Rory Poulter
Rory Poulter focuses on how money systems affect ordinary people, with particular attention to tax mistakes, bank account access, and the tools people use to make financial decisions. He works as a personal finance reporter at the Daily Express, covering day-to-day money issues rather than abstract markets. His coverage combines policy detail with case-driven reporting, making complex financial problems concrete through their impact on savers, pensioners, and bank customers.
Tax errors and the impact on pensioners
Poulter reports on tax administration problems that directly affect retirees, including state pension tax errors that leave millions of pensioners overcharged by HMRC. His work in this area highlights how technical miscalculations and system flaws translate into real shortfalls for people living on fixed incomes.
He sets these stories in clear monetary terms, explaining how errors in collection and assessment erode the value of long-term entitlements and create uncertainty for those relying on state support.
Bank account access and debanking
Bank account closures and restrictions are a recurring theme in his reporting, especially the rise in complaints from people who lose access to basic banking services.
In a detailed personal finance piece on the debanking scandal, Poulter reports on the surge in cases where individuals are stripped of current accounts and savings facilities, often without clear explanation. He treats debanking as a consumer rights issue, emphasising the practical consequences of being cut off from everyday financial tools, from paying bills to receiving wages.
His coverage of this beat connects regulatory debates and bank policies with lived stories of customers forced to navigate life without a functioning account.
Technology as a new source of money advice
Poulter also explores how new technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is changing the way people seek help with money decisions. In one widely cited article, he reports that more than one in five adults are using AI tools to research personal finance, treating them as a kind of digital “agony aunt” for debt, savings, and budgeting questions.
He frames this trend as a shift in the advice landscape, where traditional sources of guidance such as banks, advisers, and consumer organisations face competition from automated systems. His reporting raises practical questions about reliability, regulation, and the risks of relying on unregulated tools for decisions that carry long-term financial consequences.
Background in charity and local news reporting
Before specialising in personal finance, Poulter covered the charity sector, including policy, fundraising, and governance issues for a trade publication focused on charities. He also served as editor of two local news websites with Nub News, overseeing coverage of community stories and local public affairs. This background shapes his current finance reporting, which remains anchored in how national policies and institutional decisions play out for local communities, third-sector organisations, and individual households.
His progression from charity and local news to personal finance gives him a broad view of how money flows through public, private, and voluntary sectors, and how those flows affect people who are not financial professionals.
Personal finance beat and coverage scope
Across the Daily Express finance pages, Poulter’s work sits firmly in personal finance rather than corporate deal-making or high-level macroeconomics. His topics span tax, pensions, banking services, and consumer-facing financial products, with an emphasis on practical implications for readers managing everyday budgets and long-term savings.
He consistently writes in a news and analysis format, using headline statistics and specific case examples to demonstrate where systems fail and what that failure costs individuals in pounds and pence. This focus on the mechanics of money in ordinary lives distinguishes his coverage from more generic finance reporting that concentrates on markets and institutions rather than the people they serve.
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Abba Ihonde
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Adam Clark
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Alasdair Ferguson
Alasdair Ferguson is a multimedia journalist at The National whose finance reporting is defined by a strong focus on culture, heritage and history. He uses archives, museums and cultural institutions to tell contemporary stories, linking public money and policy to how Scotland understands its past. He covers finance, culture, heritage, sport, arts and civic campaigns, often showing how decisions and events affect daily life and national identity. His work includes pieces on historic conflicts, museum photo releases, lost music, football history, large-scale supporter travel, arts festivals, television industry shifts and grassroots independence campaigns. He reports through news, features and multimedia, including podcast and video interviews. Across formats, he relies on concrete historical material, scholarly research and institutional sources to foreground why discoveries and campaigns matter now.
Alec Whitaker
Alec Whitaker is a senior court reporter for The Westmorland Gazette and also writes for The Mail. He stands out for reporting criminal cases in a tight, court-led way that links offences to fines, bans, compensation and other legal outcomes. His core beat is magistrates’ and crown court hearings, with regular coverage of theft, drugs, motoring offences, harassment, stalking and robbery. He reports on how the justice system turns behaviour into sentences and financial penalties, from short theft cases to serious drug charges. His pieces give the charge, the hearing, the pleas and the final order in plain terms. He also covers inquests and other court proceedings, and his work has included reporting for The Mail, The Westmorland Gazette and the North West Evening Mail.