Money blog: The one supplement experts agree is worth every penny (2025)

With bills going up and Christmas spending looming, this time of year can put pressure on even the best-planned budgets.

But there are some payments and discounts available to pensioners and benefit recipients from 1 December that may help ease the pinch.

Christmas bonus

Certain benefits recipients are entitled to a £10 Christmas bonus from the Department for Work and Pensions.

The cash is paid into bank accounts before 1 January - but often in the first week of December.

To view a list of qualifying benefits, head to the government website.

Cold weather payments

The government pays £25 for each seven-day period between 1 November and 31 March when the average temperature dips below freezing.

You may be eligible if you receive Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, or Support for Mortgage Interest.

Find more details here.

Warm home discount

This is a one-off £150 discount applied to your energy bills during winter if your supplier is signed up to the scheme.

It applies to people on low-income-related benefits and those receivingthe "guarantee element" of Pension Credit.

A letter should arrive between October and January telling you if you are eligible or if the government requires more information, with a deadline of 28 February to respond to the latter.

For more eligibility criteria, take a look at the government's website.

BySarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter

It should be a good day for housebuilders with the surprise news that house prices are becoming more expensive at a rate not seen in two years.

But instead, a key company pushing down the FTSE 100, causing it to rise only slightly (0.14%), is one of Britain's biggest housebuilders - Vistry. It's the biggest faller in the index with its share price down 3.58%.

It's followed by other major builders Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey on the list of the biggest fallers of the UK's benchmark stock index.

Government plans to fix cladding on some high-rise buildings by 2029 could be contributing to the drop.

The bigger and more UK-focused FTSE 250 is also down 0.05%.

Sterling is performing well, but is stronger against the euro than the dollar. You can buy €1.20 for a pound, a figure that had been at an eight-year high until recently.

Against the dollar, the pound is weaker, below the summer high of $1.30. It now sits at 1.272 after rising through Monday.

Oil is still comparatively low at $72.64 for a barrel of Brent crude. Less than two months ago, the going rate was $80.93.

Nationwide has increased the price of its Flex Plus accounts by £5 a month.

From 1 December, customers have to pay £18 per month, or £216 a year - a £60 annual increase.

It's the first increase of its kind since 2017 and applies to both new and existing customers.

Flex Plus comes with a host of insurances that mean it may still be the best deal for you.

This includes Aviva travel insurance, Assurant mobile phone insurance and AA vehicle breakdown cover.

But if insurance is not a priority, it may be worth looking at what alternatives are on the market now the price has risen.

Remember, though, that without being a member of Nationwide, you won't have access to the Flex Regular Saver or Flex Instant Saver accounts.

ByOllie Cooper, live news reporter

Welcome to the latest part of my series on fitness supplements - where I aim to discover whether they are helping you get ripped, or you're getting ripped off.

I've enlisted the help of performance nutritionistAndrew PettsandArj Thiruchelvam, personal trainer and head coach at Performance Physique, to analyse 12 different supplements every day over the next two weeks - and today we're looking at one that is used way beyond the fitness community.

Vitamin D

There's little debate about the importance of this supplement, but there is scholarly discussion around whether it's best to absorb vitamin D from pills, drops, food, sunlight or in another way.

What does it do?

In short, it's a super vitamin that brings a wealth of benefits.

Arj says: "It improves the immune system and bone health, with reduced risk of fracture and bone loss. It has a potential role to reduce the impact of the development of CVD, cancer, IBD and AutoImmune disorders, as well as reducing depressive symptoms, improving strength and potentially fat loss."

All good reasons to keep your levels high - but you should also supplement to make sure they don't fall too low.

"Low vitamin D levels can affect health and immunity as well as the health of our bones and muscle function," Andrew says.

How do we get it naturally?

There's a myth that suggests sunlight itself gives you vitamin D, when what really happens is that the ultraviolet rays trigger a process in your body that makes the vitamin for you.

"We each have vitamin D receptor cells that, through a chain of reactions starting with the conversion of cholesterol in the skin, produce vitamin D3 when they're exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) from the sun," Yale Medicine dermatologistDavid J Leffell explains.

In summer, spending as little as 15 minutes with exposed limbs absorbing UV rays can allow your body to trigger enough vitamin D synthesis, according to Andrew.

We can also get relatively small amounts from fish (tuna and salmon), egg yolk, mushrooms and fortified foods, but you'd need to eat an awful lot of these foods to hit your recommended daily intake (scholars suggest anywhere between 1000-2000 IU daily).

What about in winter?

As you've probably guessed, we in the UK have very low vitamin D because we're not exposed to sunlight year-round.

Both Arj and Andrew highly recommend eating the aforementioned foods and supplementing vitamin D in the colder months to keep levels topped up.

However, it's incredibly important you don't consume too much.

Not only will you not gain any extra benefits - and you'll be effectively wasting money on supplements - but you could put yourself at risk.

That's because the most common tablet of vitamin D (called D3) is "fat soluble" -which means it is stored in the body and therefore if you consume too much, it can be toxic.

What/how to take supplements

There are sprays, gels and tablets on the market, with fierce debates around which is the most effective - and therefore the best value.

Oral sprays may be absorbed up to 2.6 times better than soft gelatin capsules, especially for people with intestinal malabsorption, according to some studies, although others suggest there is little to no difference.

With that in mind, it's probably best to pick whatever works best for you.

As we mentioned, D3 (which is shown to be generally much more effective than the other supplement on the market, D2) is fat soluble, so it's best to take it with a meal if you can.

Verdict: A must

It's a rare thing for the scientific community to almost universally thumbs-up a supplement, but in this case, the science doesn't lie.

Getting it from foods and natural sunlight is always preferred, but taking vitamin D supplements in the winter is essential for your general health.

It's the only supplement in this series that both of our experts give 10/10 - and considering how cheap it is, this one feels like a no-brainer.

You can read the other parts of this series below...

BySarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter

House prices are now growing far higher than expected and at the fastest annual rate in nearly two years, the UK's largest building society has said.

In the year up to November, houses became 3.7% more valuable, according to Nationwide. Not since November 2022 have prices been rising so fast.

Prices are now just 1% below the all-time highs recorded in the summer of 2022.

The high increases reported today are significantly above economist forecasts. A rise of just 2.4% had been expected by economists polled by the Reuters news agency.

Even Nationwide has described the price growth as "surprising" as it said homes are unaffordable for many by historic standards.

When compared with average incomes, house prices are also still relatively high. The average property now costs £268,144.

The increase has been attributed to economic conditions, namely low unemployment, above-inflation wage rises and low household debt. If these conditions remain, as expected, then house prices will continue to rise.

The boss ofGail's Bakeryhas seemingly hit out at her former employee Yotam Ottolenghi, saying she never liked working with him.

Gail Mejia, co-founder of the upmarket bakery, criticised the restaurateur for poaching her team when he set up his own business.

She said the British-Israeli chef, who earned his stripes as Ms Mejia's pastry chef, wasn't all that during his time under her stewardship and that she didn't enjoy working with him.

"He didn't bring us some sort of sensation, or cake recipe, or a new concept, or new product. Nothing of the kind," she told digital newsletter Air Mail.

Ottolenghi had worked at Ms Mejia's first venture, Baker & Spice, which opened in 1995. He opened his own restaurant chain in Notting Hill in 2002 and reportedly took Ms Mejia's entire team with him.

"You work for me for seven years," she continued. "You have a fantastic time doing it. You have complete freedom to create whatever you damn well like."

Ms Mejia founded Gail's in north London in the 1990s with Ran Avidan.

The chain now has more than 130 bakeries across the country and saw its sales grow 32% in the last financial year ahead of a rumoured sale of the business in 2025.

BySarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter

Typhoo Tea has been bought out of administration for £10.2m.

Less than a week after administrators were appointed, a buyer confirmed plans to purchase the 121-year-old business.

Consumer goods wholesaler Supreme has announced it is to be the new owner.

There will be no disruption to supply during the acquisition process, Supreme said.

You can read the full story here...

A government savings account designed to help first-time buyers get on the ladder is in danger of leaving thousands of young Britons with far less money than if they've saved elsewhere.

LISAs, introduced in 2016, allow Britons to save £4,000 annually towards their first house deposit, with the government topping this up by as much as £1,000 each year.

It can be a fantastic leg up for people - but one of the rules is that any house bought using the LISA must not exceed a value of £450,000.

That figure has remained unchanged since 2017, but house prices have risen sharply in many parts of the country since then.

Analysts at AJ Bell argue that, as a result, would-be property owners in 54 areas will soon be effectively "frozen out" of buying a home in their chosen area with a LISA.

And if they withdraw money from their LISA to buy a house worth more than £450,000, they'll be fined 25% of their savings.

The maths...

On £20,000 saved, the 25% government bonus is £5,000 - so you've got £25,000. But 25% of £25,000 is £6,250, leaving someone with £18,750 - less than they originally saved.

"Aspiring homeowners could be frozen out of using a Lifetime ISA unless this flaw in the system is fixed,"AJ Bell investment analyst Dan Coatsworth says.

"Even a typical flat is projected to cost more than the £450,000 limit in five years in 17 regions, including many on the fringes of the capital."

Buying a typical terraced home in 36 of the 54 areas is not possible right now, as they are already priced above the £450,000 cap, while the other 18 will reach at least that level by the end of this parliament.

Here are the 54 areas, with a projected estimate for typical terraced houses...

First-time buyers can get around the fine by keeping the money in their LISA - but they won't be able to withdraw it penalty-free until they turn 60.

"Increasing the £450,000 limit and ending the unfair exit penalty levied on top of the government bonus would ensure Lifetime ISAs help as many aspiring homeowners as possible," Mr Coatsworth says.

Every Monday we answer your financial problems or consumer disputes.WhatsApp us yourshere.Today's question is...

We had some new carpets fitted 18 months ago. We received a phone call two weeks ago asking us to check our statements as they said part of the payment didn't go through, even though payment had to be completed before fitting. We've changed banks and credit card providers since then so can't verify it, and we've now received a legal letter requesting payment. I've responded disputing it, but I don't know what our rights are. Please can you help?
Jon

Megan Harwood-Baynes, cost of living specialist, says...

This was a confusing one, particularly given the timeframes involved. After all, if the payment had to be submitted before the carpets were installed, it does raise the question of why Karpet Kingdom fitted them in the first place.

You sent me the legal letter and told me you couldn't remember if the payment was made via an old Virgin Money or Santander account. I reached out to a few people to see what their take was.

Helen Dewdney, a consumer expert atThe Complaining Cow,agreed with me that it was definitely a "bizarre case", but advised that you should contact both banks for your old statements. Virgin Money and Santander keep old statements for up to five years after the account is closed - some other banks keep them even longer - and it is fairly easy to request this information.

I discussed this with you, Jon, and you did as Helen advised.

While you waited for those to come through, Helen suggested you "ask for clarification of how and why this situation arose", which I can see you did in your initial response to Karpet Kingdom's legal letter.

"Jon could also make a subject access request which would mean that the carpet company would have to give him all the information they have on him," Helen added.

"Under the GDPRs, a company can only retain information for long enough for it to be processed for its stated purpose. So if it was paid off 18 months ago then they should then question why the company still has their information."

I also reached out to a legal expert, to see if they could give me any more insight into the letter you had been sent.

David Hacker, partner and head of litigation atThackery Williams,told me: "Jon definitely needs to check his accounts to see what payments did or did not go through. He can then advise the fitters.

"If there were missed or incomplete payments he would be due to pay them assuming he has not fully paid for the carpets. There is a six-year time limit to bring a claim so the fitters are well within that time limit."

After requesting your statements you told me you could not find the second payment on any of them.

At this point, you conceded you may owe Karpet Kingdom money. In the end, you offered to pay half the amount that was due, which they accepted.

I reached out to Karpet Kingdom to see if they could tell me more about how the situation arose. They did not reply to any of my attempts to contact them.

Helen says: "There is a phrase that is often banded about: 'The consumer is always right' - however, this is paraphrased from the original quote credited to Harry Gordon Selfridge: 'The customer is always right in matters of taste.'

"When it comes to complaining, consumers must check their facts. Whilst in this situation the company should not have allowed the matter to go on as long as it did and are partly at fault, consumers need to be aware of what they are purchasing and when."

How to prevent a situation like this

Changing banks is fairly routine, but make sure you keep a copy of your account once it has been closed. Your transaction history should be sent to you once the account is closed - it's always worth filing this somewhere, but if you lose it, most banks will reissue your statements for up to five years after closure. Just make sure you make a note of the account details.

If you are making large payments, ask for a receipt to show you paid, so if there are any queries later down the line you have proof of payment. File this somewhere - many manufacturers offer a warranty for items like carpets, so you should keep the receipt (or proof of payment) for as long as this lasts.

This featureis not intended as financial advice - the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about.Submit your dilemma or consumer dispute via:

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• Email news@skynews.com with the subject line "Money blog"