The FTSE 100 Index has had an interesting month. As a new month is just around the corner, Express looks at how the top 100 UK companies have performed in January 2022. Here is an overview of the best and worst performers, as well as a summary of today’s share prices.

FTSE 100 share prices have slumped in recent days. On January 27, the index closed standing at £7,554.31 but this has since fallen to £7,464.37 on January 31.

The value of the index fell by 0.02 percent on January 31 reaching a high of £7,523.95 and a low of £7,450.89.

After a strong start rising by as much as 0.8 percent, the FTSE 100 lost its gains, finishing flat by the day’s close.

Healthcare, commodity-linked shares and supermarkets were the biggest contributors to the index’s neutral performance today.

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Brian Hillard, chief UK economist at Societe General told Reuters: “There are some concerns about the hit to disposable income from the surge in inflation coming in the spring, but this might just redouble the committee’s (MPC) resolve to bring it back under control.”

FTSE monthly market summary overview

Overall, FTSE has risen over the past six months. The index has risen by 5.4 percent from the end of June 2021 to the end of January 2022.

The FTSE 100 ended January 1.1 percent higher than the month before, this is a promising start to the new year.

What is the FTSE 100 Index?

FTSE or as it is often nicknamed “footsie” is the name for the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index.

The FTSE 100 Index is made up of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

These top blue-chip companies represent approximately 81 percent of the UK market.

The index includes some multinational companies as well as British companies.

The Index is often used as a basis for investment products, such as derivatives and exchange-traded funds.

The number of people eligible for the benefit has skyrocketed thanks to a rule change in the Autumn Budget, according to data from the New Economics Foundation. Despite this many are thought to be missing out because they aren’t aware.

Under the new rules, a single parent with two children and rental bills of £750, could earn up to £52,000 a year and still qualify, compared to £44,500 previously.

For anyone who isn’t sure, Mr Andrews suggested that they first of all check online.

“Using sites like EntitledTo and Turn2Us, you can find out your benefit entitlement in less than 10 minutes – all you need to do is answer a series of simple questions about your living and work situations.

“If you are eligible, then monthly payments will vary between £344 and £596.58, depending on your circumstances.”

Speaking to Express.co.uk, the Commission’s secretary Michael Orton said the current system needs shaking up.

He explained: “We saw during Covid that things aren’t working. You’ve got fuel poverty and food poverty on the rise.

“There is a sense of things just not being right.

“There’s a long history of just not listening to people who’ve actually claimed benefits.”

HMRC collected £32million from people breaching the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) in the tax year ending 2011, surging to £342million in the tax year ending 2020. These latest figures show that more and more people are being caught out yet experts claim these mistakes can easily be avoided.

He said: “With the Lifetime Allowance threshold on ice until 2026, this upward trend won’t slow down, hitting both Defined Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC) pension savers, especially those with generous pension perks.

“Freezing the cap is effectively a punishment on saving into a pension, the very thing people are encouraged to do.”

Mr Pickford explained that outgoings like care costs or supporting children or grandchildren, have the potential to swallow up a large chunk of people’s pension pots.

However, it’s not all bad news – the tax expert has some useful advice for people heading towards the Lifetime Allowance.

In total he has six steps that Britons should take including:

• Finding out how much one holds in each pension
• Using a calculator to check whether at risk
• Checking whether they qualify for pension protections against an LTA charge
• Using their LTA wisely – If people have both final salary and DC pensions, they should consider the order in which they draw benefits and how your benefits are impacted by the Lifetime Allowance.
• Keep saving but be ready for the tax bill
• Speaking to a financial adviser

More than 23 million Britons hold Premium Bonds from National Savings & Investments (NS&I). They remain the most UK’s most popular investment, even though the annual prize rate offers savers a disappointing average return of just one percent a year.

Premium Bond holders enjoy the fun of a flutter, hoping they can win a host of prizes that start at £25 but rise as high as £50,000 or £100,000.

It’s the £1 million jackpot that generates all the excitement. That was big money when first introduced 20 years ago in 1991, but it isn’t worth as much today. In terms of spending power, its value has halved, Sarah Coles at Hargreaves Lansdown has calculated.

Today £1 million jackpot is worth roughly £500,000, which is half as exciting as it used to be.

Its value is now eroding at an even faster rate, as inflation skyrockets. Any winnings from Premium Bonds are already worth 5.4 percent less than they were 12 months ago. That downward trend is set to continue unless NS&I ups its jackpot.

If the £1 million Premium Bonds jackpot had kept up with inflation, NS&I would be handing out two lots of £2 million every month, but it isn’t.

Premium Bonds aren’t the only form of savings to be eroded at a faster pace by rising inflation.

Rob Burgeman, investment manager at Brewin Dolphin, said inflation is now hammering the returns on deposit accounts, too.

Most people wrongly think cash in the bank is risk free, yet the value of your money is falling in real terms, Burgeman said. “Inflation is a silent killer, and banks do not have to warn you about its impact.”

READ MORE: Savers urged to consider ‘moving their money’ or risk losing hundreds

While investment fund managers must warn investors their capital is at risk, there is no such alert on deposit accounts.

“A more accurate bank statement would show the affect that inflation was having on your money and include warnings that cash savings may lose value over time,” Burgeman said.

Today’s inflation rate of 5.4 percent is the highest for 30 years and will erode the value of fixed sums at a frightening rate.

This applies to everything from the Premium Bonds £1m jackpot to £100 sitting in the bank, warns Les Cameron, retirement expert at M&G Wealth.

He said: “With inflation at 5.4 percent it takes a little over 12 years to halve the value of your money.”

By that logic, the NS&I £1m jackpot will be worth just £250,000 in real terms by 2034, unless increased.

Everybody needs to save more to keep pace with prices, Cameron said. “If you thought you could retire on £100,000 but prices rise 10 percent before you retire, you need an additional £10,000.”

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He said anyone funding their retirement income with cash savings or NS&I products should take action now.

“Savings rates are substantially lower than inflation, so people need to decide whether to accept inflation eroding their standard of living, or take some level of investment risk to try and get a better return.”

Burgeman said in the longer run stocks and shares outperform cash and will help protect your money against inflation.

Historically, they are by far the most effective investments. “Over the past 10 years, cash has eroded the value of a £10,000 investment to £8,711 in real terms. Yet the FTSE All-Share index would have turned it into £15,559, over and above cost of living increases.”

Premium Bonds will nonetheless remain hugely popular. The one percent annual prize rate still beats every other form of instant access savings, and the prizes are free of tax as well.

You can access your money at any time, and it is backed by the Government for extra security.

Winning a million is still a dream come true.

Yet savers should still consider spreading their money around as inflation spirals.

He made specific reference to the fact he lives in a Commonwealth country – an association of 54 member states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire.

Mr Goldman continued: “I thought the Commonwealth had very special ties to the UK, but that is apparently not the case.

“We are singled out for pensions to be frozen, where other people in different parts of the world get full indexing every year.

“In fact, if I only were to move about 200 miles further south across the US border, my pension would be fully indexed.”

Mr Goldman explained the Canadian government pays out their state pension for all citizens, regardless of their place of residence. 

Indeed, they also offer full increases to those who have chosen to move overseas.

The Commission for Social Security is lobbying the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to replace Universal Credit with a Guaranteed Decent Income. This new payment would be set at half of the minimum wage to ensure British citizens get a sufficient amount of support from the UK’s social security system. Around 30 million Britons would be able to access this benefit support, according to the Commission.

If the Guaranteed Decent Income were to be introduced, claimants could be in receipt of £654 a month.

Following the Government’s decision to remove the £20 uplift to Universal Credit last year, many experts have cited the benefit payment as being insufficient in tackling the issues affecting the country, notably the rise in the cost of living.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Commission secretary Michael Orton outlined why the Guaranteed Decent Income is an essential replacement for Universal Credit coming out of the pandemic.

Mr Orton explained: “We saw during Covid that things aren’t working. You’ve got fuel poverty and food poverty on the rise. There is a sense of things just not being right.

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“Universal Credit started as a big simplification but lots of different things have gotten loaded into Universal Credit.

“The first thing the Guarantee Basic Income would do would be to streamline things massively.

“As a British citizen, it means that whatever happens to you in life you’d have that security behind you.”

“For example: it might be that you’re in a zero hours contract job, so some weeks you’re fine and some weeks you’re not.

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“A whole range of people with different experiences but what they have in common is they have all had to go through the process of applying for social security,” Mr Orton shared.

“They’ve seen how the system works and seen behind the curtain.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “Universal Credit is providing vital support to millions and playing a crucial role as we support people into work.

“The changes to the taper rate and work allowance represent an effective tax cut of £2.2bn putting an average of £1,000 a year back into people’s pockets.

“We are also supporting hundreds of thousands of people every year with long term health conditions and have made extra financial support available to those with disabilities, or those who care for them, through Personal Independence Payments.”

Members of the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are set to increase rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent as the Bank’s quarterly set of forecasts are likely to show eye-watering inflation this spring.

It would mark the Bank’s first back-to-back increase since June 2004, coming after it lifted rates from 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent in December to try to rein in rampant inflation.

Financial markets are now pricing in four rises in 2022, which would see rates reach 1.25 per cent by the year end – the highest level since early 2009.

The Bank is taking action to bring inflation back to its 2 per cent target. Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation already hit a near 30-year high of 5.4 per cent in December and painful energy price rises are expected to push it beyond 6 per cent this spring.

Martin Beck, chief economic adviser to forecaster EY Item Club, said: “The Omicron variant has almost certainly left the economy weakened as a result of greater consumer hesitancy and a rise in the number of people isolating.

“But that the MPC raised the Bank Rate in December regardless indicates that the committee placed less weight on the virus.And recent developments are likely to reinforce this stance.” The hit to growth is likely to have been “more modest” than first feared, he added, while recent official figures confirmed the UK jobs market continues to fire on all cylinders with little impact from the end of furlough.

But the Bank still has a difficult decision, given the hit to consumer pockets from looming energy bills and fuel price rises – which policymakers are powerless to control with rate hikes.

Governor Andrew Bailey recently told MPs there were also worrying signs that inflation pressures may last longer than thought, with sky-high wholesale energy prices now looking likely to last until the second half of 2023.

Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, said: “The Bank of England can’t control the major factors that will push inflation up in the immediate future. But a February rate hike would help persuade the market that the Bank really means business.”

Higher rates will also cause headaches for Chancellor Rishi Sunak, with the Office for Budget Responsibility warning that each 1 percentage point rise in rates will cost the UK an extra £23billion in interest payments on its huge debt mountain.

According to flash estimates from Eurostat, GDP in the Eurozone grew at 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2021, down from 2.3 percent in the previous quarter. The figure is slightly below the expected forecast of 0.4 percent. Growth for the Eurozone has been partly held back by struggles in Germany whose economy shrank during this time with GDP falling -0.7 percent. Germany is Europe’s largest economy however it has been hit by both Covid restrictions and supply chain disruption to its manufacturing sector which is a major part of its output.

Some relief to Germany’s economic pressures has come in inflation statistics out today which showed consumer price inflation dip from 5.3 percent in December to 4.9 percent for January.

However inflation still remains very high by historical standards and ahead of forecasts suggesting this will continue to be an issue for Germany for longer than expected.

Elsewhere in the Eurozone the biggest decline in GDP comes from Austria which saw a decline of -2.2 percent after the introduction of tough lockdown measures during the final quarter of 2021.

Melanie Debono, senior Europe Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “New virus variants, and associated virus restrictions, are of course the main headwinds for household consumption, which accounts for the biggest share of GDP.

Christopher Dembik, Head of Macro Analysis at Saxo Bank predicted GDP in the first quarter of 2022 was “likely to disappoint”.

He explained: “Millions of people were in de facto quarantine during early January in several countries as a result of measures to contain the pandemic.

“This will be the case in France and Italy, for instance.

“On top of that, risks related to higher costs and supply chain disruptions remain.”

Filling out a self assessment tax return can be a daunting task for many self-employed Britons. If you fear you won’t have completed your tax return by the deadline at midnight tonight, here’s what you need to do to avoid any penalties.

People who are self-employed or freelance have to complete a Self Assessment so HMRC can collect the correct amount of income tax from them at the end of the year.

On January 24, HMRC released a statement warning that more than four million Britons were yet to file their tax returns.

Although some people opt to hire an accountant to look after their incomings and outgoings, others fill out their own tax returns.

For those choosing to fill out their own self assessment, today is the deadline to get the forms sent over to HMRC.

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You’ll need to create an online account on the HMRC website, but it can take up to 10 working days for your account to be activated.

Make sure you have all the paperwork to hand, including a P60 or P45, and the details on what you earned between April 2020 to April 2021, as well as any business expenses.

If you really can’t stand your tax return, you could always hire an accountant to help.

Fees for an accountant to help file your self assessment can cost anywhere starting from £100, depending on the scope of your finances.

“However, we must still be aware that scammers are still likely to try and use the situation to their advantage.

“There were also concerns people might be induced to transfer purely to keep a protected age of 55 rather than it being in their overall best interests, so the move is good news.”

However, recent research has shown some people are unaware altogether of the monumental change which could impact their access.

Some four out of five of people in their 40s asked said they were unaware the change was happening, according to the Pensions Management Institute (PMI).