Millions of benefit claimants are on course for at least a 3.5 per cent rise in their payments next April after inflation climbed to its highest level in almost a year.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation – which tracks the change in prices of a typical basket of goods and services bought by households – rose to 3.5 per cent in September.
That was up from 3.1 per cent in August. Grant Fitzner, the ONS’s chief economist, said “increased fuel prices were again the main driver”, with the cost of diesel at its highest since July 2022.
Australian MP’s legs amputated after ‘politically-motivated attack’
Doctors have amputated both of Australian MP Helen Haines’s legs after she was repeatedly hit by a car in an apparent act of political violence, her husband said.
What happened?
Haines remains in critical condition. The 65-year-old independent politician is receiving treatment in a Melbourne hospital where she was flown by helicopter.
Haines’s husband said her left leg was amputated on Monday and her right leg was amputated on Wednesday after doctors abandoned hope of saving it.
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What her husband said
The good news in all this is that Helen is alive and she’s stable. That is the most iortant thing for our family… We are grateful and thankful that at this stage, both her heart and her mind are in good shape.
Phil Haines
The alleged attacker
Brendan Nugent, a 43-year-old man from nearby Tarrawingee, has been charged with intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official.
- Police have yet to determine a motive.
- Witnesses say the driver rammed his victim, pinning her against her own car before reversing and ramming her a second time.
- Nugent’s lawyer Chirag Patel said he was suffering from potential mental health issues but had never been diagnosed with any mental health problem.
- Patel said Nugent suffered from a concussion and a neurological condition, idiopathic transverse myelitis, which disrupts nerve signals between the brain and body, leading to rapid muscle weakness and sensory loss.
Nigeria confirms Ebola case
Nigeria reported its first Ebola case in more than a decade on Tuesday, becoming the fourth African country to be affected by the outbreak.
Where has Ebola been detected?
- Ebola disease from the fast-moving outbreak in Congo has now spread to four other countries.
- This is including two where it’s active.
- It was first declared in eastern Congo in mid-May.
- Nigeria confirmed an Ebola infection in its capital, Abuja.
- This was in a woman who arrived from Uganda about two weeks ago.
- Uganda has reported 20 cases but none are active.
A closer look at confirmed cases so far
- Kenya announced its first Ebola case on 6 October, involving a man who traveled from Congo via Uganda before arriving in the capital, Nairobi, on 3 October.
- France confirmed a positive case of Ebola in June in a doctor travelling back from Congo.
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Should Britons be worried?
The World Health Organization has said it is the fastest-growing outbreak of Ebola in history. However, France is still the only country outside Africa to have recorded a case in this outbreak. The UK Health Security Agency says the current outbreak “poses a low risk to the UK population”.
Imported cases are extremely rare, only four confirmed cases have been reported in the UK since 1976, and there have been no UK deaths from the disease.
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UK approves drilling in Jackdaw gas field
Gas from the Jackdaw field will start flowing within weeks after the Government approved the project in an effort to improve domestic energy security and grow the economy.
Why has it been approved?
The Government says the approval of Jackdaw will increase domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak, protect hundreds of jobs and provide an estimated £2.9bn economic boost.
- Tax revenues from North Sea oil and gas will also go into a new energy wealth fund, backed with an initial £2bn, which will invest in renewable and low carbon projects.
- Ministers argue that while UK households and businesses are still using gas, it makes more economic and environmental sense to increase domestic production rather than rely on imports shipped from other countries.
Why is the project controversial?
The approval of Jackdaw has been criticised by environmental campaigners who want to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels. Both Jackdaw and the Rosebank field were approved for drilling licences in June 2022, but these were overturned by the Scottish courts after a challenge from campaigners.
New public consultations on the proposals took place this year and closed in August. The Government has not yet greenlit Rosebank.
What does this mean for your energy bills?
The approval of Jackdaw will not bring down soaring bills because gas prices are set by global markets, and energy minister Michael Shanks acknowledged “we will not stop being a net importer of fossil fuels because of this decision”.
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Actor Noel Clarke in court over sexual offence allegations
Actor Noel Clarke is expected to appear in court today charged with sexual offences against five women.
What has he been accused of?
Clarke, who has appeared in and is accused of two counts of sexual assault, three of voyeurism and one of exposure between 2007 and 2016.
The offences are alleged to have taken place in London and Dorset. Clarke has previously denied any allegations of inappropriate behaviour or sexual misconduct.
What do police say?
Bethan David, deputy chief Crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to do so.”
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Drinking tea may be good for your heart
Tea drinking is good for your heart, and drinking it regularly reduces the risk of vascular disease by 11 per cent, research has found.
What did the study find?
A study in China published in the Journal of Internal Medicine looked at the risk of vascular disease in 485,934 people.
- Those who drank about six to eight cups per day were found to be at the lowest risk of vascular disease among weekly tea drinkers.
- Vascular disease can include heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.
- Tea consumption combined with not smoking and exercising was associated with the lowest risk.
The expert view
This doesn’t prove that a daily cuppa protects your heart. This was an observational study and other differences in people’s diets and lifestyles could help explain the findings… We need further evidence before assuming the findings apply in the same way to people in the UK.
Dell Stanford, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation
Judi Dench: Cats film was a waste of talent
Actor Dame Judi Dench has described the 2019 film , the adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, as a “waste” of “goodwill and talent”.
She starred as the wise moggy Old Deuteronomy and has so far declined to watch the movie.
What she said
Oh God, I can’t bear it, and [Lloyd Webber] had waited so long for it to be made. What a waste of all that goodwill and talent. I understand the critics were rather hostile to the film. I never saw the final cut so I can’t judge. All I’ll say is nobody sets out to give a poor performance or make a bad film. You do your best… and hope that people will get on board and join the party.
Details revealed in new memoir
In her forthcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, Dench said she felt “ill at ease from the beginning – I just didn’t feel right in the role”, reports.
She said young dancers were ignored at the end of each take. However, she said she enjoyed meeting co-star Taylor Swift and receiving 50 everlasting roses, spraypainted gold, from Jason Derulo, another co-star.
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Why was the film panned?
The director, Tom Hooper, has been criticised for how he adapted the musical, including error-prone use of CGI. He has not made a film since.
Lloyd Webber has said “the whole thing was ridiculous”, “off-the-scale wrong” and that it caused him to become a dog owner.
September’s figure is the one ministers traditionally use to set benefit rates for the following year.
But the increase is not automatic, and governments have broken with the convention several times in the past 15 years.
And, by The i Paper’s calculations, most people on universal credit will see a larger rise of around 4.3 per cent, because of a law requiring the basic payment to go up faster than inflation.
The new rates are usually confirmed around the Budget, which Chancellor John Healey will deliver on 28 October.
Which benefits rise with inflation?
Every year, the Work and Pensions secretary must check whether benefits have kept up with rising prices, and decide how much to raise them by.
For some benefits, there is no choice. The law says disability and carers’ benefits, such as personal independence payment and carer’s allowance, must rise at least in line with inflation.
For most other working-age benefits, such as child benefit, ministers can decide whether to raise them by inflation, by less, or not at all.
If they rise by 3.5 per cent, child benefit for the eldest child would go from £27.05 to around £28 a week. Carer’s allowance would go from £86.45 to around £89.50.
The state pension rises under the triple lock – by whichever is highest of September inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent.
Earnings growth of 3.9 per cent is higher than September’s inflation rate, meaning the full new state pension is set to rise from £241.30 to around £250.70 a week.
What will universal credit go up by?
Universal credit has its own rules. A law passed last year, the Universal Credit Act 2025, says the standard allowance – the basic monthly payment every claimant gets – must rise by more than inflation every year until 2029-30.
The policy was announced by Rachel Reeves, then chancellor, in March 2025. It was paid for partly by halving the extra health payment for most new claimants.
The extra boost works like a running total rather than a fresh bonus each year. By 2029-30, the standard allowance must be 4.8 per cent higher than if it had risen only with inflation.
That target is reached in steps. This year, the standard allowance was 2.3 per cent above where inflation alone would have left it. Next year, it must be 3.1 per cent above.
So claimants get inflation of 3.5 per cent, plus roughly 0.8 per cent extra to close the gap between those two steps. That adds up to a rise of around 4.3 per cent.
On today’s figures, the monthly standard allowance would rise as follows:
When have benefits not kept pace with inflation?
Most working-age benefits have risen with September inflation every year since 2020, but not always.
The biggest break came when George Osborne, then chancellor, froze most working-age benefits for four years from April 2016.
Claimants received no increase in April 2018, even though CPI had reached 3 per cent the previous September. The Resolution Foundation has estimated the freeze amounted to a real-terms cut of more than 6 per cent.
Before that, most working-age benefit rises were capped at 1 per cent a year from 2013.
In April 2022, benefits rose by 3.1 per cent, while inflation went on to peak at 11.1 per cent that October.
The health element for new universal credit claimants is already frozen at £217.26 a month until 2029-30, and local housing allowance rates remain frozen.