Helen Nugent

Nuisance calls are up there with spam emails and junk mail as one of the scourges of modern life. Whether it's an automated voice urging you to claim compensation for payment protection insurance or a message from an accident claims company, cold calls are insistent and incessant. If you're sick of these unsolicited calls then you're not alone. A new report from AXA Insurance has found that one-in-five people receives a nuisance phone call each day. As someone who works from home for some of the week, I know that my landline rings at least twice daily with these unwanted advances. As for my mobile, there's a minimum of one compensation-chasing claimant on any given day.

The devil is in the detail - as George Osborne is finding out to his cost. Following the Chancellor's 2016 Budget, delivered to the House of Commons on Wednesday, companies, financial experts and journalists have been poring over the fine print. In a damning verdict, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that Britons should 'all be worried' about the risk of job cuts and lower wages amid growing concerns of another economic downturn. The economic think tank added that Osborne 'won't be able to sleep at night' because of the likelihood of him not now meeting his pledge to balance the nation’s books by 2020. Meanwhile, the prospect of a Tory revolt over cuts to disability benefits gathers pace.

Was it good for you? George Osborne's 2016 Budget, delivered to a packed House of Commons on Wednesday, has drawn criticism over a looming £55 billion black hole in public finances. But what does it mean for your money? We published a guide to the main changes yesterday. Today Spectator Money looks at reaction to a Budget lauded for pleasing middle England. Income tax More than half a million people will save £400 a year thanks to a rise in the 40p higher rate tax threshold to £45,000 from next April (with the Chancellor sticking to a pre-election pledge to hike the threshold towards £50,000 by the end of the parliament).

Ahead of tomorrow's Budget, the financial pages are full of last ditch attempts by MPs, think tanks, businesses and pressure groups to persuade the Chancellor round to their way of thinking. On pensions, the Work and Pensions Select Committee has urged the government to consider giving some women early access to their state pension in return for accepting lower weekly payments. George Osborne has been under pressure to help an estimated 500,000 women born in the 1950s who have seen the age they can claim their pension rise by six years, from 60 to 66 by 2020. Looking at housing, financial firm Paragon has called on the Chancellor to resist making any more changes to the taxation of landlords and instead instigate a root and branch review of the UK’s housing requirements.

With just a couple of days left before the Budget, it came as no surprise to find the weekend press brimming with speculation about the Chancellor's red box. While George Osborne did the rounds of the Sunday TV shows, news of proposed spending cuts dominated the headlines. The Observer devoted its front page to suggestions that Osborne is under pressure to shelve proposed tax cuts for higher earners. The Resolution Foundation thinktank called on the Chancellor to scrap this key Tory election pledge. Meanwhile, writing in The Sun on Sunday, Osborne appealed to its readers to 'graft now, pay later' but failed to go into any detail on policy.

If you're a customer of one of the 'big six' energy firms, then you're probably paying too much for your gas and electricity. That's the conclusion of an 18-month investigation by the competition authorities. In an eagerly awaited report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), it has emerged that households and small businesses have overpaid to the tune of £1.7 billion a year in total. The 'big six' energy companies are Centrica (which owns British Gas), SSE, Iberdrola’s Scottish Power, RWE npower, E.ON and EDF Energy. Today's findings mean that up to four million households on pre-paid meters could see their energy bills cut thanks to a proposed cap by the CMA.

As the country wakes up to a grey, drizzly morning, news from Moneyfacts paint a gloomy picture for savers. According to the financial analysts, low interest rates and changes to savings taxation are resulting in 'perhaps the worst Isa season on record'. In the run-up to the end of the tax year, banks and building societies tend to improve their rates in an attempt to attract savers to the tax-free products. But Moneyfacts says that the best easy-access Isa rate is 1.41 per cent, compared to the top rate of 3.15 per cent available five years ago. As for savings in general, there are fears that George Osborne's overhaul of the savings tax regime will cause mass chaos when new rules are introduced next month. The Chancellor is introducing the personal savings allowance (PSA).

With a blanket of snow covering parts of Northern England this morning, gas and electricity bills are uppermost in many people's minds. A new report by Which? says that millions of people are paying 'way over the odds' for their energy. According to the consumer group, only a tiny fraction of the cuts in energy costs have been passed onto customers by the big six firms. Which? says that people who change their supplier could save about £400 on their annual bill. Meanwhile, the Competition and Markets Authority is expected to announce next week that it has scrapped plans to introduce a wide-ranging price cap on energy bills after fierce lobbying from the big six suppliers.

In a past life I lived in a flat with a communal hallway. Among the post permanently littering the floor was the usual junk mail detritus: estate agent leaflets, double-glazing pamphlets and takeaway menus. In a development I don't like to talk about at parties, I used to receive envelopes from the local takeaway addressed to 'Pizza Eater'. All these missives contained was a menu. Nothing else. It was a shameful indictment on my love of Hawaiian specials. But it's behaviour like mine that has boosted sales at Domino's. Today the pizza chain revealed 'excellent' results thanks in large part to a massive increase in online orders. Reporting a pre-tax profit of £73.2 million compared with £62.