Wizz Air has relaunched its unlimited flight package – you just need to fly within 72 hours. And a top chef reveals her breakfast hacks and favourite fast food chain. Follow the Money blog through the day for the latest consumer and personal finance news with reporter Jess Sharp.
Wednesday 29 October 2025 17:30, UK
One of the big talking points of the last budget was inheritance tax – and rumours abound of further tweaks at next month’s set piece by the chancellor.
So what are the current rules?
First up, for those who don’t know, inheritance tax is a tax on someone’s “estate” when they die – ie, a tax on any money, possessions or property left behind.
It’s often called “the most hated tax” in the UK – but only around 4% of estates are actually affected by it, meaning most of us will never end up paying it at all.
When do you have to pay inheritance tax?
Inheritance tax is due when you leave an estate valued above a certain threshold to your loved ones when you die.
There is no tax if your estate’s value is below the £325,000 threshold or you leave your estate to your spouse or civil partner, or an exempt charity or group.
The tax is currently charged at 40% – but only on the part of the estate that lies above the threshold. For example, if someone’s estate is worth £400,000 when they die, then £75,000 of that estate would be taxed at 40% (£30,000 total tax).
Bear in mind that if you are married or in a civil partnership, any allowance you don’t use can be added to your partner’s allowance when they die.
This means a couple actually can pass on as much as £1m without their estate being subject to inheritance tax (we’ll explain this maths shortly).
Passing on a home
The rules are largely the same when it comes to passing on a home when you die.
If you’re giving it to your spouse or civil partner there’s no tax to pay, though it’ll count towards the value of the estate if it is being passed to another person in your will.
However, if you fully or partially own your home, your tax-free threshold can increase to £500,000 (which, multiplied by two partners, explains the £1m figure above) if you leave it to your children or grandchildren, or your estate as a whole is worth less than £2m.
There’s normally no tax to pay if you hand over the home before you die and live for another seven years or more.
When is the tax due, and how is it paid?
Inheritance tax is due within six months after the donor’s death. If it’s not paid by this time, the amount to be paid will start accruing interest according to the Bank of England’s base rate.
Funds from the estate are used to pay the tax to HM Revenue and Customs. This will be done by the person dealing with the estate, known as the “executor” if there is a will.
Are there any reliefs or exemptions?
You may be able to claim relief on gifts you give while you’re alive which are eligible to be taxed after your death.
A “taper relief” comes into effect if you lived for a certain number of years after giving the gift. The gifts are taxed on a sliding scale ranging from 32% if you lived for three to four years, to nothing if you lived for seven or more years.
You can give away a total of £3,000 worth of gifts each tax year without them being added to the value of your estate. This is known as your “annual exemption”. 
There are other reliefs available too:
What changes have been made? 
Rachel Reeves announced several changes to inheritance tax rules in last year’s budget.
One of the key announcements was that the £325,000 threshold we explained at the start of the post will be extended for a further two years until 2030, after remaining unchanged since 2009.
The chancellor also said inherited pensions, which are currently not counted for inheritance tax purposes, will be included from April 2027.
But perhaps the most notable announcement – and the one that’s caused the most uproar – is the change for combined business and agricultural assets, such as farms.
Although there will continue to be no inheritance tax on such assets worth less than £1m for now, from April 2026, those worth more than that will be taxed at an effective rate of 20%.
The announcement was met with anger from rural communities, with warnings the change could lead to food price rises and would have a “catastrophic” impact on family farms.
Co-op has launched a new Too Good to Waste scheme, offering members half-price baked goods every day. 
The retailer says the aim is to “reduce good waste and offer added value” to loyal customers. 
Its in-store bakery range will be reduced from 6pm each day. 
It will cover all loose and unpackaged bakery products, including all-butter croissants, cinnamon swirls and rosemary and rock salt focaccia. 
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
Once again Next, a bellwether for the health of the UK high street, has underpromised and overdelivered, suggesting it’s not all doom and gloom in the run-up to the November budget and that shoppers are willing to part with their cash.
UK sales at the high-street clothing and homeware retailer rose 5.4% on last year in the 13 weeks to 25 October. 
As a result of the better-than-expected performance, Next said it was upping its yearly profit forecast by £30m to £1.135bn. 
The retailer was leading the pack as the biggest gainer in the FTSE 100, the UK’s benchmark stock index.
Its share price rose nearly 6.7%, a significant sum that is helping the index push to new highs. 
Often what isn’t said at PMQs is as insightful as what is – that was the case today as Sir Keir Starmer dodged a question about whether he stands by his pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
The prime minister replied to Kemi Badenoch: “I’m glad that the leader of the opposition is now talking about the economy.”
He boasted that retail sales were “higher than expected”, inflation was “lower than expected”, and the stock market was “at an all-time high”.
But he did not answer Badenoch’s question, simply saying: “The budget is on 26 November and we will lay out our plans.”
An ominous omission?
Wizz Air has relaunched its unlimited flight package at a cost of €499 (£439) for 12 months. 
Subscribers can use the All You Can Fly membership to travel to hundreds of destinations as many times as they like over the course of a year, but there’s a catch: customers must book the flights within 72 hours of departure. 
You also need to know that each flight comes with a £9.99 booking fee, and the costs of booking a seat and adding luggage are not included. 
On the Wizz Air website, a “seat protection fee” ranges from ‎€50 (£44.03)  to ‎€150 (£132.09). Adding a bag costs between €15 (£13.21) and ‎€151.50 (£133.41). 
There are also only 10,000 memberships available across 34 countries.
The launch of the third phase follows incredible demand for the membership to date, the airline says. 
Since its launch last year, subscribers have flown an average of nine times a year.
Michael Delehant, Wizz Air’s senior chief commercial and operations officer, says: “We believe affordable prices should be matched with high quality operations and customer service – and we’re delivering. 
“This summer was our best on record, with significant improvements in on-time performance, flight completion and turnaround times – all while reaching the milestone of 1,000 flights a day.” 
Read all the T&Cs of the deal here.
The morning-after pill is now available free of charge at pharmacies across England. 
The move – hailed by officials as the biggest change to sexual health services since the 1960s – is expected to be a “game-changer” in making care more accessible to thousands of women. 
Emergency contraception is free from most GPs and sexual health clinics, but can cost up to £30 from pharmacies.
There is no need for an appointment with a doctor or clinic before collecting the pill. 
The morning-after pill has been free from most pharmacies, GP surgeries and sexual health clinics in Scotland since 2008 and in Wales since 2011. 
Prices for the most popular second-hand electric and hybrid cars have dropped by up to 37.5% in a year, according to the AA. 
The three most popular electric cars in the AA Used Car Index  – Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe and the Tesla Model 3 – have fallen in value by more than a fifth on average. 
The Lexus RX hybrid has had the sharpest decline, down 37.5%, or £10,000, in a year.
“The sharp decline in used EV prices over the past year signals a structural shift in the market,” James Hosking, managing director of AA Cars, said. 
“Vehicles that were once out of reach for many motorists are now entering a more affordable price bracket, widening access to electric motoring and accelerating second-hand adoption.” 
Here’s a look at the average prices of the most popular cars… 
A carrier bag at Tesco will cost you 40p from today.
The UK’s biggest supermarket is pushing up the price of its cheapest bag for life by 10p as it encourages customers to cut down on plastic. 
Shoppers have had mixed reactions, with some calling it “ridiculous” and others saying it’s time people “start adapting and stop whining”. 
“People are complaining. Just take your own bags. That was the whole purpose of bag charges: to encourage people to use reusable bags,” one person said on Facebook. 
Another said: “What a joke. It’s ridiculous. There are bigger problems in the world than all this plastic reduction crap… why not switch to paper bags like they had in the 1980s.” 
Tesco told Money: “We encourage customers to bring shopping bags with them to cut down on plastic, but we sell a wide range of reusable bags in case they are needed. 
“Our cheapest bags for life cost 40p and are made of 100% recycled plastic. They can be reused many times, and if they become worn out can be replaced for free at our customer service desks and recycled again.” 
The supermarket stopped selling single-use plastic bags in 2017. 
By law, retailers must charge a minimum of 10p for carrier bags in England, and they can be fined for not doing so. 
How much do other supermarkets charge? 
Households are spending more money a month on essential bills – but still have more spare cash left over, an annual index has revealed.
Britons are now spending an average of £1,657.67 a month on bills and expenses, an 8% increase since September 2024, MoneySuperMarket’s Household Money Index found. 
Yet the average person’s disposable income has risen too, up 32% from £684.70 to £900.91 a month.
There is regional disparity across the UK, however, with some parts of the country left with more disposable income than others. 
The average Londoner spends around £2,052.07 a month (66% of their income) on bills, but has around £1,056.93 in disposable income. 
People in Norwich spend around £1,476.31 (70.4% of their income) on outgoings and have just £620.69 left over. 
MoneySuperMarket’s index tracks what people are spending across 31 categories – from insurance, mortgages and utilities to subscriptions and groceries – on a quarterly basis.
It found energy bills fell by 3%, from £109.10 a month to £105.90, and there were bigger savings in mobile phone contracts or top-ups (25%) and life insurance (25%) in September. 
Consumer spending on TV licences fell from £30.40 to £20.40 with fewer people opting for one and people paying for on-demand subscriptions, it said. 
While some costs fell, others rose, such as childcare and school costs (23%), fuel (18%), mortgages (10%), groceries (8%) and pet costs (3%). 
Lis Barton, chief customer officer of MONY Group, the parent company of MoneySuperMarket, said: “As spending on household bills climbs, it’s more important than ever for people to compare prices regularly to ensure they’re getting the best deal.
“From energy and broadband to mobile contracts and insurance, savings made from switching could help offset rising costs in other areas, such as groceries and fuel.” 
Every month, the Money blog interviews top chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks, views on the industry and more. Today we speak to Sian Almond, senior chef de partie – and former breakfast supremo – at the Michelin-starred restaurant Pavyllon London.
My favourite budget recipe is… a spag bol, absolutely looooooaded with veg, is a total winner – aim for a 2:1 veg-to-meat ratio. Veg is cheap, and you probably already have all the spices and sauces on hand, so all you really need is a pack of good-quality organic beef and some tinned tomatoes. The trick is to make your mirepoix (veg base) about 10 times the usual size, blitzing all the veg in a food processor, then letting the sauce simmer gently for one to two hours. Done. Just like that, you’ve got six meals for the price of one.
My favourite cheap eat for under £15 is… Have you tried Whole Beast (various pop-ups in London, taking permanent resident in Brixton)? I would beg, borrow and steal for that burger – you’ve never tasted anything like it. They’ve actually won many awards for their burgers!
My favourite supermarket own-brand product is… the sour straps from Tesco (fizzy multicoloured belts), the heck. SO GOOD.
My favourite chain is… Hungry Jacks or, as it’s called in the UK, Burger King – for one item and one item only. The Whopper with cheese. The rest of the menu doesn’t exist for me. There’s just something about that flame-grilled patty and raw onion that just gets me… but you have to be lucky, though, because three out of five times it can be horrific.
The item restaurants make the most profit on is… add-ons. Mate. No chef wants you to customise their dishes, so we will charge you through the roof for that extra egg!
Restaurateurs/chefs should stop… following trends. Be unique! People like seeing different personalities – it’s refreshing.
The one thing you hate that some customers do is… act like we aren’t human beings, just servants. No thank you. Another one that drives us mad is when a table opens a tab, camps out for four hours and keeps adding bits of food here and there, so by the end we’re left with this absolutely massive bill we can’t close off because the table’s still open. Not great for the OCD…
On a fry-up, eggs are king of the plate… Also essential are the Cumberland and hash brown. Things that can get in the bin are soggy tomatoes – can’t stand them. The mushrooms better not be watery either!
The country that does breakfast better than anyone else is… Australia. When the sun’s out, it’s officially breakfast TIME. Nothing beats soaking up the rays with a delicious plate of food.
The best sauce for a breakfast bap is… Masterfoods Barbeque – please come to the UK guys!
My controversial food opinion is… it’s not that serious.
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