Warning. Home insurance costs predicted to rise 30%
So check NOW if you can LOCK IN a price & save £100s

Big consultancy Ernst & Young now predicts home insurance costs will rise 30% this year, due to increases in claim costs: building materials, replacement items, labour and more. So EVERYONE should check now if they can save - as if you can lock in today's premium, you can forestall rises for a year. Our Cheap home insurance guide shows how you can save, but here's a brief summary of the key tips (though there are far more in the guide).

• Step 1. Establish what cover you need. Everyone, including renters, should consider contents insurance, but buildings insurance is usually only for freehold homeowners (as it's usually the management company or landlord's responsibility - check your lease). To work out what's covered by each, imagine turning your home upside down. If it falls, it's contents. If it stays, it's usually buildings.
  
  - Contents insurance: beware underinsuring. Many underinsure, thinking: "I'd never claim for everything"... but if you only insure half your contents' worth, you may only get half the payout. Use a contents calculator.
  - Buildings insurance: beware overinsuring. Many wrongly insure for their home's market value, but what counts is how much it'd cost to rebuild if it were knocked down or gutted by fire. Use a rebuild cost calculator to find out.
  
  
• Step 2. COMBINE comparison sites for 100s of quotes in minutes. Whichever cover you're going for, this is the route. Comparison sites zip your info to dozens of insurers and brokers at once. Yet don't just use one as a) They can cover different insurers, and b) They often have different prices for the same firm.
  
  Our current order is 1) Compare The Market*, 2) Confused.com*, 3) MoneySupermarket* (see how we order it). These sites are best for those with standard circumstances - if that's not you, and you find it tough to get quotes, see help if you're struggling to get insurance.
  
  
• Step 3. See if you can beat your cheapest comparison site price. If you've time, adding insurers comparisons miss, promo deals and cashback sites can bag you a cheaper price.
  
  - Biggie Direct Line* doesn't appear on comparisons and can be competitive for some.
  - Urban Jungle* gives a £15 Amazon voucher after seven months when you use the code MSE_OFFER.
  - If you're a member of cashback sites Quidco or Topcashback, you can do a comparison through them, and get up to £37 back. But check prices are the same through these comparisons as the main ones. See cashback help info.
  
  
• Step 4. Haggle. If you want to stick with your existing firm, tell it you want to stay, but ask if it can match your cheapest price from steps 2 and 3 - it will often work. See home insurance haggling help.
  
  
• Step 5. Ensure the policy's right for you before buying. Go through the main terms to check you're happy, and check the firm you're buying from is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (that shouldn't usually be a problem through the methods above). And remember, if you have a claim unfairly rejected, that means you've a right to escalate any complaints to the free Financial Ombudsman if the insurer doesn't deal with them.

'My daughter got a £10,000 council tax refund for her multiple sclerosis, and future bills wiped. Thank you'
100,000s with STROKES, ALZHEIMER'S, DEMENTIA & more may be missing out on big council tax discounts. Please spread word

In 2016, we started campaigning about the severe mental impairment (SMI) council tax discount after I was shocked to find out how underclaimed it was. Our mystery shopping exercise found many frontline council staff didn't know about it, or got the rules wrong - a tragedy, as this is a crucial discount for many desperately in need of help. Thankfully we now receive a flow of successes, and things have somewhat improved, though many still caveat that they only heard of SMI discounts through us. So the battle continues...

• How does the SMI discount work? Severe mental impairment's a horrid term, so let's stick to SMI. If you or someone you know is likely due it, do read our full SMI help. In brief though, you must meet two eligibility criteria.
  
  - You need to be medically certified as being 'SMI'. It's defined as 'a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning that appears to be permanent'. This can come from dementia, profound learning difficulties, brain injuries, severe strokes, some with severe Parkinson's and more (such as MS, as below). It's up to a doctor.
  
  - You're receiving (or are eligible for) a qualifying benefit. This includes means-tested and non means-tested benefits, eg, attendance allowance, disability living allowance, personal independence payment, severe disablement allowance and some parts of universal credit. In England & Wales, you must be getting them. In Scotland, just being eligible can be enough. See all qualifying benefits.
  
  
• The discount size depends on who you live with. Council tax is discounted based on how many qualifying adults live in a house. Having SMI means you don't count towards this (like full-time students & under-18s), so...
  
  - SMI living alone: house gets 100% council tax discount (ie, you pay nowt)
  - SMI living with an adult carer: house gets 50% council tax discount
  - SMI living with one qualifying adult: house gets single person reduction of 25% council tax discount
  - SMI living with two or more qualifying adults: the house pays full council tax, so no council tax discount
  
  And just to be clear, if there are under-18s, full-time students or others with an SMI in the house as well, they don't usually change the situation above (as they don't count towards council tax either) - so for example a house where someone with an SMI lives with a full time student still gets the 100% discount (there can be some other complex examples where its a 50% discount - see our full Council tax discounts help (including my new video) for more).
  
  
• It can sometimes be backdated. No legal rule requires local authorities to backdate, though some do, back to the first diagnosis. Though in 2019, wonderfully, the Welsh Government took up our recommendations, streamlined the process, printed brochures to help aid awareness and ensured all Welsh councils' payments are backdatable.
  
  
• This can be worth £1,000s. A few days ago, I was moved by this email Ronnie sent to the site (thanks Ronnie), so much so it inspired me to write this note:
  
  "We watched your programme a few months ago on SMI. Our daughter has MS, and has been affected cognitively by the disease since 2009. We looked into it, gathered her medical records and a new letter from her doctor, and applied for a rebate. They told us she no longer had to pay her council tax and would get back £938 [for this year].
  
  "We were delighted, but noted you'd mentioned some councils give back payments, so gathered her evidence back to when she had a severe attack, and claimed for those years. The result was a total of £10,297. As her parents, we've tried to keep the wolf from her door, but this money and the savings going forward are immense, and we can only thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you do. We'll be listening in to all of your future programmes."