Money blog: If grandparents were paid for all the hours they do - how much would they earn? (2024)

Many families rely on grandparents for childcare, and most are happy to oblige.

Their reward is often simply spending valuable time with their grandkids and making memories - but what if they actually got paid?

A new tool by SunLife, a financial services company used by people later in life, allows grandparents to input all the hours of "parenting" they do - from taxiing to cooking to days spent babysitting.

We had a go - answering each question in what we presumed could be a typical scenario. Our fictional grandparent did two hours each of taxiing, cooking and cleaning for their grandkids, and 18 hours (roughly two working days) of babysitting a week.

For this, SunLife estimates a salary of £15,864 would be appropriate.

SunLife recently polled more than 2,000 grandparents and found there has been a rise in the number being relied upon to look after grandchildren during the school holidays and on inset days.

More than four in 10 (43%) now provide "holiday" care and are giving up 18 hours a week on average - up from 16.54 hours last year and equivalent to almost three days a week.

BP will offer staff who are trapped in abusive relationships free emergency accommodation.

The oil and gas company will pay up to the value of £1,500 for those trying to escape an abusive partner as part of its new domestic abuse policy.

It will also provide employees with legal advice and 10 days extra paid leave for meeting with lawyers or visits to court.

In a document seen by The Telegraph, BP noted that employees in abusive relationships could be "subjected by perpetrators to economic abuse, controlling working hours, or demanding that salary is paid into a specific bank account".

It said this could affect productivity and also lead to unplanned absences.

The policy comes after allegations about former boss Bernard Looney's "personal relationships with colleagues".

Mr Looney left his role as chief executive of the British energy giant after he was said to have failed to fully disclose details of the relationships as required by the company.

BP said at the time last year that Mr Looney was standing down "with immediate effect" and that he accepted he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures.

"He did not provide details of all relationships and accepts he was obligated to make more complete disclosure," they said.

There is no suggestion that Mr Looney was ever involved in any abusive relationships.

Every Wednesday we ask Michelin chefs to pick their favourite Cheap Eats where they live and when they cook at home.This week we speak to award-winning Michael Wignall, of the one-star The Angel at Hetton, in Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales.

Hi Michael,can you tell us your favourite places in North Yorkshire where you can get a meal for two for less than £40?

If I ever go cycling with the kids on the mountain bikeYe Olde Naked Man, in Settle, is on one of our routes.

We go over the tops - it's 12 miles over the tops of the Yorkshire Dales - then drop into Settle.

I've always taken the kids there, whether that's for a hot chocolate and cake or sandwich.

It's so nice, really popular (for good reason), and right in the middle of Settle, a lovely little town.

If I'm on my own on the road bike and do a big cycle, say 30 to 50 miles, it's on the way home and just before a horrific climb in the area - 20% gradient - I stop at The Naked Man and psych myself up for it. Even my friends stop there for caffeine and a bite to eat before the last journey.

It's in a great location, opposite the market square and a traditional, old-school place that I love. The food is very reasonable, and the service is brilliant.

Paradise Food, at Daleside Nurseries, is another option.The chef here is lovely, and we go back a long way. It started as a pop-up at garden centre, and is now a full-time restaurant.

They've had a really colourful career, a great chef, which is reflected at Paradise. They're hard working and have core values that I really respect, and I just love coming here for a great meal. It is super popular.

Rind, at Courtyard Dairy,is just over the tops, out of Settle and towards the Lake District.

They are very famous and do our cheese for us. The team is super passionate, and a few years ago extended the cheese shop and built a pizzeria (among other things, like a museum). It is so good here, very cool and the views are just stunning.

Our restaurant manager is Italian, and even she raves about it! That's when you know it's good.

The toppings are a bit different, and it's only 15 minutes away so we do visit often.

What is your go-to cheap eat to cook at home when you have a night in?

A green curry is my "go-to".

Here are my recipe tips:

• Keep lemongrass in the freezer so you always have it on hand; buy a fresh bunch of it to start and then put any left-over in the freezer;
• When cooking rice - use a quality rice and don't skimp on it. Wash it thoroughly at least 10 times until clear;
• Use a good quality coconut milk/coconut block. I use a whole tin of milk and then about a quarter of a block of coconut cream;
• Use a good quality fresh lime in the last few minutes. Grate the zest and squeeze the juice in. Doing it last will mean you don't split the milk;
• Use fresh chillies, not dried. They aren't expensive and not processed and give a much better flavour;
• Like with the lemongrass, use fresh Kaffir lime leaf and keep it in the freezer. It is a bit expensive but makes all the difference.

In short - buy good quality, fresh ingredients!

We've spoken to lots of top chefs - check out their cheap eats from around the country here...

By Jenness Mitchell, Scotland reporter

Edinburgh Festival Fringe is officially under way - one of the greatest celebrations of arts and culture, and increasingly one of the most expensive to enjoy.

Earlier this year, comedian Jason Manford branded the city's accommodation prices an "absolute joke".

He posted on X in April: "No idea how anyone starting out is managing to get up there and showcase their talents!"

Manford called it "pure greed".

Though I'm not from Edinburgh, I try to go every year - like many Scots, I'll go for the day, so don't incur accommodation costs.

But even then, is it still as affordable as I remember it from years ago?

The Money team gave me a budget of £20 to see if I could eat, get a drink and take in a show.Could it be done?

Drink

I thought I'd get the easiest bit out of the way first - a drink. I set myself a £2 budget.

I searched high and low for a drink from a vendor to meet my budget - most coffees started at £3, the cheapest beer I spotted was £6, and the best co*cktail offer was breaking £10.

I had two options - something bog standard from a local store or supermarket, or try my luck getting a bartender to whip up something in exchange for my final two coins.

Happily, the staff working at the pop-up Bar Bados near to the Underbelly George Square venue were in the festival mood and delivered a dream of a drink.

I don't really know what it was but it didn't have alcohol and still tasted of sunshine.

Disclaimer: Had I not been a Sky News journalist with my press pass, I most likely would have had to buy a cheaper drink from a local shop.

Food

With food trucks on every corner as well as restaurants, cafes and gastro pubs, you're spoiled for choice when it comes to what you want to eat in Edinburgh.

The city has a vibrant local food and drink culture which attracts visitors from around the globe.

During the Fringe, Innis & Gunn is taking over The Mound with a one-stop hub featuring music, comedy, food and drink.

Fancy a pizza? Wanderers Kneaded will take care of you. Want something that tastes like summer? Fred's Backyard BBQ will have the grill fired up. You can even wash your food down with a pint of Innis & Gunn or a G&T from Edinburgh Gin.

But, I opted for The Tap on the corner of the Novotel building on Lauriston Place. I ordered the avocado toast for £7.

To be fair, I had chalked up around 20,000 steps around the city by that point - so any meal would have been a winner, but it was delicious.

A show

I had £11 left and I admit that seeing something memorable on this budget is tricky but it was enough to get me into I Wish You Well - The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical.

It tells the "mostly" true story of the high-profile civil court case in which the Oscar-winning actress was accused of crashing into a man while skiing - and, no lies, it was one of the best things I've ever seen at the Fringe.

The production has been choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips of Strictly Come Dancing fame, and former The X Factor star Diana Vickers captivated the crowd in the lead role.

Overall

I didn't have any change, and maybe have enjoyed the day slightly less with a Ribena instead of my made-just-for-me mocktail, but it can be done.

Domino's Pizza expects to see a hit to its profits after recording a drop in orders over the first half of the year.

The company, which holds the US chain's master franchise in the UK and Ireland, said it expected its new expected adjusted annual core profit to be at the lower end of market expectations after a "slow start to the year".

Total orders were down 0.9% to 35.1 million in the six months to the end of June, although the firm said they had been picking up notably since May and increased by 0.6% in the second quarter.

The company also forecasted that its overall profit for the year would be between £144m to £149m, at the lower end of market expectations.

After it downgraded its predictions for the year, the company's shares fell as low as 8% during trading on the FTSE 250 today.

The food group also announced it was aiming to continue expanding by opening 70 branches across the UK this year and said its average delivery time had been cut to 24 minutes between April and June - shaving one minute off its time in the previous quarter.

Sainsbury's is set to integrate AI technology into its self-checkout machines.

Features on 22,500 checkouts will enable them to identify specific items quickly and spot when a "suspicious" item has appeared in the checkout shelf.

The Next Generation Checkout Systems (NCRs), which use a function called Picklist, will also enable staff to approve transactions remotely rather than going to each till - which the supermarket hopes will save time and boost efficiency.

Sainsbury's will also receive real time data with each transaction and hope to bring in personalised promotions.

When unstaffed tills were introduced, it was hoped they would provide convenience and speed, but over the years a number of problems have arisen, with technology at times going wrong, long queues and theft.

In bringing in AI, Sainsbury's hopes to address these concerns.

Clodagh Moriarty, its chief retail and technology director, told The Grocerthe AI technology would "unlock new capabilities".

"This is driving us to the next level and delivers for customers, colleagues and shareholders," she said.

A strategy used by traders known as "carry trade" contributed to market turbulence at the end of last week and start of this.

Global shares plummeted yesterday, largely on fears the US could enter recession amid unexpectedly poor job creation data.

But "carry trade", where money is borrowed at a low cost in one currency to achieve higher returns from investments in another currency, has also been in play.

Investopedia tried to put it in layman's terms: "A good example of a carry trade is when you accept a credit card that offers a 0%cash advance in order to invest the borrowed cash in assets with a higher yield. This carry-trade strategy may net you either a profit or a loss."

A real-world example saw investors borrow Japanese yen on the assumption it would remain cheap against the US dollar and Japanese interest rates would remain low. These people would use this money to invest in the US, where returns would be higher.

Then the Bank of Japan raises interest rates - and traders begin undoing these deals.

This process, and its dangers, have been noted this week by JP Morgan analysts.

Arindam Sandilya, co-head of global FX strategy at the bank, told Bloomberg TV that the process of rejigging financial assets was "not done by any stretch".

He said: "The carry trade unwind, at least within the speculative investing community, is somewhere between 50% to 60% complete."

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business reporter

Calm appeared to return to markets as the US trading day began.

It was a similar picture across the board: some but not all losses were regained.

After its worst day in nearly two years, the S&P 500 rose 1.11% following a 3% fall due to Monday's global stock sell-off.

The index of 30 major companies listed on US stock exchanges, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), was up more than 1% after a 2.6% tumble yesterday.

The tech company-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 1% after ending yesterday at its lowest level since early May, down 3.4%.

Behind the sell-off was fear over the US economy. Growth in unemployment fuelled recession fears while investors speculated the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, may have misjudged its decision last week to hold, rather than lower, interest rates.

Tech companies had reported results last week, which caused investors to fret about levels of investment in AI and a perceived lack of return.

By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter

The public has been warned to make sure they are paying for their parking via official means.

QR codes have appeared in a number of car parks across Wales, taking people to fake websites.

Sky News has spoken to someone who was caught out in a car park outside council offices in Pembrokeshire.

Yori Evans, 19, said he was "confused" when money disappeared from his account the day after he had attempted to pay via a QR code.

Conwy County Borough Council warned residents about a similar scam on Monday.

The council said the codes, which are used to steal payment information, put motorists at risk as they may not know they haven't paid for their ticket via official channels.

Anyone who may have been affected has been urged to contact their bank to stop any further payments.

With the Bank of England cutting the base rate last week, it makes sense that borrowers would be tempted by a tracker mortgage.

Many people will be considering if the short term pain is worth the potential long term gain if more cuts are announced further down the line.

In theory, a tracker mortgage would allow borrowers to feel the savings a rate cut brings immediately - but there is always a risk that rates increase, and thus so do mortgage payments.

Some brokers have warned that the gap between comparable fixed and tracker deals is currently too big to justify the risk.

This is partly because a number of lenders have been increasing their tracker rates in recent weeks, perhaps pre-empting the rate cut and in an attempt to attract borrowers to their fixed deals instead.

For example: as of Friday, Nationwide's two-year fixed deal for a home mover with a 75% LTV mortgage and no product fees comes with a 4.92% rate.

It's tracker version of this same deal has a 5.89% rate.

This means there would need to be four more 0.25% base rate cuts for the tracker product to be worth it.

Managing director of EHF Mortgages, Justin Moy, said the choice between fixed or tracker should be more about individual needs rather than "hedging against future rate changes".

"The gap between comparable fixed and tracker deals is making it difficult to justify taking a tracker at the moment," he told Newspage.

"However, many tracker deals have low or no early repayment charges, so they are ideal for that flexibility if your property is due to be sold later in the year, to avoid the normal penalties of paying early.

"To need four regular base rate cuts just to match a typical equivalent fixed deal suggests that, for most, a fixed rate will be most beneficial."

Jack Tutton, director at SJ Mortgages, told Newspage tracker products were "not representing value for money for many consumers" at the moment.

"To take a tracker product now would mean a client is gambling with a higher initial payment with the hope that the base rate falls dramatically, something that we haven't seen since the financial crash in 2008," he added.

Craig Fish, director at Lodeston Mortgages and Protection, said borrowers "should be aware and beware in equal measure".

He explained that trackers for the right person can be a "very good option".

"If we get one or two cuts this year, that could be beneficial, but there is no guarantee. Disappointingly, though, we are witnessing lenders increasing their tracker margins, making them less viable for clients but more viable for their bottom line, which is hardly in line with consumer duty," he added.