Around half a million private sector workers retiring each year are being "short changed" by up to £1 billion from their total future income, pensions bodies have warned.

Evidence of "sharp practice and murky pricing" in the annuity market was highlighted in a report from the National Association of Pension Funds(NAPF) and the Pensions Institute (PI) at Cass Business School.

Optimism in the housing market has grown in recent months, with more Britons predicting prices will rise this year than those forecasting a fall, a study has found.

Nearly a third (29%) of those surveyed believe house prices will increase in the next 12 months, Halifax said, up from 28% when a similar report was compiled in October. Meanwhile 22% predict a decline, down from 30% when the study was conducted previously.

A couple who scooped a £10.2 million lottery jackpot have defended their right to claim benefits more than six years later.

Mick and Jean O'Shea won the huge EuroMillions sum in 2005, but Mr O'Shea still receives £500 a month disability allowance because it is not means-tested, the Sun reported.

Personal insolvencies have dropped to their lowest level since 2008, despite the tough economic conditions, official figures have shown.

There were 28,973 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 4% drop on the previous quarter, the Insolvency Service said.

One million taxpayers face a £100 fine for failing to submit their self-assessment tax returns on time, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has said.

But more than nine out of 10 people met the deadline, the highest proportion since the revenue body was created in 2005.

A last resort for households faced with repossession has been blocked after the transactions were found to be unaffordable or unsuitable.

The "sale and rent back" (SRB) market, which has seen people selling their properties to companies, sometimes for around 60% to 70% of their market value, before renting them back, has been temporarily shut down.

Bankers' pay is too high and needs to be "corrected", the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Sir Philip Hampton has said.

But Sir Philip said that, relative to other bankers, the rewards offered to RBS chief executive Stephen Hester - who last week waived a £1 million bonus after coming under extreme public and political pressure - were not high.

Britain's economy will fall into recession in the first half of the year and the Government needs to ease up on its tough package of spending cuts, an influential think-tank has warned.

The UK economy will shrink 0.1% in 2012 as cash-strapped households tighten their purse-strings and nervous businesses hold back on investment, said the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr).

UK families are saving a proportion of their income which is around nine times lower than those in China, a study has found.

Typical UK households manage to save around 5% of their take home pay, but in China the savings ratio has soared, from 27% of disposable income saved in 2001 to 47% last year, the Family Savings report, by Lloyds TSB and thinktank the Future Foundation, said.

Home owners in Stoke Newington in north London are the most likely to have made a claim for theft or burglary on their home insurance policy, according to research.

MoneySupermarket.com analysed some three million home insurance quotes run on its website and found that for every 1,000 people living in Stoke Newington, covering the postcode N16, almost 34 had previously made a theft-related claim.