The number of people going financially insolvent in March in England and Wales jumped by 30% annually, as registrations for debt relief orders reached a new record high, according to Insolvency Service figures.
In March, 12,252 personal insolvencies were registered across England and Wales.
This was 30% higher than in March 2025 and 3% higher than in February 2026.
Personal insolvencies are made up of bankruptcies and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) as well as debt relief orders (DROs).
At 4,523, the number of DROs in March was a record high going back to their introduction in 2009. March’s figure leapfrogged a previous high of 4,301, recorded in February 2026.
Numbers of DROs increased following the expansion of eligibility criteria in June 2021 and the introduction of new DRO hubs in February 2023.
Further increases followed the removal of a £90 admin fee to obtain a DRO in April 2024 and further expansion of eligibility criteria in June 2024, the Insolvency Service said.
The remaining personal insolvency total was made up of 654 bankruptcies and 7,075 IVAs.
There were also 5,175 Breathing Space registrations in March, which was 36% lower than in March 2025. Breathing Space schemes help to give people time to get on top of their debts.
The Insolvency Service also said 2,022 company insolvencies were registered in England and Wales in March, which was 7% higher than in February and at similar levels to March 2025.
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The increase in March followed four months of numbers that were lower than those typically seen between 2022 and 2025 and was mostly driven by more than 100 connected companies in the real estate sector entering administration, the report said.
Giuseppe Parla, restructuring and insolvency director at Menzies LLP, said: “Ongoing tensions in the Middle East are driving up energy and fuel costs, disrupting supply chains, and keeping inflation stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2% target.”
Matthew Richards, joint head of restructuring and insolvency at accountancy and business advisory group Azets, said: “The conflict in Iran is already taking a toll on businesses and balance sheets across the UK.
“Directors who were previously surviving have been concerned about the impact the war will have on their finances, and the increase in costs it caused has been the tipping point for many firms.”
President Donald Trump has said that talks between the US and Iran to end the war could resume as early as this weekend, with Washington and Tehran “very close” to making a deal.
The BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet reports that whilst Iranians are keen to end the enmity with the US, leaders do not believe they have lost the war and are not willing to make a deal on Washington’s terms.
Lyse Doucet is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC’s Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.
In the dead of night at 2:09 a.m., the House passed a bill to extend FISA through April 30 by unanimous consent, after Republicans tanked procedural votes on the controversial warrantless surveillance law.
The short-term extension buys GOP leaders more time to continue negotiations amid Republican infighting over the program that was set to expire on Monday.
Despite opposition from some GOP hardliners, Speaker Mike Johnson was this week still trying to determine a path forward to muscle through an 18-month clean extension of the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The program allows the federal government to collect communications of foreigners abroad without a warrant, including when those people are interacting with Americans.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. government believes it’s a vital tool for protecting the country against “hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, proliferators, and spies, and to inform cybersecurity efforts.”
House Republican leaders postponed a debate and a procedural vote on FISA that had been scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The Senate now will need to consider the legislation.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sits with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as they attend the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance ceremony in Washington, April 14, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to back the measure and hosted a group of hardliners at the White House Tuesday night to find a path forward as the law is set to expire on Monday.
“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday.
“Our Military Patriots desperately need FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield,” Trump added. “It has already prevented MANY such Attacks, and it is very important that it remain in full force and effect.”
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters outside the Oval Office of the White House, April 13, 2026, in Washington.
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe attended the House Republican closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday and also advocated for a clean extension of the program.
Hardline Republicans, who oppose a clean extension of the surveillance tool and demand reforms like a warrant requirement, were not convinced to change their position following the meeting.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland said “no” when asked if progress was made on FISA during the meeting.
“They have to deal with the FISA court’s objection to the warrantless searches,” Harris said.
There has been a continued debate over Section 702 because it sometimes allows the government to collect Americans’ communications without a warrant.
“Discussions are ongoing still,” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said leaving.
Rep. Keith Self of Texas, who attended the White House meeting on Tuesday night, said he does not believe a clean extension will pass.
“We’ll see … but, I don’t think the clean extension will pass,” he said.
After the meeting, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested some “minor changes” could be made to the legislation to appease the holdouts but did not divulge specifics.
“FISA has been important for our country’s national security,” Scalise said. “We’ve put some important much needed reforms in place the last time it was up for reauthorization and what President Trump has asked is that now we reauthorize it with those reforms in place, and that’s what we’re working to do. So, we’re having some final conversations. Not all of our members are quite there yet.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise speaks alongside House Republican leadership during a news conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, on April 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Heather Diehl/Getty Images
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said several Republicans “want to see further reforms” to the program.
“We feel like we need improvements. Obviously, we want greater protections for citizens with respect to warrants,” he said. “We want to make sure that there’s greater penalties, for example, for government officials who abuse their authority and power.”
Scalise said Ratcliffe explained to Republicans how FISA is being “used in the real world to stop bad things from happening.”
As he was leaving, Ratcliffe said the meeting “went great.”
Artificial intelligence “agents” promise to do everything from tidying up your email like Marie Kondo declutters a closet, to buying you a pair of heels based on your budget and style preferences.
Yet technology experts warn that outsourcing key decisions to AI exposes consumers to risks, potentially leading to communications errors and costing people money, while also potentially handing hackers the keys to their data. This is particularly true when it comes to so-called agentic commerce, or relying on AI agents to make purchases for you.
“It isn’t mainstream yet and it’s pretty risky right now, because there aren’t enough guardrails in the system for people to feel comfortable with agents autonomously buying things for them,” Matt Kropp, an AI expert with Boston Consulting Group, told CBS News. “It could potentially go buy a car, but I wouldn’t say, ‘Here’s my credit card.'”
Brave new world
Such concerns aren’t keeping some of America’s biggiest companies from charging ahead with AI commerce, which they see as a new way to engage customers and to drive more sales by letting AI do the legwork for shoppers.
For example, American Express this week announced new services and protections for cardholders who make purchases using specified AI agents. That includes verifying the identity of an agent when it makes a purchase, according to the credit card issuer. The service “will protect eligible customers from charges related to AI agent error,” Amex said in a statement.
Amazon’s agentic AI assistant, dubbed “Rufus,” can track the price of products on the online retailer’s platform, alert customers when the price hits a prescribed level and complete the purchase.
Walmart, the biggest U.S. retailer, has deployed what it calls a “conversational” AI agent named Sparky that the company says can help consumers find products, provide customer reviews and help with ordering.
Roughly a quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 39 say they have tried using AI to research products or to shop, according to November data from market research firm Statista.
What could go wrong?
The accelerating adoption of AI is also leading to mishaps.
Consider what happened to Sebastian Heyneman, the founder of a San Francisco-based tech startup. According to the New York Times, he instructed an AI agent to secure him a speaking opportunity at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The bot succeeded in landing him a coveted slot at the annual gathering of powerbrokers — for $30,000, a fee he couldn’t afford.
Heyneman used a bot by Tasklet, a company that lets businesses automate routine business tasks with AI agents. Andrew Lee, the founder of Tasklet, told CBS News that such problems can arise when a user prompt gives the AI conflicting instructions.
Lee also said agentic AI today is fully capable of shopping for people and doing “normal things consumers can do.” But just because tech can do something doesn’t mean it should be used in that fashion, he warned.
“The specific use case of shopping is not a good thing to use these systems for — yet,” he told CBS News. “The agents are fundamentally hard to trust. Personally, I am not super comfortable with that yet. I like to control where my money goes myself, and as a business, we don’t recommend that.”
The reason: Bad actors can lure AI agents into turning over a consumer’s personal information, Bretton Auerbach, founder of a New York-based tech startup, told CBS News.
“If you give an agent your credit card and say, ‘Go to this website and buy me something online,’ there are ways to trick the agent,” he said. “It might mistake a legitimate website for a phishing website that says in big, bold, text, ‘Paste your credit card number here.'”
Osteopenia itself does not usually cause symptoms and it develops silently over time. Many people may not even be aware that they have the condition until they have experienced a fracture or had a bone density test, typically recommended because of risk factors such as age and menopause. This makes osteopenia a significant but often under-recognised public health issue.
Bone is a dynamic tissue that undergoes continuous renewal through a process called bone remodelling. During this process, old bone is broken down (resorption) and new bone is formed (formation).
During early adulthood this process is balanced, so bone resorption equals bone formation. Bone mass usually peaks around a person’s mid-20s to early-30s. After this peak bone loss gradually exceeds bone formation. Over time this leads to reduced bone density.
Ageing is the main risk factor for bone loss. But several additional factors can accelerate the process.
It is crucial osteopenia is detected early (Alamy/PA)
For instance, hormonal changes, especially the decline in oestrogen after the menopause, can significantly increase bone breakdown. This is because oestrogen helps protect bones by slowing the natural process of bone breakdown. Around one in two women over 50 will experience a fragility fracture.
Lifestyle also plays an important role. Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and physical inactivity can contribute to reduced bone strength over time. Diet is equally important. Insufficient calcium intake and low vitamin D can limit the body’s ability to build and maintain strong bones.
Certain medications, particularly long-term steroid use, as well as health conditions that affect hormone levels or nutrient absorption (such as Crohn’s or coeliac disease), can further increase the risk.
Managing osteopenia
Detecting osteopenia early is crucial. This allows you and clinicians to take steps that can reduce the risk of fractures and prevent osteopenia progressing to osteoporosis, where bone loss is more advanced and the risk of fractures is significantly higher.
Bone mineral density is commonly measured using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. This is a type of low-dose X-ray scan used to assess bone strength. Results are usually given as a T-score, which compares a patient’s bone density to that of a healthy young adult. A T-score between –1.0 and –2.5 indicates osteopenia, while a T-score below –2.5 meets the diagnostic threshold for osteoporosis.
Management of osteopenia typically focuses on slowing down or preventing further bone loss and reducing the risk of fractures. This involves making lifestyle changes (such as avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol intake or maintaining healthy body weight), nutritional support and, in some cases, prescription treatment.
About the author
Hasmik Jasmine Samvelyan is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science at Anglia Ruskin University.
Weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, dancing or jogging stimulate bone formation by placing strain on the skeleton. Resistance training can further strengthen bones and muscles.
Research shows that regular physical activity is associated with improved bone mineral density and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Exercise, such as Tai Chi, also improves balance and muscle strength, reducing the risk of falls that could lead to fractures.
Sufficient calcium intake supports bone structure too, while vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium efficiently. Foods such as dairy products, leafy green vegetables and fortified products are common dietary sources. Supplements may also be recommended where dietary intake is insufficient. In the UK, vitamin D deficiency is relatively common, so supplementation is often advised.
Not everyone with osteopenia requires drug treatment. Instead, clinicians often use a fracture risk assessment tool to evaluate ten-year probability of a fracture based on age, bone mineral density, steroid use and other risk factors.
If fracture risk is high or if a person has already experienced a fragility fracture, medications may be recommended. These can include antiresorptive drugs which slow bone breakdown and help maintain bone density. Such treatments are more commonly used in osteoporosis but may also benefit high-risk patients with osteopenia.
Osteopenia should not be viewed merely as a mild or early form of osteoporosis but rather as a warning sign and point of intervention. Progression from osteopenia to osteoporosis is not inevitable.
Evidence suggests that early detection and targeted lifestyle changes can maintain bone health, significantly slow bone loss and reduce risk of developing osteoporosis later in life. In some cases, bone density may even improve with appropriate treatment and lifestyle adjustments.
But prevention requires a long-term perspective. Bone health reflects the cumulative influences of our health and lifestyle across the lifespan including our diets, physical activity levels and hormonal changes we have gone through. Maintaining healthy habits over time remains the most effective strategy for protecting bone strength.
Coventry City will be promoted to the Premier League if they get a point away to Blackburn Rovers on Friday.
The Championship leaders competed in the first nine seasons of the Premier League but have never been promoted into the top flight since its rebranding in 1992.
Forty-one teams have been promoted into the Premier League, can you name them all?
What is it about bank holiday weekends that seem to make it so easy to spend an absolute fortune? Regardless how fun they are and how nice it is to have an extra day off work and school, whether you’re 23 and spending three days in a pub garden, 40 and trying to keep the kids occupied for an extra day, or 65 and going overboard in the garden centre, bank holidays can be money pits. Especially when we have two coming up, back-to-back (the early May bank holiday on May 4, and the spring bank holiday on May 25).
Personal finance expert at Boundless, Lynn Beattie (aka Mrs Mummypenny), notes that the cost of living crisis doesn’t help, neither does the compulsion to ‘keep up with the Jones’”. “The biggest thing with all of these kinds of events is the pressures of social media,” says the mum of three. “It’s the demands on people to be doing something more exciting than other people, and something better than last year. It’s that ongoing need to be doing better, and it can end up costing more.”
Fortunately, unlike during the winter holidays, “the weather’s nicer, and at least when it’s sunny, there’s a lot more opportunity to go and do cheaper stuff,” she adds.
Here’s how to still enjoy the bank hols, without going bankrupt in the process…
Have a budget
“Always know how much money you can afford to set aside to cover what you want to do,” says Beattie. “That’s going to give you some idea of what you can go out and do.” Moneyplanner has one you can fill out online to make it nice and clear.
Get everyone on board
“Talk to the people you’re spending the time with to see what ideas they’ve got,” says Beattie. “I’ve got three boys, and I always think it’s quite nice asking all of them and coming up with a bit of a consensus, some agreement as to what you all want to do, and then you go, ‘Right, what can I do to save money on this?’”
“A really expensive thing to do is a day out with family to an attraction, typically, but there’s always ways to save on that,” says Beattie, who recommends using any memberships you’re signed up to, or vouchers you can access, to reduce costs. Did someone buy you a National Trust or RSPB membership for Christmas? Was there a coupon in the paper, or a voucher code you saw online? “There’s all kinds of attractions in London where, if you get the train there, you can get children’s tickets for free,” she adds. “It’s just doing some research on the place you want to go to before you go, just to see what kind of discounts are available, because you will always find some kind of discount.” Never turn up somewhere cold, as you’ll almost certainly end up paying full whack.
Take a packed lunch
Little things, like taking a packed lunch (despite the kids – or adults – moaning about it) can slash your spend. “Avoid the gift shop at the end, and my little trick for ice creams, rather than getting an expensive [one] from an ice cream shop, go to a little Tesco or Co-op nearby and buy a box,” says Beattie. “It can end up £10 for three of them from the ice cream van, or £3 for three from the shop!”
Skip the pub
Although idyllic, you can swap the pub garden in the sun, for your (or a friend’s) garden in the sun instead. “I went out at the weekend, to a day rave, and we easily spent £50 each on drinks, where you could probably spend £50 between four of you if you just did it around each other’s houses. Take a bit of food, a bottle each, and you’re sorted,” says Beattie. Alternatively, just have one at the pub… it is possible.
Stay home
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You don’t have to decamp to the pub or go on grand days out – there’s a lot to be said for just enjoying an extra day at home. “What’s wrong with going for a walk to the woods or going to the local park, going to the river, or for a walk on the beach?” says Beattie. “There’s this pressure to be going out and doing stuff that costs money, but you can just enjoy the nature and the flowers and the animals that we have around us.”
Jeff Kassouf covers women’s soccer for ESPN, focusing on the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, he founded The Equalizer, a women’s soccer news outlet, and he previously won a Sports Emmy at NBC Sports and Olympics.
Multiple Authors
The NWSL’s board of governors is expected to vote later this month on whether to flip the league’s calendar to a fall-to-spring season, multiple sources told ESPN.
The NWSL season currently kicks off in March and ends in November, but a change — one that has been debated for years and previously voted down — would see the season start in late summer and end in late spring. That would align the NWSL with many of Europe’s top leagues and soon, with MLS, which will make the transition to fall-to-spring next year.
The NWSL’s board has debated changing the season footprint for at least three years, and a flip of the calendar was narrowly voted down in late 2024, ESPN previously reported. Intense debate over the topic has continued within league circles.
Another vote on the calendar could happen at the upcoming board meeting, sources said, although the agendas to such meetings change frequently, and the terms of potential proposals can be altered right up until voting begins, as they did in December with the implementation of the new High Impact Player rule.
Even if there is a vote that successfully passes a calendar change — which is not guaranteed, since support of the idea is not unanimous — it could take years to implement.
An NWSL spokesperson declined to comment on this story.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in November that “our ecosystem is on notice” about the league potentially changing its calendar.
“There are certainly opportunities that can be created with us not overlapping Major League Soccer, in that the schedule congestion for our summer calendar will be mitigated,” Berman said before the 2025 NWSL Championship. “On the other hand, there will of course be other challenges that it creates in terms of understanding and knowing stadium availability.”
Proponents of the change believe that aligning the NWSL’s calendar with Europe will improve transfer business and allow the NWSL to better operate around FIFA international windows.
Sources told ESPN that there is also a belief among some board members that there is less competition for prime TV time in late spring and that the NWSL playoffs could have a larger audience in that window. Maximizing revenue from the next media rights deal is the NWSL board’s current top priority, multiple sources have told ESPN over the past year, and Berman has spoken about the topic frequently.
Critics of a calendar change point to the NWSL’s many cold-weather markets and potential player safety issues around holding games in frigid conditions, although extreme heat is already an issue during the NWSL’s summer months. They are also concerned about how cold temperatures and potential weather delays would impact attendance, which dipped on average last year.
The NWSL’s board of governors will meet later this month. Any potential league vote is likely to result in a narrow decision in either direction, as was the case in 2024.
MLS owners voted in November to flip the calendar and mirror Europe. MLS will make the transition by playing an abbreviated “sprint season” next spring before switching to a full season for 2027-28. MLS will begin its new seasons in July, take a winter break from mid-December through early February and finish the playoffs in late May.
The NWSL could follow a similar path but on a delayed timeline.
The NWSL’s new collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in 2024, accounted for a potential change by eliminating restrictions to preseason start dates and by adding an entire section (27.9) accounting for a schedule format change. That section requires the league to provide no less than one year’s notice to the NWSL Players Association if it intends to switch to a fall-to-spring format.
After that, the CBA calls for the league and the union to form a scheduling committee and allow for NWSLPA input, as well as bargain over necessary changes that conflict with the current CBA, “but the NWSL retains the discretion to make the format change.”
There are natural breaks in the calendar for the NWSL to attempt a transition. The 2028 Summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles (and the Olympics soccer event spread across the U.S.), and the 2031 Women’s World Cup is expected to be primarily hosted in the United States, although the formal approval of that uncontested bid has been delayed by FIFA.
Changing the calendar has the support of many sporting executives across the league because it will put NWSL contracts at the same cadence as those in Europe, where deals typically expire in the summer. That, executives have said for years, will make player transfers easier.
In ESPN’s first anonymous general manager survey in 2024, one GM said that the intense debate over the calendar was “actually the biggest question facing the league.”
Turning the summer into the offseason would also allow the NWSL to avoid one of its largest headaches: international tournaments. The league tried to play through the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups despite missing swaths of star players before finally taking a five-week break for the 2023 edition.
Between the World Cup, the Olympics and continental tournaments such as the Euros, there are major international calendar conflicts three out of every four summers. (And this year, in the one down summer in that cycle, the NWSL instilled a monthlong break because of the men’s World Cup taking over many of its venues and markets.)
MLS and the NWSL currently mirror each other in operating seasons that start at the beginning of the calendar year (usually February or March) and end with playoffs that run until the end of the year. MLS and the NWSL have both kicked off their seasons early in the calendar year since their inceptions in 1996 and 2013, respectively.
The USL Super League, which is also sanctioned as a U.S. women’s first division alongside the NWSL, launched in 2024 and already plays roughly a fall-to-spring schedule, kicking off in August and concluding in May.
