Tax, housing, credit cards and the bank holiday weekend

Some people are being hit with an unexpected tax bill after unlocking their money from a pension pot, according to Citizens Advice. Others are facing reductions in welfare payments owing to the income received by releasing the funds.

‘Pension freedoms’ began in April 2015. Since then, anyone aged 55 and over has been free to withdraw as much as they like from their pension pots, subject to income tax. A report by Citizens Advice looked into the cases of 500 people who have accessed their pension pots. Of those, 9 per cent had unexpected tax issues and 6 per cent found that their benefits were affected. Nearly twice as many people used the money to pay for daily living costs rather than pay off debts. Housing shortage

A chronic shortage of bungalows has left more than half a million over-55s trapped in large houses, according to a report published in the Daily Mail.

While one in six homes built in the 1980s were bungalows, the figure is now less than one in 60. With