research and Royal College work. During the morning, I will see patients. I work in a very specialist team that does much longer complex assessments of young people, so I may see one new patient and review two patients I already know in a morning. I will also take some phone calls and talk to other members of the team about the young people we are supporting. In the afternoon, I will do management work, or I may have a clinical team meeting followed by a home visit. 
One frustration is… the amount of paperwork that we have to do, so usually the last couple of hours of the day are spent writing up all the information about the young people I have seen. Additional admin support would help address these pressures and improve the day-to-day lives of psychiatrists.
People respond to mental health difficulties incredibly well with the right help… recovery is not just possible, it is expected. Being able to access evidence-based support early makes a world of difference.
Welcome back to the Money blog for another week.
Money reporter Jess Sharp will be on hand with all the consumer and personal finance news – and we’ll also be filling this page with features, tips and offers.
We’re kicking off shortly with our Money careers feature which today will answer What it’s really like to be a… child psychiatrist.
In tomorrow’s Money Problem we delve sensitively into a dilemma involve two friends and a missing wedding gift.
On Wednesday you’ll find Savings Guide to help you make the most of your spare cash, while Cheap Eats is back one last time in its regular Thursday slot before we turn it into a more occasional feature.
Mortgage Guide is back on Friday with best rates and our handy repayments calculator.
We hope to see you through the week.
Child benefit automatically stops after your child turns 16 – but if they are still in education, you can extend it.
HMRC has urged parents to remember to file their extension before this year’s deadline today. 
If you forget, you could miss out on at least £1,354 a year. 
Here’s what you need to know… 
Who can extend their child benefit?
To be eligible for an extension, your child must be between the ages of 16 and 19 and in school, college or another recognised training course. 
They must be completing one of the following: 
You will not be able to get an extension if they are: 
How much is child benefit worth? 
Child benefit is worth £26.05 a week – or £1,354.60 a year – for the eldest or only child. 
It is worth £17.25 a week – or £897 a year – for an extra child.
It is automatically paid into your bank account every four weeks. 
How to get child benefit
If you are eligible, HMRC should have sent you a letter reminding you to extend your benefit. 
On the letter, there will be a QR code you can scan with your phone that will take you to a webpage on the government website. 
You will be taken to this page, which has a “start now” button to begin the process.
You will need to enter your government gateway ID and password, or set up an account. 
Alternatively, you can see the HMRC app. 
Anything else to be aware of? 
If you earn more than £60,000, you should be aware of the high income child benefit charge. 
This is a tax charge that must be paid to HMRC if you earn above the threshold.
If you earn more than £80,000, the charge will be equal to the full amount of your child benefit, so you are no better off for receiving it. 
You can check whether you are over the limit here, and you can get an estimate for how much you will have to pay using the government’s calculator. 
Parents of children under the age of five in England can now apply for 30 hours of free childcare a week in an expansion of the government scheme.
This final phase of the programme, which was unveiled in 2023, will allow working parents to claim the benefit from September. 
Here’s what you need to know… 
Who is eligible for the scheme?
At present, working parents are eligible for 15 free hours of childcare for children between nine months and two years and 30 hours for three to four-year-olds.
From next week, this is extended to 30 hours for all those age groups.
Parents working at least 16 hours a week may be eligible and their children must be at least nine months old on or before 31 August (this Sunday).
Places are funded from the term after your child turns nine months old until they start reception at the age of two. 
What if you’re not eligible? 
If you are not eligible for 30 hours of funded childcare, your child may be eligible for 15 hours.
All parents of children aged three to four in England can access 15 hours of free early education – it doesn’t matter how much you earn or how many hours you work.  
Parents of two-year-olds can also access 15 hours a week of free early education and childcare if they receive additional forms of support such as universal credit. 
For all these schemes, the childcare provider must be approved – so informal providers such as grandparents don’t count.  
How do you apply? 
To receive the free childcare, you have to apply for it through the government website here. 
If you want to get 30 hours from September 2025, then you will need to apply by Sunday. 
To complete the application, you will need your national insurance number, or taxpayer reference if you are self-employed. 
You will need to detail the date you started or are due to start working, and any government support you receive. 
After you have applied, you will get a code to give to your approved childcare provider. 
If you’re already claiming 15 hours of free childcare and you work at least 16 hours a week, you can keep reconfirming as normal and if you’re still eligible, it will automatically be updated to 30 hours.  
By Brad Young, Money feature writer
It’s little surprise that the average landlord is aged 59.
Many people under 30 are struggling to put down one deposit, let alone two.
But 64,000 landlords haven’t yet hit their 31st birthday, according to accountants UHY Hacker Young. 
Some 3,000 aren’t even 21.
We’ve spoken to three Gen Z investors trying to play their hand in a middle-aged investor’s game.
Live-at-home landlords
Dylan Renshaw, 26, from Derbyshire, is building his property empire from a room in his parents’ house.
He put down his first deposit, worth £27,500, on a two-bed property in Nottinghamshire at the age of 20, having saved since he was 16.
At the time of purchase, he was earning £30,000 as an assistant contract manager for a construction firm, while paying £250 in rent to his mum and dad.
“I’m not going to hide that,” says Renshaw, who comes from a family of landlords.
“I was living with family. There are a lot of people that struggle to save because they’re renting.”
Renshaw says he started working as an apprentice at 16, saving in premium bonds and a Help-to-Buy ISA, a government scheme offering up to £3,000 to people saving for their first home.
The bonus cannot be spent on buy-to-let mortgages, but a residential property can be rented out after a change in circumstances, which Renshaw says applied to him when his job was relocated six months after he bought the property.
Renshaw has since put down another £27,000 deposit on a three-bed in Derbyshire, making his monthly mortgage payments £950 across both homes, while charging his tenants £1,590 in total.
“It’s quite daunting and it’s quite worrying to have that fiscal responsibility and if it goes wrong, you need to have a contingency in place,” he says.
Asked how he owned multiple properties while some of his friends are still saving for their first, he says: “People have had different circumstances, different upbringings, different priorities.”
He points to friends who moved out of their parents’ home to rent with partners, or acquaintances who have struggled to get a mortgage due to outstanding car finance
“I don’t feel I’ve made any major sacrifices. I just feel I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into sourcing the right properties, making the right budgets.”
Renshaw’s “ultimate goal” is to earn enough to spend most of his time at a family home in Cyprus.
“It’s a lot more relaxed and there’s a lot less stress,” he says.
“There’s a lot less tax.”
Too much red tape?
For Liam West, from Evesham, taking on his first tenant at the age of 20 was a daunting prospect.
“Absolutely. I’m a big worrier,” says West, now 26, who rents out a one-bed flat in the Worcestershire town valued at £130,000.
“It was a whole learning curve as well, and you constantly have the doubt of: is this right? Am I ready to do this? Is it financially going to work? It was a big risk.”
West’s great aunt died when he was 14, leaving him and his mother half of the flat each, which she turned into a rental.
Six years later, West, who lives in the family home rent-free, took out an £80,000 buy-to-let mortgage to buy out his mum’s stake in the property.
“Because of my age, I feel like there was a lot more red tape we had to go through,” says West, a joiner by trade.
The process took six weeks and his mum had to act as guarantor for his first two-year mortgage term.
West charges his tenant £700 a month while his mortgage payments are £440, having rocketed up from £160 in 2023 due to interest rate hikes.
“It’s not the most profitable business in the world,” he says, explaining he pockets around £50 a month on average, which is saved for emergencies.
“Don’t go and spend it like it’s free because you will need that money eventually,” he warns, such as if the tenant leaves or the boiler breaks.
His friends “don’t know the stress involved, they don’t know the responsibility” – but would he rent to any of them?
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he says. “Absolutely – friends, family – no. Wouldn’t entertain it. I guarantee something would happen in terms of money.”
Has it all been worth it? Financially, no, he says, but it has given him an opportunity for personal growth: “I can do something now that not a lot of people my age know the first thing about, which I’m quite proud of.”
He hopes to expand his property portfolio and combine it with his skills as a tradesman by renovating and renting out homes.
“That would be a dream,” he says. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.”
A ‘horrendous’ experience
West’s dream stands in stark contrast to the nightmare scenario described by Morgan Dagnall, 26, from Northwich.
Neighbours living beside his three-bed rental property in the market town have complained of police visits, the smell of cannabis, excessive noise and people living in the property who aren’t tenants.
His mortgage, meanwhile, has skyrocketed from £821 to £1,375 a month since January, meaning he and his girlfriend have lost “thousands” of pounds.
“I have had such a bad experience – why would I ever do this again?” he says.
“I cannot go through the stress and the management of it. It’s been such a toll, especially on my fiancee’s mental health. For her, it has been horrendous.”
The couple got together aged 17 and saved £2,000 in their teenage years. After university, they lived with their parents for 14 months while paying very little rent and depositing 70-80% of every paycheck into a house fund, including two Help-to-Buy ISAs.
The pair were earning a combined salary of approximately £47,000 and saved £23,000 for the deposit.
They lived in the property until July 2023 before relocating to Salisbury for work and renting it out for £1,390 a month, including bills.
“We were originally going to rent out and get another property and build a portfolio, but based on our experience so far, I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” says Dagnell.
He says the tenants have refused to communicate for several months, the blinds are always shut and he’s been told people were moving large electrical equipment, water systems and suitcases in and out of the property.
Dagnell and his fiancee moved back in with his parents in January, intending to kick the tenants out and sell the property because it no longer feels like their home.
But this means they can’t fix on a mortgage so they’re stuck on the bank’s buy-to-let standard variable interest rate of 7.24%.
“It all sounds like sunshine and rainbows when people say get into property, build a property portfolio, but there are far too many complications, things you need to know, and how much time and stress you need to go through,” he says.
If wholesale energy prices are falling, why were we told this week that the price cap would rise in October? 
There are a few factors behind it – read business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso’s full analysis…
Following the announcement, people were urged to take some time this weekend or as soon as possible to consider fixing their energy deal.
From 1 October, the average dual fuel household’s annual bill will rise by £35 to £1,755. This applies to around 20 million people in England, Scotland and Wales on standard variable or default tariffs.
There are currently fixed deals offering savings of around £265 a year versus the October cap. Here are the top five deals by provider…
These kinds of charts appear each Friday in our weekly Money newsletter – showing subscribers the best deals on offer for bank switching, mortgages, broadband, savings and energy. If you’re not among the 50,000 people who’ve already subscribed, you can do so here…
Weekend tips
You have until Sunday to bag yourself theatre tickets for as little as £15 each.
London Theatre Week runs until 31 August, offering discounted tickets for more than 50 shows, including The Lion King, Hamilton and Wicked.
While you need to book your tickets by Sunday, you don’t have to see the show by then.
You can get tickets for £15, £25 and £35.
Meanwhile, Cineworld is selling all tickets for £4 on Saturday and Sunday as part of its Big Screen Weekend promotion. 
It’s available across all its cinemas, and covers films being shown on premium screens such as IMAX, 4DX and ScreenX – as well as recliner seats. 
Top reads from the Money blog this week…
Every Saturday, we publish our weekend long read – a feature, deep dive or interview that we know will get you talking. 
This week, Money feature writer Brad Young speaks to three twenty-somethings about their dreams and disasters as Gen Z landlords.
Check it out tomorrow and have a great weekend.
Aldi employees are getting their second pay rise of the year as the supermarket sticks to its promise to never be beaten on pay. 
From Monday, staff will be paid £13.02 an hour, with that rate rising to £13.95 with length of service. 
In London, hourly rates will rise to £14.35 and £14.66 with length of service. 
It seems to be a tit-for-tat move after Aldi’s budget supermarket rival Lidl announced it was increasing wages to £13 an hour nationally, and £14.35 for staff working in London, earlier this month.
In July, Aldi said it was increasing pay for store assistants from £12.75 an hour to £13 from 1 September to become the first supermarket to offer this minimum rate.
It had already upped wages in March to £12.75 and £14.05 for staff within the M25. 
Aldi said it was also the only retailer to offer all colleagues paid breaks, which is “worth around £1,425 a year”.
Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Our colleagues are at the heart of our success, and we’re committed to ensuring they are fully rewarded for the outstanding work they do. This higher than planned pay rise is part of our promise to never be beaten on pay.” 
Poundland says it will return to simple £1, £2 and £3 grocery pricing across all its UK stores as the chain looks to turn around its fortunes after avoiding administration.
The discount chain has pledged to price around 60% of grocery items at £1 across its stores following the changes, which comes after a five-month pilot at 17 locations in the West Midlands.
For more than 20 years since it was established in 1990, every item on sale in Poundland stores had been priced at £1. 
But the firm said the latest move will see it go “back to its roots” and mark “the end of additional price complexity”, with simple pricing set to be rolled out across general merchandise and clothing ranges in the coming months.
It comes as part of recovery plans after Poundland swerved collapse following High Court approval earlier this week for a major restructuring plan, just days before the firm was due to run out of money.
The scheme will see up to £60m of new funding injected to keep the retailer afloat.
Looking for something to do this weekend? 
Cineworld is selling all tickets for £4 on Saturday and Sunday as part of its Big Screen Weekend promotion. 
It’s available across all its cinemas, and covers films being shown on premium screens such as IMAX, 4DX and ScreenX – as well as recliner seats. 
Unlimited members will not have to pay the usual extra fee for premium screenings. 
The films you’ll be able to see might vary depending on the cinema you go to, but here are some that are out now: 
Bibendum, Claude Bosi’s two-Michelin starred restaurant in London, has announced its shock closure.
The South Kensington mainstay revealed the news on social media, with Bosi and his wife Lucy writing: “It is with deep sadness that we announce Claude Bosi Restaurant ceased trading on the 25 August and the Oyster Bar will close after service on 31 August.
“Despite our very best efforts, we were unable to reach a resolution with our partners and landlords that would allow Michelin House to move into its next chapter.”
It adds: “We are deeply grateful for the incredible support shown to us over the years. It has been an honour to be a part of the Michelin House story, and a privilege to share that journey with you.”
It’s been a tough few years for high-end restaurants due to people having less money, increased rents and business costs, and staff shortages after Brexit.
Marco Pierre White, Michel Roux Jr, Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Simon Rimmer have all closed restaurants – while iconic London eateries Locanda Locatelli and Lyle’s have also closed down in the last year.
Bibendum gained its two Michelin stars less than a year after French chef Bosi took over in 2017. It was named after the “Michelin Man” himself, the mascot of the Michelin tyre company and its famous travellers’ guidebooks.
Bosi also runs the double Michelin-starred Brooklands by Hyde Park and has two branches of his French bistro, Josephine, in Chelsea and Marylebone.
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