HMRC is reviewing around 45 million PAYE accounts to identify people who have paid too much or too little income tax, with P800 tax calculation letters already being issued and checks continuing until November 2026.

The exercise is the tax authority’s annual PAYE reconciliation, which matches the tax actually deducted from pay over the year against what each employee should have paid. Overpayments are being prioritised, meaning workers who are owed money will be contacted first.

Being told a refund is due, however, does not necessarily mean the money will arrive on its own. HMRC has changed the process for most workers claiming refunds that cover multiple years, and once a claim has been processed they now need to actively request their repayment. The change matters because the money left on the table is already substantial: more than 730,000 tax refunds went unclaimed last year, at an average of £855 each.

The timetable is worth noting for anyone who has not yet heard anything. HMRC’s guidance says tax calculation letters are sent out between June and March of the following tax year, so silence in August is not evidence that a PAYE record is correct.

Why umbrella workers are more exposed

The UK’s estimated 700,000 umbrella workers have particular reason to pay attention. They are taxed through PAYE in the same way as other employees, but they move between assignments and may switch umbrella companies or other PAYE employers more frequently, which makes keeping track of tax codes and HMRC records harder.

HMRC itself says people can pay the wrong amount of tax after finishing one job and starting another, or because they have been put on the wrong tax code. Its own guidance for umbrella employees tells them to keep payslips and to check that the tax and National Insurance deducted matches their personal tax account.

Seb Maley, chief executive of Qdos, an insurance provider for flexible workers, said the UK’s “estimated 700,000 umbrella workers should pay particularly close attention. Moving between assignments and PAYE employers means there can be more changes to keep track of. HMRC itself recognises that starting and finishing jobs can result in people paying the wrong amount of tax. So if you work flexibly, don’t assume your tax position is automatically correct.”

He added: “And crucially, being told you’re owed money by HMRC doesn’t always mean it will simply land in your account. Depending on the circumstances, you may still need to actively claim it. More than 730,000 refunds went unclaimed last year, averaging £855. If you receive a P800, check the figures carefully, follow HMRC’s instructions and make sure you claim anything you’re owed.”

The umbrella sector has been under scrutiny for years, with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation among those urging recruiters to check compliance at the umbrella firms they use, and payroll deductions in the model have repeatedly proved harder for workers to follow than standard employment.

Underpayments and the scam risk

The reconciliation cuts both ways. Where too little tax has been paid, HMRC will usually collect the outstanding amount automatically through PAYE, so an unexpected letter can mean a lower take home figure rather than a cheque. That adjustment reaches the worker through their employer’s payroll rather than through a separate bill, and the checks generating those letters run until November.

There is also a fraud dimension. HMRC has warned that it will never ask customers to claim a refund by replying to a text message or an email, which makes the current round of genuine letters a useful cover for scammers. Anyone contacted out of the blue with an offer to process a rebate should treat it as suspect and go to HMRC’s own channels instead.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

In June, SoftBank sold a 3.25 per cent stake in Lenskart for Rs 2,873 crore.

In the latest transaction, Japan-based SoftBank Group, through its affiliate SVF II Lightbulb (Cayman) Ltd, offloaded a total of 4.5 crore equity shares in 22 tranches, amounting to a 2.58 per cent stake in Gurugram-based Lenskart, as per the block deal data on the BSE.

The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 641.75 apiece, taking the combined deal size to Rs 2,887.87 crore.

The latest transaction brought SoftBank’s holding in Lenskart down to 7.28 per cent from 9.86 per cent, although it remains the second-largest public shareholder in the eyewear firm.

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Platinum Jasmine A 2018 Trust, an arm of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, continues to be the largest public shareholder of Lenskart with a 9.77 per cent stake.
The block deal saw participation from a wide range of institutional investors.Domestic buyers included National Pension System Trust and mutual funds managed by SBI, Edelweiss, Nippon India, Franklin Templeton, HDFC, HSBC, ICICI Prudential, Motilal Oswal and Sundaram.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance was also among the buyers.

Among foreign investors, financial services company Societe Generale picked up the largest number of shares, acquiring 1,07,35,000 shares, representing a 0.62 per cent stake.

The shares were bought at the same price, taking the value of the transaction to Rs 688.91 crore.

Other foreign investors that lapped up shares of Lenskart included Ghisallo Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas Financial Markets, Vanguard, Wasatch Global Investors, and Integrated Core Strategies Asia.

Other buyers included Frankfurt-based Universal Investment, Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System and Kuwait Investment Authority.

Shares of Lenskart Solutions fell 0.28 per cent to close at Rs 659.70 apiece on the BSE.

NEW YORK — Outage tracking service Downdetector recorded a rise in user reports of problems with CNN beginning around 12:25 p.m. EDT on Monday, with many viewers describing difficulties accessing live channels, video streams and the network’s mobile app.

The monitoring site posted an update noting that user reports indicated problems with CNN and invited feedback on how the issues were affecting people. Reports concentrated on live television feeds, streaming video and app functionality, according to the breakdown of submitted complaints. A smaller share of users flagged general website access problems.

Downdetector and similar services rely on crowdsourced reports rather than direct monitoring of a company’s servers. Spikes in submissions can signal widespread technical difficulties, localized network issues, high traffic or problems limited to specific platforms or regions. Independent uptime checks from other monitoring tools showed mixed results during the same period, with some registering the CNN website as reachable while user complaints remained elevated on outage maps.

CNN, a major cable news network and digital publisher owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, delivers content through traditional cable and satellite distribution, its website, mobile applications and various streaming platforms. Interruptions to live programming or on-demand video can affect viewers seeking breaking news, analysis or continuous coverage. During periods of high news interest, traffic surges can strain systems and amplify the visibility of any technical problems.

User reports of this type often appear first on social media and specialized trackers before a company issues an official status update. News organizations typically investigate such spikes by examining content delivery networks, content management systems, authentication services and third-party streaming partners. Resolution times vary depending on whether the cause is a software deployment, capacity limit, regional connectivity issue or broader infrastructure event.

In recent years, digital news platforms have invested in redundant systems and content delivery networks to reduce the impact of outages. Even so, complex multi-platform operations that include live video, personalized apps and high-volume websites remain vulnerable to intermittent disruptions. Viewers frequently report problems that affect one access method while others continue to function, such as a cable feed working while an app stream fails, or the website loading slowly on certain devices or networks.

When outage reports rise, consumers are commonly advised to try alternative access points: switching from an app to a web browser, testing a different network connection, clearing app caches or checking whether the issue is confined to a particular device. Cable and satellite subscribers may experience different symptoms from those relying solely on internet-delivered streams. Regional differences can also appear if the problem is tied to a specific content delivery node or internet service provider.

The Monday reports arrived without an immediate public statement from CNN detailing the cause or expected duration. Companies in the media sector sometimes address technical issues through status pages, social media accounts or customer support channels once the scope becomes clear. In the absence of an official confirmation, the volume and geographic spread of user submissions on tracking sites remain the primary public indicator of service health.

Outage trackers such as Downdetector aggregate reports in real time and display heat maps and problem-type percentages. For CNN, the majority of submissions during the elevated period focused on live channel access, followed by video streaming and app-related complaints. Such distributions can help technical teams prioritize investigation, though they do not by themselves confirm a company-wide failure.

News consumption habits have shifted significantly toward digital platforms, making website and app reliability more critical. Live events, election coverage, breaking international developments and weather emergencies all drive sudden increases in concurrent users. Systems designed for average load can face strain under those conditions, leading to buffering, login failures or incomplete page loads that register as outages from the user’s perspective.

Similar spikes have occurred across the media industry when major stories break or when underlying cloud or content delivery providers experience their own issues. Distinguishing between a provider-side problem and a problem specific to one publisher often requires correlation with other services that share the same infrastructure. On Monday, the concentration of reports around CNN suggested the complaints were more targeted than a general internet disruption.

For viewers, temporary workarounds include using alternative news sources, switching devices or waiting for automatic recovery. Persistent problems sometimes resolve after an app update, a forced refresh or a change in network. Cable customers experiencing issues with the linear channel may need to reboot set-top boxes or check signal strength, steps that differ from troubleshooting an internet stream.

The episode highlights the dual nature of modern news delivery. Traditional broadcast and cable distribution continue to serve large audiences, while digital platforms expand reach and enable on-demand viewing. Maintaining consistent performance across both environments requires ongoing investment in capacity, monitoring and rapid response capabilities.

As of the latest available user reports, the elevated complaint volume on Downdetector began in the early afternoon Eastern time and prompted the service to flag potential problems. Whether the underlying cause was a brief technical glitch, a capacity constraint or an issue limited to specific user segments remained unclear without further official information.

Media companies routinely monitor these public indicators alongside their internal dashboards. A surge in external reports can accelerate internal escalation even when automated systems have not yet triggered alerts. Conversely, a high volume of complaints sometimes reflects localized conditions that do not affect the majority of users.

In the broader context of digital media reliability, Monday’s reports fit a familiar pattern: a noticeable uptick in user submissions, public discussion on tracking platforms, and a period of uncertainty until either the problem resolves or the company provides an update. CNN’s multi-platform presence means that any disruption can surface quickly across social media and outage sites, amplifying the visibility of even short-lived issues.

Viewers seeking continuous coverage during such periods often turn to secondary sources or wait for restoration of their preferred access method. The combination of live video demands and high concurrent traffic makes news platforms particularly sensitive to performance variations. Ongoing improvements in content delivery technology aim to reduce the frequency and duration of these incidents, yet complete elimination remains elusive given the complexity of the systems involved.

The Downdetector notice served as an early public signal that some CNN users were encountering difficulties. Subsequent monitoring will determine whether the reports subside quickly or persist long enough to warrant a formal explanation from the network. Until then, the user-generated data remains the most immediate available measure of the situation.

This article was written by

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Morrisons has launched a new supermarket price match commitment covering more than 500 weekly essentials, as the grocer seeks to drive a recovery in its share of the UK grocery market

Morrisons has promised customers that it will not be undercut on price by its key supermarket competitors across hundreds of everyday items. The commitment signals a potential further escalation in the price war amongst the UK’s leading grocers as they compete to attract more shoppers.

Morrisons, which operates approximately 500 supermarkets and 1,700 convenience shops, will be hoping its pricing strategy can help fuel a recovery in its slice of the UK grocery market, which has dwindled in recent years.

It ranked as the sixth-largest supermarket group by market share, holding an 8.5% share, in the 12 weeks to August, according to recent figures from Worldpanel. The Bradford-based retailer was recently overtaken by Lidl and continues to trail behind Aldi, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

On Monday, Morrisons unveiled its “unbeatable prices” commitment, vowing it will not be beaten on price by any of its five major supermarket rivals. The pledge will encompass more than 500 weekly essentials, ensuring shoppers can purchase products at the same price or lower than they would find at competing stores.

The chain confirmed it will guarantee low prices on fresh produce including bananas, tomatoes and carrots, as well as staples such as bread, butter and chicken fillets.

The commitment also extends to fresh lines across the retailer’s Market Street counters, including its fishmongers and bakeries. The move follows two years after Morrisons initially introduced a price match against hundreds of Aldi and Lidl products as part of its counter-offensive against the German discount retailers.

Alex Paver, customer and marketing director at Morrisons, said: “Customers shouldn’t have to choose between great prices and great quality – and at Morrisons, they don’t have to. Our unbeatable price commitment means customers can trust that the prices on these products simply won’t be beaten by Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi or Lidl.

“And uniquely at Morrisons, that unbeatable value comes alongside the quality, freshness and expert service we’re famous for – from bread baked fresh in store to food prepared by our skilled Market Street colleagues.”

The announcement arrives days after accounts revealed that Morrisons shed almost 5,000 jobs last year as part of efforts by the private equity-backed grocer to shore up its finances and turn around its performance.

The company is aiming to take advantage of a surge in demand for skilled people in data centres and other critical infrastructure

Leeds-based Human Capital Investment Group (HCIP) is set to accelerate its expansion across global mission critical infrastructure markets following an investment from a Northern Powerhouse fund.

The firm has secured investment from the NPIF II – NEL Smaller Loans, which is managed by NEL Fund Managers as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II). The investment will support the launch and growth of Stratum Partners, HCIG’s specialist engineering and construction talent business, which is focused on delivering engineering and commissioning talent and specialist talent solutions across sectors including data centres, energy and power infrastructure, and complex technical construction.

The investment will provide growth capital to accelerate the delivery of its model. It will allow the company to scale at pace internationally, while continuing to strengthen its operational infrastructure and long-term platform strategy.

A key focus for the business will be the continued growth of the global data centre and digital infrastructure markets, which has been seen particularly in the US.

Ross Bayston, founder of HCIG, said: “This investment represents a significant milestone for both HCIG and Stratum Partners. We’ve already proven the model and, with new investment, are now scaling at pace. Driven by surging global demand across data centres, power and energy, our focus is on building specialist talent businesses supporting critical infrastructure.

“What stood out with NEL was their understanding of ambitious founder-led businesses and their pragmatic, partnership-led approach throughout the process. The relationship felt commercially aligned from day one.”

Susan Snowdon, investment executive at NEL, led on the investment. She said: “The investment into Stratum Partners comes at an exciting time for both the business and the wider sector.

“We regularly speak to companies facing recruitment challenges, and with Ross’s background and expertise, I have every confidence that he and his team will make a meaningful difference to the businesses they support. I wish them every success as they deliver on their growth plans.”

Operated by the British Business Bank, the £660m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II provides loans from £25,000 to £2m and equity investment of up to £5m to help a range of small and medium-sized businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead. The fund was established to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across the North.

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Europe is taking an increasingly tough line on trade with China, accusing Beijing of subsidising exports and flooding European markets with cheap goods. Businesses and governments warn that Chinese competition is putting European industries and jobs at risk, while China’s growing dominance of supply chains is adding to concerns in Brussels. Ed Butler asks whether these accusations are fair, what Europe can do about them, and whether the two sides are heading for a new trade war.

Producer/presenter: Ed Butler

You can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

(Photo: A staff member prepares for the arrival of Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and EU Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera during China-EU Sixth High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue, Beijing, 14 July 2025, Credit: Reuters)

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