Have you checked your state pension payment for April to confirm you have received your annual increase? From April 2018 your basic state pension has increased by 3%. If you are a couple receiving state pension you should now receive £164.35 instead of £159.55. If you are an individual your increase should be from £122.30 to £125.95. You have received notification of this increase if you haven't call the Pension Service now!

Did you know that you can now apply for your blue disabled badge online? The online application and renewal process has been in place since 14 March 2018 on gov.uk website and they will contact the right authority in your area to apply for the blue badge If you are a current blue badge holder you should have been contacted directly by your council that you can apply online Use this link https://bluebadge.direct.gov.uk/bluebadge/ to apply, If you need to speak to someone about this then you can pop in to your local library or community hub.

For those individuals receiving registered nursing care there is some good news for once. As of 1 April 2018 the standard rate for funded nursing care will increase from £155.05 to £158.16 per week for the 2018/19 financial year. You must make sure that your care home takes this increase into account when issuing your monthly invoices. ​ If your funded nursing care was awarded at the higher rate before 2007 then your increase will be from £213.32 to £217.59 per week. ​ You are allowed to ask and if you are an attorney or deputy you have a duty to make sure the correct payment is allocated!!!

With fraud on the increase it makes sense for you to protect what is likely to be your most valuable asset. Property fraud can happen when criminals pretend to be you to try and sell or mortgage your property. Your risk of being a victim of property fraud is higher is you rent your property, have an empty property, are mortgage free or are not registered with HM Land Registry. By signing up to the Land Registry Property Alert service and ensuring your property is registered with them will allow you to apply for a restriction to be placed on your property to prevent activity from taking place unless a conveyancer or solicitor certifies the application was made by you. This is a free service provided by HM Land Registry which will message you if certain activity takes place with the property you are monitoring. You can monitor up to ten properties at a time and is particularly helpful if you want to register the property of an elderly family member or a friend

From 13 January 2018 new rules were introduced to stop the charging of fees when an individual pays a bill by credit or debit card. Argo offers clients the ability to pay online by credit or debit card but we would never pass on the costs associated with this to our clients. If you have been charged a fee since 13 January 2018 you can demand a refund of any unlawful charge that you have paid and take action to recover the money paid. We are not withdrawing the facility to pay by card either. If you wish to pay our bills in this way please call the office.