TEN million pensioners face losing the Winter Fuel Payment – if you are one of them call our team of experts TODAY.

We want to help the thousands of pensioners who are worrying about paying their energy bills with tips and advice. And we want to help determine if they may be in line for Pension Credit.

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Our Winter Fuel SOS Crew, including energy experts and consumer champions, are available today to answer your questions from 7am to 7pm, or you can email.

You can even contact on behalf of pension-age friends with their permission.

PENSIONS Minister Emma Reynolds has backed our Winter Fuel SOS campaign to help thousands of older people with their bills and heating costs this winter.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in July that only households in England and Wales that receive Pension Credit or certain means-tested benefits will be entitled to the Winter Fuel Payment this year.

Previously it was available to everyone aged over 66.

Charity Age UK yesterday published an impact assessment that showed 800,000 hard-up pensioners are missing out on Pension Credit and will now also lose the Winter Fuel Payment. Many wrongly believe they aren’t entitled to it.

Backing our campaign to help older people register for Pension Credit, Emma Reynolds said: “It is vital we make sure that pensioners know about all the support they are entitled to.

Not only does Pension Credit top up income, it also opens up further support

Emma Reynolds

“Our drive to boost Pension Credit take-up has already seen a 152 per cent increase in claims and Sun readers can help spread the word.

“If you have a friend, neighbour or relative who is a pensioner and on a low income, telling them about Pension Credit could boost their income by an average of £3,900.

“Not only does Pension Credit top up income, it also opens up further support, such as the Winter Fuel Payment.”

Pension Credit can be back-dated by three months, which means the last date to claim and still get the Winter Fuel Payment is December 21.

As our Winter Fuel SOS experts take your calls, here we bust some Pension Credit myths.

What is Pension Credit?

If you are over state pension age Pension Credit tops up your retirement income to a minimum of £218.15 per week if you are single and £332.95 for couples. It also opens up access to other benefits.

I have savings and own a home, can I still get it?

You can still be eligible. You may even get help towards interest payments on your mortgage. How much you get depends on your income and savings.

Is there any point if I will only get a small amount?

Yes. If you get any amount of Pension Credit you may also be able to get help with other costs including Housing Benefit if you rent, a free TV licence if you’re over 75, help with your heating costs and more.

My mum has a severe disability, is there any additional help for her?

Yes, those with a severe disability could get an extra £81.50 a week if they get any of the following:

• Attendance Allowance.
• Armed Forces Independence Payment.
• The middle or highest rate from the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
• The daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
• The daily living component of Adult Disability Payment (ADP) at the standard or enhanced rate.

I am a carer for my grandchild, is there any additional help for me?

Yes, if you’re a carer you could get an extra £45.60 if you get Carer’s Allowance or Carer Support Payment.

And, if you and your partner have both claimed or are getting Carer’s Allowance, you can both get this extra amount.

I was turned down for Pension Credit before, is it worth claiming again?

Definitely, especially if your circumstances have changed.

Is there a way of estimating how much I could get?

There is a Pension Credit calculator at gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator to help you work out how much you could be eligible for before applying.

Alternatively, you can contact the Pension Service helpline on 0800 731 046 if you’re not sure whether you’re eligible for extra amounts.

OK, so how can I apply and is it complicated?

Claiming is straightforward. You can do it:

• Online at gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim.
• Over the phone by calling 0800 99 1234.
• By printing out and filling in a paper application form.

And if you need some extra support, a friend or voluntary organisation such as Age UK can help you make a claim.

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

General Atlantic’s chief executive said higher taxation of capital gains in the United Kingdom would not affect his firm’s approach to investing, and that dealmaking would improve next year regardless of who won the US election.

Bill Ford, who heads the global private equity firm with $83bn in assets under management, added that companies with market capitalisations of more than $10bn would drive the IPO market going forward.

“Investors want more market cap,” Ford said at the Financial Times Due Diligence conference in London, adding that small companies would struggle in the IPO market because “people want liquidity, and it’s very hard to generate sufficient liquidity when you’re a lower cap and you’re a long way from being included in an index”.

He added that the growth of the exchange traded funds market had been “negative for the IPO market” because “ETFs don’t buy IPOs, active investors buy IPOs”.

A drought in listings has persisted into this year in the wake of higher interest rates. Companies have raised about $26bn by going public in New York this year, roughly the amount that was being raised every six months in the years before the 2020-21 boom.

But Ford predicted that upcoming big-ticket listings, such as the expected flotation of Chinese budget fashion retailer Shein, could rouse activity.

“It’s the kind of IPO that could excite investors and . . . reopen an IPO market.”

The slump in listings has been part of a wider dearth of dealmaking that Ford put down to higher rates and t elections taking place in the US and elsewhere in 2024.

But he said next year would be an “active year” once the political uncertainty had subsided and the “rate cycle has turned”. He added that “we’re looking at a soft-landing scenario”.

He said the prediction was not contingent on who won the US election, although “everybody is hoping for a change in the antitrust environment. I know in the US, probably more broadly, that will allow strategic buyers to be more active . . . but I think it’s irrespective of who wins the election.”

Turning his attention to the taxation of carried interest — the share of profits that private equity investors get to keep on successful deals — Ford said he did not know that changes in the UK would “dramatically change what we do or our style of investing”.

Debates around the taxation of carried interest have long percolated through elections on both sides of the Atlantic.

The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had put the industry on notice of her plans to close a “loophole” that has long allowed the windfalls to be taxed as capital gain. However, the FT recently reported that she was looking for a compromise after several warnings that boosting the rate could trigger an exodus of buyout executives.

“In the US the debate is, will it be the equivalent to ordinary income and what will that rate be? You know, everybody in the world would like lower taxes or higher taxes [depending on one’s political affiliation], but I don’t think it would change what we do,” said Ford.

“We’ve got to generate investment excellence for our clients to stay in business, we’ve got to produce the results they expect of us,” he added. “That more than taxes or anything else is what motivates us.”

Columbia Hillen

Sitting on my upper-floor verandah at the Hotel Norman Paris gazing down on cobbled streets, it’s hard to believe I’m just a minute’s walk from the ever-busy Champs-Élysées.

It’s soooo quiet.

Columbia Hillen

Formerly the Vigne Hotel, the building in the 8th arrondissement ten minutes from the Arc de Triomphe was purchased by hospitality entrepreneur Olivier Bertrand, renovated for a year and opened last September. It’s named after Norman Ives, a mid-20th-century painter and graphic designer who became a major player in American modernism. 

Located on the corner of Rue Balzac and Rue de Châteaubriand, the 37-room, 5-star boutique hotel stands out architecturally, crowned as it is by a large dome with a creamy stone facade and flower boxes on each floor. 

Columbia Hillen

Curved-glass windows and metal railings at its corner indicate where junior suites with balconies are located. 

Beyond the revolving entrance door and the velvet curtain embracing it, I step straight into a cozy lounge featuring wood and leather furnishings and eclectic artworks unearthed, I’m informed later, in antique shops nationwide, all emblematic of the era in which Ives flourished. 

Columbia Hillen

Here, courtesy of French architect Thomas Vidalenc, are vintage sofas in green, blue and tan, parquet floors, thick rugs with geometric patterns, ’50s furniture, low wooden tables and American paintings of the ‘70s.  A shelf is lined with vintage brass tea caddies, marble candle-holders, mini-busts and ornamental vases. There’s even a fireplace. A bar with a speckled grey and black counter bordered by potted wild banana plants, stone pillars and intricately carved wooden stools line one side of the room.

Columbia Hillen

It’s certainly a cozy place to relax. 

In contrast, the reception desk almost seems like an afterthought, tucked away as it is discreetly in a little side room.

Columbia Hillen

My room, 305, a corner suite, featured a terrace with olive plants in pots, two chairs and a coffee table. Inside, a gleaming lacquered rosewood headboard is balanced by soft natural wool curtains. 

Columbia Hillen

Furnishings include a leather lounge chair in the middle of the room, a checkered sofa, a glass-topped coffee table, a stand-alone TV and an oak bureau with a built-in mini-bar. Abstract paintings adorn the walls and floor-to-ceiling windows permit an abundance of natural light. Interestingly, a kettle offers multi-temperature settings for tea-making. My bathroom features a bathtub with shower and a mosaic-tile floor and a marble sink on a vanity of rosewood, glass and steel. 

Columbia Hillen

Dining is in the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant with a mirrored ceiling from which hang lines of balloon-like lamps. Classic in style with square wooden tables ribbed with metal, its mood is enhanced by a sofa with vibrant, multicolored cushions and abstract paintings on the walls. Seating is either on wood and leather chairs or banquette-style. A shelf displays a range of wooden sculptures and glass artifacts. 

Columbia Hillen

Guests can also enjoy alfresco meals, in an inner courtyard with a paved stone floor, wall heaters and decorative wood panels on the walls.

Breakfast is continental buffet with some cooked dishes such as eggs Benedict, mixed-grills and avocado on toast and due to the influence of Chef Thiou (nee Apiradee Thirakomen) you can also start your day with Thai tea and crêpes in condensed milk. While I didn’t eat dinner there, the restaurant offers a selection of Thai dishes. As added relaxation, the hotel also has a sauna and dipping pool, gym and two treatment rooms in an underground spa.

Columbia Hillen

Interestingly, Bertrand, the owner, seems to have been in a restless purchasing mood over the last few years, having recently taken over two other hotels in the same neighborhood, namely the Château des Fleurs, and Hotel Balzac just down the street from Hotel Norman.

Columbia Hillen

Together with his sisters, he also owns the renowned Parisian hotels, Saint James Paris and Relais Christine, as well as the high-end tea rooms, Maison Angelina. 

If you require an upscale hotel in a central Parisian location with easy access to shopping outlets, museums and art galleries, Hotel Norman may well be the place for you. 

eBay will clamp down on the sale of e-bikes and e-bike batteries in the UK from 31 October, the BBC has learned.

The firm says that only “eligible business sellers” will be allowed to list them after this date.

It did not explain what the necessary criteria would be.

E-bikes, which have electrically-assisted pedals and are battery-powered, have soared in popularity, but incidents involving battery fires have also risen.

The London Fire Brigade recently said it recorded 155 e-bike fires in 2023, up by 78% from the previous year.

The brigade warned e-bike users to check their batteries after battery packs were officially classed as “dangerous” products by the UK’s regulatory body.

In June, a coroner also called for government action after the death of a man whose home caught fire when an e-bike battery pack he was charging overheated and ignited.

“Consumer safety is a top priority for eBay,” an eBay spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, it said it would also audit sellers to make sure they had the CE mark for safety documentation for listed e-bike products.

A quick look at the eBay platform reveals nearly 3,000 used e-bikes currently for sale in the UK.

The charity Electrical Safety First said it welcomed the firm’s change in policy.

But it suggested that new laws were also needed because of the fire safety risks posed by the vehicles.

“Whilst this voluntary move is welcome, we continue to call for online marketplaces to be legally obligated to take reasonable steps to ensure products sold via their sites are safe,” said a spokesperson.

The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, could potentially enforce this in future.

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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Donald Trump had as many as seven conversations with Vladimir Putin after he left the White House, according to explosive new reports that raise fresh questions about the former US president’s relationship with the Russian leader.

The claims stem from a forthcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, due to be published next week. The Washington Post, his longtime employer, first reported on the book’s contents.

Woodward’s book also reveals Trump secretly sent Putin Covid-19 tests for his personal use at the height of the pandemic, the report said.

The book, War, reportedly describes a scene earlier this year, when Trump told an aide to leave his Mar-a-Lago office so he could speak privately by phone with Putin. The unnamed aide cited in the book suggested the former president and Russia’s leader had spoken as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021.

The reports raise new questions about Trump’s relationship with Putin with less than a month to go until the US presidential election.

Trump, the Republican candidate, trails his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, by more than three points, according to the Financial Times poll tracker, although they are locked in a virtual tie in all seven swing states that will determine who wins November’s vote.

A spokesperson for Simon & Schuster, Woodward’s publisher, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump campaign’s communications director Steven Cheung rejected the reports and launched a personal attack on Woodward, calling him a “truly demented and deranged man”.

Cheung said Trump gave Woodward “absolutely no access for this trash book”, adding: “Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally.”

Harris told radio personality Howard Stern in an interview on Tuesday that the new reports demonstrated “who Trump is”.

“People in America were struggling to get tests and this guy is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator for his personal use?” she said.

“That is just the most recent stark example of who Trump is. He secretly sent Covid test kits for the personal use of Putin of Russia, an adversary to the United States, when he was talking about Americans should be putting bleach in their blood.”

Woodward, 81, became famous in the 1970s when he and fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein broke stories about the Watergate scandal, which led to then president Richard Nixon’s resignation. He has written more than a dozen bestselling books, including four volumes on the Trump presidency.

Trump has sued Woodward over a 2022 audiobook based on 20 interviews that Woodward conducted with the former president between 2016 and 2020. Trump has argued that publishing the tapes violates his copyright, while Simon & Schuster has repeatedly filed motions to dismiss the case.

Trump’s possible return to the White House could have major implications for Russia, Ukraine and the Nato alliance. The former president — who called Putin a “genius” after Russia invaded Ukraine again in 2022 — has said he would end the fighting in Ukraine on “day one” if he is re-elected, but has not detailed how he would do so. In last month’s presidential debate, Trump declined to say that he wanted Ukraine to win the war.

Harris has accused Trump of pandering to Putin and told CBS News in an interview that aired on Monday night that she would not meet “bilaterally” with the Russian president unless his Ukrainian counterparts were offered a seat at the negotiating table.