Reports have confirmed that former One Direction band member Liam Payne has died. Liam was holidaying in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, at the time. With the local newspaper La Nacion reporting on Wednesday (local time) that the 31-year-old was found dead after falling from his hotel’s third floor. Ambulance workers later confirmed the death...
The post One Direction’s Liam Payne found dead at 31 after falling from a hotel window appeared first on Punkee.
A MAJOR price comparison firm is handing a £250 car insurance fee back to drivers and £11 million has already been claimed.
GoCompare is offering customers the free excess refund reward when they purchase car insurance.
The price comparison site has revealed that its customers have been millions through its £250 Excess Refund Reward since the scheme began in July 2019.
The Excess Refund Reward allows any customer who purchases a car insurance policy through GoCompare to opt in and receive money back when the claim is settled.
For example, if your total excess is £300, you pay this to your insurer, and GoCompare refund £250 after your claim is settled.
The price comparison firm will refund you if you have damage to your car, if you’re at fault and have comprehensive insurance.
You can also get a refund for claims for fire or theft as well as uninsured driver claims.
However, GoCompare stress that you will not be able to use your free excess cover for windscreen repair and replacement, damage caused by a breakdown or misfuelling or claims from outside the UK.
Repairs to your own car, without comprehensive cover are also not included in the free excess cover.
GoCompare say that making a claim is a straightforward process and you should be able to fill out the online form in about ten minutes.
Once you’ve submitted your claim, and it’s been approved, expect to get your refund within five working days.
An excess is included on most insurance policies and is the amount that the policyholder needs to pay upfront before they can make a claim.
Regarding car insurance, the excess is split into two parts: compulsory and voluntary.
The insurer sets the compulsory excess while the policyholder can choose the voluntary excess – then when you make a claim the two are added together and must be paid before a claim can be made.
Previous research from Go.Compare revealed that only 49 per cent of motorists fully understand the meaning of voluntary and compulsory excesses on their policy.
Meanwhile, only 7 per cent of drivers aged 18 to 24 said they understood compulsory excess.
Tom Banks, car insurance expert at Go.Compare, said: “Seeing that over £11 million has been refunded to our customers through this offer is amazing.
“The process of making a claim on an insurance policy can be a stressful one so we hope that this refund reward can help ease some of the stresses, both mentally and financially.
“Our aim is to help motorists make informed decisions when it comes to insurance, making sure they get the cover they need and help them save some money – the excess refund reward is a great example of this.
“It’s great to see that so many customers have been able to benefit from the scheme.”
It comes after Martin Lewis urged car drivers to beware of a simple car insurance payment mistake that can end up being more expensive.
The money saving expert shared the a new video to help motorists save cash while covering the essential bill.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker talks you through what car insurance is and what it covers you for…
Car insurance pays out if your vehicle is stolen, damaged, catches on fire or is involved in an accident.
As a minimum, it protects you against any damage you case to other road users, the public or their property – these are called third parties.
You only need to claim on your car insurance when an accident is your fault.
If another motorist is to blame, their insurance should pay out instead.
Car insurance, unlike home insurance, is a legal requirement and if you don’t have it you can be fined up to £1,000.
You can also have your vehicle seized and destroyed.
However, you don’t need to insure your car if it is classed as “off-road”, or holds a statutory off road notification (SORN).
The vehicle has to be kept on private land and not a public highway though.
THOUSANDS of women may be living with undetected breast cancer after missing screening appointments.
The NHS warned about a third of eligible patients did not accept the free test offer last year.
Figures show that was just over one million people, and 2.2million have missed an appointment in the past three years.
An estimated one in 100 women are diagnosed with cancer after screening.
In 2023 there were 18,942 tumours detected out of 1.93million women screened for breast cancer, but a further 1.05m women who were invited did not attend.
The one per cent detection rate means there were potentially 10,000 missed cases.
Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in the UK with around 57,000 new cases every year.
Dr Louise Wilkinson, adviser to NHS England, said: “Breast screening saves lives by allowing cancers to be identified and treated earlier.
“Discovering breast cancer at the earliest stage may give you a 98 per cent chance of surviving for five years or more.
“Screening can often pick up cancer before you can even see or feel any changes to your breasts yourself.
“I urge anyone invited to take up the offer.”
Screening is generally offered to women every three years between the ages of 50 and 71, when their risk increases.
Scans are carried out in local clinics and hospitals, as well as in roving scan vans in some places.
Kathryn Cowley, 58, was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 2022 revealed an abnormality.
She underwent surgery followed by radiotherapy, and said that attending appointments was “vital”.
“My breast cancer journey has a positive outcome and it’s very lucky that I attended my regular breast screening,” Ms Cowley said.
“I have now had my one-year follow-up mammogram and I was very relieved that this was normal.
There’s no time to waste to save more lives from breast cancer
Claire Rowney
“Attending routine screening is vital – I was fortunate that I attended my appointment and did not put it off.
“My mammogram detected my cancer before it could be felt, which was a game changer.”
Women who have had a mammogram should still check their breasts regularly.
The NHS recommends a “touch, look, check” (TLC) approach.
Claire Rowney, chief of the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “These figures serve as a timely reminder, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, that far too many people are missing out on the vital breast screening that saves lives from breast cancer.
“The stark reality is that thousands of women miss having their breast cancer detected each year.”
“We look forward to working with NHS England to ensure breast screening services are accessible and convenient for everyone who is eligible.
“We encourage eligible women to attend their breast screening appointments when invited and to regularly check their breasts to get to ‘know their normal’ and get any new or unusual breast changes checked out by a GP, including between screening appointments.
“There’s no time to waste to save more lives from breast cancer.”
It is important to regularly check your breasts for any changes. Breast tissue reaches all the way up to your collarbone and across to your armpit, so it’s vital to check these areas too.
If you feel or see any changes in your breast you should always consult your GP.
Charity CoppaFeel! recommends checking your breasts monthly, so you can pick up on any changes quickly.
Breasts do change naturally as part of your monthly menstrual cycle, so you should get to know your breasts, how they feel and what changes they usually go through to know if anything is out of the ordinary.
Five-step check
There is a five-step self exam you can do at home to check for any changes.
Step one: Begin by looking in a mirror, facing it with your arms on your hips and your shoulders straight. You should be looking for any dimpling, puckering, bulging skin, redness, soreness, a rash or changes in the nipple.
Step two: Still looking in the mirror, raise both arms above your head and check for the same changes.
Step three: With your arms still above your head, check for any fluid coming from the nipples. This can include milky, yellow or watery fluid, or blood.
Step four: While lying down use your opposite hand to check each breast. Using a few fingers, keeping them flat and together, go in a small circular motion around your breasts. Make sure you feel the entire breast by going top to bottom in these small circles. It helps to develop a system or pattern to make sure every inch is covered. Use light pressure for the skin and tissue just beneath, medium pressure for the tissue in the middle of your breasts, and firm pressure to feel the tissue at the back, feeling down to your ribcage.
Step five: Feel your breasts while either standing or sitting, using the same small circular motions.
PEOPLE smugglers are turning to alternative routes into Britain to beat a small boats crackdown.
The gangs are increasingly being paid by asylum seekers to hide them in vehicles.
They are also overstaying visas, according to the Refugee Council.
Just three in ten asylum claims are now made by small boat arrivals, compared with four in ten the year before, it reports.
CEO Enver Solomon said: “It’s no secret that where you ramp up enforcement activity in relation to one route you’re going to see a shift in how people seek to get to the UK.”
Meanwhile, Labour will have to wave through another 62,000 applications to ease the backlog, the Refugee Council has predicted.
More than half of the 118,882 currently waiting will be allowed to stay, it suggests.
The Home Office, headed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, is understood to have ramped up processing in recent weeks.
Cases built up after the previous Tory government stopped processing applications for those who arrived illegally.
Mr Solomon said: “Applications are moving again but we are concerned there is no clear plan yet to improve the rate of decision-making to keep pace with applications and avoid another backlog emerging.”
It comes as 176 crossed the Channel in three dinghies on Tuesday.
Small boat crossings in 2024 now total 27,509, compared with 26,116 this time last year.
The Home Office said: “We continue to remove more people with no right to be here — with over 3,000 people returned since we formed government — while also driving down the costs of asylum accommodation.”
ONE in four drivers say their vehicle has been damaged by a pothole in the past year — but less than a fifth of compensation claims are successful.
A survey found 27 per cent of motorists have suffered an average of £718 damage — £7.5billion per year nationwide.
If a vehicle is damaged by a poorly maintained road they are entitled to claim compensation from those responsible — usually the local authority.
But a Freedom of Information request by Halfords shows just 18 per cent of claims to councils resulted in a payout.
The motoring firm has launched a free Pothole Damage Check to help drivers claim compensation.
It is also calling on the Government to spend more on fixing potholes.
Halfords’ Karen Bellairs said: “Roads are in a shocking state and drivers are hitting potholes more and more frequently.”
Earlier in the month, The Sun reported on how drivers were left stranded on the side of the M25 after a “hidden” pothole caused more than a dozen breakdowns during rush hour.
The “massive” hole was apparently all but invisible to the motorists, as pictures showed around 20 cars lined up on the hard shoulder.
The M25 is one of Britain’s busiest roads and is used by around 200,000 vehicles a day.
But a section of the route was clogged up with reports of five-mile queues after drivers came across a nasty surprise on the road surface.
Lorry driver Blaine Conway, 39, said he heard a “big bang” as he hit the crater, forcing him to pull over.
He told The Sun: “I was leaving work around half five, and I was on the M25 southbound between junction 13 and 12.
“It was very dark and it was raining.
“All of a sudden I heard a big bang and I knew something was wrong.
“I parked up on the hard shoulder where I saw two or three other cars.
“At one point there were 27 cars parked on the side of the road.”
Blaine thought to himself “that’s going to cost me money.”