Nothing special
The special and basic account rates with the Court Funds Office (CFO) have been savaged—have you ever tried savaging a peanut?—as from 1 June 2020. In line with commercial sector practice, the decision to do this was announced on 1 June 2020. As an emergency measure, the special account rate reduces from 0.5% to 0.1% and the basic account rate from 0.1% to 0.05%. The Bank of England base rate now sits at 0.1% to which the CFO rates have responded. However, the reduced rates compare unfavourably with what is on offer from NS&1: for example, 3.25% on its Junior ISA, 0.90% on its Direct Isa and 1% on its Direct Saver.
Any claimant’s advocate who joins a remote protected party settlement approval appointment deserves to be muted and drenched in cheap sanitiser if unarmed with some decent investment proposals away from the CFO (see ‘Civil way’, NLJ 27 March 2020).
The special account reduction impacts
