Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank.

This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money.

The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start feeling the pinch just one week after being paid while more than half are struggling by the final week of the month.

Not surprisingly, given this level of concern, the study found that 5 per cent of people check their bank balance at least once a day, while 40 per cent know how much is in their accounts to the nearest £5.

Twenty-two per cent of those surveyed said they check their bank accounts more than three times a week.

Anthony Warrington, director of current accounts at Halifax, said: “With mobile banking apps and internet banking, it’s much easier to stay on top of spending and account activity whilst on the move.

“It’s encouraging to see people take control of their bank balance.”

The TUC recently warned that workers are taking home £60 billion a year less in real terms than they were 30 years ago.

Workers’ incomes have been eroded by poor earnings growth, an increase in personal debt and a widening pay gap with bosses.

Even though workers have become more productive, the ratio of pay between company chiefs and other workers increased from 47:1 in 2000 to 102:1 in 2011.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ ‘Precious Plastic’ report revealed that UK families are among the most indebted in the world.

Even though the average UK family reduced its debt by £355 last year, it still owes £7,900 in personal loans, overdrafts and credit cards.

Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned.

Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, into an approved pension scheme.

Workers will contribute 5 per cent of their wages and employers will top this up with another 3 percent.

Only workers earning at least £7,475 a year will be included, but this threshold could now be increased in line with the income tax personal allowance which currently stands at £8,105, but could rise to £10,000.

As the majority of low-earners are female, the change would exclude 1.8 million women and 500,000 men from auto-enrolment, although they would still have the option of opting in to a pension scheme if they wished to.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Whether this is the best way to help the low-paid is an interesting debate, but it would be disastrous if it had the unintended consequence of excluding a significant proportion of women workers from pensions saving”.

Meanwhile the government has announced plans to launch a consultation into private sector pensions later this year.

With the majority of final salary retirement schemes now closed to new members it wants to look into how workplace pensions can be “reinvigorated”.

The cost of final salary pension schemes has caused companies such as Shell and Unilever to move workers into defined contribution scheme, which provide a much less generous pension.

The consultation will aim to create a new type of pension scheme which will bridge the gap between the two options.

The proposed middle-ground scheme has been called “defined aspiration”.

Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October.

The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs.

It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 will be around £10 million lower, while adjusted pretax profit for the year to 31 March 2012 is expected be in line with market expectations of £127 million.

Homeserve, which calls itself “Britain’s fifth emergency service”, provides insurance cover against domestic emergencies such as burst pipes and boiler breakdowns.

It was unable to deal with the high volume of requests for boiler repairs during last year’s severe winter weather and a subsequent audit of its sales techniques by Deloitte revealed issues with standards and raised concern that it could be mis-selling products.

This led to Homeserve suspending it operations in order to retrain staff and overhaul its marketing techniques, but this is taking longer to complete than expected and costing significantly more than anticipated.

The company has restarted taking inbound calls in all but one region and has re-launched its mail marketing campaign.

Earlier this year Homeserve promoted its group chief financial officer, Martin Bennett, to the new position of group chief operating officer.

His new role gives him responsibility for best practice and risk management.

David Bower, HomeServe’s Financial Director is covering the interim CFO role while a permanent replacement is recruited.

Homeserve, which was created as a joint venture with South Staffordshire Water in 1993, operates in the US, France, Spain and Belgium as well as in the UK.

It has issued more than 10 million policies to 4.5 million customers.

South Staffordshire Water plc demerged from the group in 2004.

There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations.

The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual standstill the performance of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks has suffered.

NAB says the review is aimed at repositioning the banks to improve returns but analysts believe that this could signal that they could be offloaded, allowing NAB to focus on expansion in Asia.

In a statement accompanying NAB’s quarterly results, the group’s chief executive Cameron Clyne highlighted the eurozone crisis and the UK government’s austerity measure as factors which would extend the UK’s subdued growth.

“UK GDP declined by 0.2% in the December quarter. These difficult conditions have adversely affected the performance of UK Banking,” he said.

“Given our view that recovery is now a longer term prospect, NAB has commenced a strategic review, and will work with UK management to appropriately reposition its business mix and structure for the changed economic environment and improve returns,” he continued.

David Thorburn, chief executive of Clydesdale Bank, said “We will continue to support our branch network and invest in developing online and telephone banking services for both retail and business customers.

“We will also remain committed to providing support for savers and mortgage customers across the UK.”

There is speculation that NAB’s UK banking division may become a takeover target for NBNK, a newly formed UK bank run by former Northern Rock chief executive Gary Hoffman.

Meanwhile Lloyd’s Banking Group has announced the closure of three offices, with the loss of around 1,000 jobs, as part of its strategic review.

Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years.

The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness.

Women in Debt’s director, Georgina Earle, said: “Females have fought for equality over the last decade or so … We have wanted independence from our spouses and to be able to afford a lifestyle based on this equality.”

However, in their efforts to achieve equality, many women have taken on debts they can’t afford, she warns, and the economic decline in recent years has made the situation worse.

“More females have been able to secure credit based on better jobs [and] higher salaries … However the past few years have seen a huge change and I believe that women will fare the worst,” Ms Earle said.

Labour MP and anti-debt campaigner Stella Creasy recently warned that women are being targeted by payday loan companies.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of payday lenders operating in the UK in recent years as household incomes have been squeezed by the recession.

Payday loan companies offer instant loans of small amounts for a short period, typically around a month.

If the loan is paid off in full at the end of the term there usually isn’t a problem, but rolling over a loan to the following month can quickly cause difficulties because of the extremely high interest rates charged by payday lenders.

Payday loan companies have set up websites targeting women and are advertising on television programmes such as Glee and Friends.

Ms Creasy said women are being taken in by payday lenders.

“Because they are working and have a regular income they are able to pay back at least some of the loan. But if they can’t make a payment they make money for the firm through paying penalties and extensions,” she commented.

At the end of last year accountancy firm RSM Tenon reported that women account for nearly half of all insolvencies, while in the 1980s it was very rare for women to become bankrupt.

Consumers are shunning credit cards in favour of debit cards, digital payment and payday loans, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Although UK households paid off some unsecured debts in 2011, the average debt was around £7,900 at the end of the year.

The Ernst & Young Item Club has also reported a trend for consumers to shun banks and seek credit from alternative sources.

It claims that bank and building society lending to individuals has decreased by 23% since 2007 while lending by alternative lenders, including payday loan companies, has increased by 42% over the same period.

Speaking to the BBC, Neil Blake, senior economic adviser at the Item Club, said: “The contraction in consumer credit is driven by lack of demand to an extent, but we just need to look at the phenomenal rise in payday loans to see that the focus on decreasing demand masks a shift towards alternative providers.”

According to the PwC report, total outstanding credit card debt fell by 5% in 2011, with an average card balance of £1,000 at the end of the year.

In contrast, debit card usage continued its upward trend and increased 10% last year, making it the most used payment method over cash.

Simon Westcott, director of PwC, highlighted the use of digital payment methods, especially among younger people and suggested that credit card usage could continue to decline.

Mr Westcott commented: “This generation seems unlikely to switch to increased credit card usage in later life, as perhaps they would have done in the past, suggesting that debit cards, mobile payments and other innovations will force the credit card into an ever decreasing market.”

The use of payday loans, which offer a much easier application process than other forms of credit, is increasing at a ‘phenomenal’ rate according to the Item Club’s Mr Blake.

However, although payday loans can be affordable if they are paid off at the end of the term – usually around a month – rolling them over can lead to a spiral of debt because of their extremely high interest rates.

Consumer rights campaigners recently warned that new regulations designed to improve lending practices by payday loan companies may fail to protect customers in the near future,

The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) has issued new guidelines limiting the number of times a payday loan can be rolled over to a maximum of three,

However, payday loan company Wonga is the FLA’s only member, prompting consumer grounds to demand further action.

The bank of England is expected to launch another round of quantitative easing (QE) this week, in the hope of preventing the UK falling into another recession, after the economy contracted by 0.2 per cent at the end of last year.

The bank is likely to pump at least £50 billion into the economy by purchasing government gilts from pension funds and insurers with electronically created money.

This round of QE, which is designed to bring down borrowing costs, follows a £75 billion injection into the economy last October.

Since the QE programme started in March 2009, the Bank has bought £275 billion in gilts.

A final decision on the latest round of QE will be made at this week’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

Some economists believe that last week’s welcome news that the UK’s manufacturing and services sector has grown to its highest level for ten months may lead the MPC to review the scale of the latest round of QE.

Last week The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) called for the government to ease back on spending cuts in order to encourage the economy to grow.

The think tank warned that the UK economy will enter recession in the first half of 2012 if households continue to cut back on their spending.

Niesr forecasts that the economy will shrink 0.1% in 2012, however if the eurozone debt crisis is resolved the UK economy could grow 2.3% in 2013, it said.

“We forecast a return to technical recession in the first half of this year, as households continue to retrench, credit conditions remain tight, and businesses are reluctant to invest given uncertainty about both domestic and foreign demand,” the think tank said in its UK and World Economy Forecast.

Chelsea Building Society has launched a five-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.19 per cent.

The deal is available on a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) of 70% with a fee of £1,495.

The building society’s product manager Jemma Smith said the product “is the lowest five-year fixed-rate mortgage ever to come to the market which is great for customers wanting longer term security in fixing what is likely to be their biggest monthly outgoing”.

For house buyers seeking a lower fee, Chelsea offers a seven-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.64% on a maximum 70% LTV, with a fee of £395.

The building society also offers a five-year fixed-rate offset mortgage at 3.39%, on a maximum 70% LTV, and with a £1,495 fee.

Chelsea, which is part of the Yorkshire Building Society, has also withdrawn its ten-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.99 per cent.

Last week Leeds Building Society launched a new deal which may attract potential house buyers who can’t afford a large deposit.

The Leeds’ two-year discount home loan product is available at a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 95 per cent, at a rate of 5.25 per cent.

House buyers who are able to pay a ten per cent deposit will receive a rate of 4.35 per cent.

Leeds Building Society’s Sales and Marketing Director Kim Rebecchi said: “The society is also offering a free valuation up to £335 and free in-house legal services for standard remortgages, to those customers who require help with upfront costs.”

According to the latest research from Santander Mortgages, 53 per cent of potential house buyers are more optimistic about buying a new home in 2012 than they were a year ago, while just 15 per cent are less optimistic.

Eight per cent of Britons believe that they will successfully purchase a new home this year.

The number of people declared insolvent in 2011 in England and Wales declined to 119,850, the lowest level for three years and a fall of 11.3 per cent from a record high in 2010.

There was a sharp decline at the end of 2011, when personal insolvencies fell by 5.6% compared with the last three months of 2010, according to the latest Insolvency Service figures.

The figures include bankruptcies, Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) and Debt Relief Orders (DRO).

Despite the decline, personal insolvencies are still much higher than the average for the past 25 years.

One in 366 people became insolvent in 2011, compared with the 25-year average of one in every 1,600.

Although the figures seem to be on a downward trend, experts warn that the data does not include ‘zombie’ debtors, so the real level of personal debt could be much higher.

Zombie debtors are individual who have entered into informal arrangements with lenders.

While the number of personal bankruptcies fell by 28.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, the number of IVAs rose by 4.5 per cent and the number of DROs increased by 18.3 per cent.

DROs can only be taken out by people with debts of less than £15,000, and there is the possibility that these individuals could become bankrupt at a later date.

The latest figures from the Bank of England show that consumers made an effort to reduce their debt in the run up to Christmas.

Consumer credit, excluding mortgages, fell by £377m to £207bn in December 2011, representing the biggest monthly drop since records began in 1993.

There was a £400m reduction in overdrafts and personal loans, while credit card lending remained the same.

The Government launches its NewBuy mortgage guarantee scheme in March, which will help house buyers by underwriting 95% mortgages on new-build properties up to £500,000 in value.

The scheme depends on having sufficient sites available to house builders and housing minister Grant Shapps revealed today that sufficient land for 80,000 properties has already been identified.

Mr Shapps said he is now working with the BBC, Network Rail, Royal Mail and public sector organisations such as HM Treasury and the Ministry of Justice to identify further unused sites for housebuilding.

He expects enough land for 100,000 homes to be released by 2015.

The NewBuy mortgage guarantee scheme is an extension of the New Build Indemnity Scheme which was announced in November.

The initial scheme was designed to help first-time buyers, but the NewBuy scheme extends this help to people who wish to move house.

Mr Shapps revealed a number of other measures to boost the housing market, including plans to devolve power from Whitehall to town halls and to allow councils to keep rents collected from council tenants and invest the money in their housing stock.

Councils previously had to surrender social rents to the government, which then redistributed the revenue, leaving some councils with less than half the amount they collected.

Speaking to housing sector organisations, Mr Shapps said: “I’m pulling out all the stops for those who want to get on the property ladder, so from March the NewBuy Guarantee scheme will be on hand to help people buying newly built properties with just a fraction of the deposit they would normally need.”

Nationwide Building Society is launching an advertising campaign to highlight its efforts to support first-time buyers.

The building society claims it is doing more than any other lender for first-time buyers by providing Save to Buy and limited liability guarantor mortgages, online guides to the mortgage process, discounted fees and by participating in New Build Indemnity Scheme.