THE Easter eggs on supermarket shelves look much the same as ever.

But chocoholics will be disappointed to hear that many stores have shrunk since last year, while stores have kept prices the same.

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Manufacturers blame rising costs of ingredients and transportation.

Consumer expert Martyn James says: “Of all the examples of shrinkflation, is there anything worse than the annual reduction in the size of Easter eggs?

“Don’t be afraid to send a message to the manufacturer to let them know if you’re not satisfied.”

Lynsey Hope reveals how much your favorites have shrunk in 12 months.

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Twix milk chocolate Easter egg, £3

• 2023 – 246g
• 2024 – 200g
• Decrease 19%

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Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut Ultimate egg, £10

• 2023 – 532 g
• 2024 – 400g
• Drop 25%

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Crunchie Easter egg, €3

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• 2022 – 233g
• 2024 – 190g
• Decrease 18%

Divine Dark Chocolate Egg, £5

• 2023 – 260g
• 2024 – 90g
• Drop 65%
• Worst offender!

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Smarties Orange Large Easter Egg, £3

• 2023 – 226g
• 2024 – 188g
• Decrease 17%

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Galaxy Minstrels Easter egg, £3

• 2023 – 234g
• 2024 – 192g
• Decrease 18%

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Maltesers Easter egg, £5

• 2023 – 265g
• 2024 – 246g
• Decrease 7%
• Least stingy!

15

Turn an Easter egg, €3

• 2022 – 237g
• 2024 – 198g
• Decrease 16%

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Mini Easter eggs, £1.50

• 2023 – 130g
• 2024 – 97g
• Drop 25%

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Yorkie milk chocolate large Easter egg, £3.50

• 2023 – 242g
• 2024 – 196g
• Decrease 19%

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Kit Kat Coarse egg, £3

• 2023 – 230g
• 2024 – 190g
• Decrease 17%

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Galaxy Milk Chocolate Indulgence Easter egg, £6

• 2023 – 310g
• 2024 – 268g
• Decrease 13.5%

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M&S Handmade Golden Blonde Egg, £12

• 2023 – 300g
• 2024 – 292g
• Decrease 2.6%

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Dairy Milk Caramel Easter Egg, £5

• 2022 – 286g
• 2024 – 245g
• Decrease 14%

• Sandiford could avoid the death penalty under new Indonesian law
• She is held in Kerobokan Prison in Bali and is known as the ‘queen’ of the prison

By Ryan Prosser

Published: 02:13 EDT, March 22, 2024 | Updated: 12:19 EDT, March 22, 2024

Kohli had his hand around Dhoni as both smiled and gave the fans what they were waiting for all these months.

Chennai: Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are by far the most popular cricketers of this generation, if not ‘the’ most. After over a year of waiting, Kohli and Dhoni faced off in the opener of IPL 2024 in Chennai on Friday. But what stole the show is their mid-pitch bromance. It happened during the changeover, when Kohli was in the thick of it. Kohli had his hand around Dhoni as both smiled and gave the fans what they were waiting for all these months. The photo is now circulating on social media, with fans commenting on it with love. Here are some responses.

Virat Kohli with MS Dhoni.

– Time of day. pic.twitter.com/xdenNmagzJ

— (@nandy21112) March 22, 2024

Photo of the day #MSDhoni #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/bvhonoWg5n

— Mahaveer Charan (@CharanMahaveer1) March 22, 2024

Thala Chikku
Mahirat ERA#MSDhoni #ViratKohli #IPL #IPLonJioCinema #CSKvRCB pic.twitter.com/pbpIR13XNt

— SAM (@hxysammm) March 22, 2024

And IPL 2024 starts with this#CSKvRCB #MSDhoni #Virat_kohli pic.twitter.com/RS0A8vWd7j

— Vrushali prajapati (@vrushyy_312) March 22, 2024

At the time of filing the copy, RCB are in trouble after losing three wickets. Kohli is still in the middle as RCB are 57 for three in the ninth over. Kohli has Cameron Green for company.

Chennai Super Kings play XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni (wk), Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana, Mustafizur Rahman, Tushar Deshpande

Royal Challengers Bengaluru play XI: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Anuj Rawat, Karn Sharma, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj

A surgeon set to perform potentially life-saving operations on radio star James Valentine has detailed the complicated process of the operation, which is only performed a dozen times a year.

The 62-year-old announced on Thursday that he had cancer and that he would undergo surgery in the coming weeks to have his esophagus removed.

The ABC Radio Sydney afternoons host shared his diagnosis in a first-person piece written for the national broadcaster’s website.

On Thursday afternoon, Valentine discussed his condition further on air and interviewed his surgeon, Associate Professor Douglas Fenton-Lee, from St Vincent’s Hospital.

Valentine has a four-centimeter tumor where his esophagus and stomach meet.

Dr. Fenton-Lee said the operation would remove most of Valentine’s esophagus, along with a quarter of his stomach.

“We’re then going to raise your stomach – we actually shape it so that it’s a tubular structure and we raise it and join it together at your neck, so we replace your esophagus with your stomach,” he said on ABC Radio.

He added that the procedure is not common.

“The unit would do about 12 cases a year and I did the majority of them,” the surgeon said.

The news of Valentine’s diagnosis shocked many across the country, especially those who had listened to his current radio for more than two decades.

One of his many benefactors is NSW Premier Chris Minns.

“I grew up with James on the radio – our WhatsApp chat with the extended family blew up yesterday afternoon, almost with sadness,” he told ABC Radio Sydney.

‘[James] is a wonderful institution in Sydney and I sincerely wish him the best… I think all of Sydney is behind him.”

Mr Minns said he and his wife Anna had even been callers on the Valentine’s Day programme.

Mrs. Minns was a regular on the What I Live With segment, where she joked about her husband’s annoying habit of pausing the TV to laugh after a joke.

Fellow ABC radio host Richard Glover said: ‘Few people have spread so much joy among their fellow citizens and we need you to spread even more quickly.’

Valentine previously revealed that after a friend’s birthday party in December last year, he realized something was wrong.

He said he started choking and gagging after shoving down a massaman curry.

At that time, his wife advised him to go to her sister’s endoscopy clinic for a gastroscopy.

In January, Valentine began five weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.

“I was immediately given chemo and radiation, but only a mild dose intended to shrink the tumor and clean out the body before surgery,” he wrote.

‘I got tired from the radiation, the chemo made me feel like my whole body was laced with liquid aluminum foil, but I was able to go to work, turn on the radio and even do a few gigs with the saxophone.’

The surgery to remove Valentine’s esophageal cancer will be performed in a few weeks.

“I’ll probably feel like crap for a long time afterward,” he wrote. ‘It is likely that I will recover, even if it may take several months.’

Valentine presented the ABC’s Sydney afternoon program for 20 years before holding down breakfast for two years until late 2023, when it was announced he would return to his old shift.

He told listeners on Friday that he had “no doubt” he would be back on the air as soon as possible, and thanked those who offered messages of support.

“Not to be too macabre, but it’s like being at your own funeral and the eulogies were a lot of fun,” he said.

Veteran television and radio broadcaster Tim Webster will fill in for Valentine in his absence.

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A $116 million grant to LaGuardia Community College

By Zack Meisel, Cody Stavenhagen and Stephen J. Nesbitt

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — A decade ago, on a dusty baseball diamond in Puerto Rico, a veteran pitcher shared with Fernando Cruz the secrets of throwing a splitter, a pitch treated like a black-market product, a dark art best learned in the shadows and deployed at one’s own risk.

Cruz was a converted infielder pitching in winter ball back home and trying to catch on with a major league organization. He couldn’t command the splitter. “Started hitting people with it,” he said. “Started bouncing it.” But he stuck with it because, when it was right, it was like sorcery. Hitters read it as a fastball and couldn’t recover as the baseball dived below their bat path.

By the time the Cincinnati Reds signed Cruz in 2022, he had wrestled the splitter into submission. Triple-A pitching coach Casey Weathers told him, “Use it, because nobody can hit it.” Cruz made his major league debut at 32. He said he owes it all to the splitter, which has generated a .085 batting average and one of the highest whiff rates of any pitch in baseball.

“I call it my gift from God,” Cruz said.

The baseball weapon known as the “Pitch of the ‘80s” became a devastating tool Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz deployed to pile up strikeouts in the ‘90s. Then it all but disappeared as it earned a reputation for wrecking pitchers’ arms due to the strain it was believed to put on the pitching elbow. Some organizations forbade its use entirely. 

That meant learning to throw the pitch required meeting with an expert in a discrete location. Eddie Guardado spread the splitter gospel in the Seattle bullpen in the mid-aughts, teaching J.J. Putz his grip as they sat on folding chairs 400 feet from home plate. Putz relayed the code to Bryan Shaw in Arizona’s pen in 2011. Ten years later, Shaw shared the secrets with Trevor Stephan in Cleveland. It was a local legend, a haunting myth passed down by word of mouth.

Now, the stigma is softening. Almost every day this spring, it seems, a big-league pitcher unveils his new splitter: Zack Wheeler with the Phillies, Hunter Greene with the Reds, Jordan Hicks with the Giants, Bryce Miller with the Mariners, Matt Manning with the Tigers. Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his MLB debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday in Korea, after riding a feared splitter — which could immediately be the best in MLB — to a $325 million contract. Splitters accounted for 2.2 percent of all pitches last season, the highest mark since pitch-tracking began in 2008.

That might have been but a precursor to the next pitching revolution we’re about to witness. This winter, people throughout the sport posited that 2024 could be the Year of the Splitter, as a long-forbidden pitch threatens a return to the mainstream.

“I feel like it was taboo for the longest time, right?” Tigers pitcher Casey Mize said. “It’s just whispers and conversations. ‘Hey, I really want to throw this pitch. How do you do it?’”

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In the late 1970s, a minor leaguer named Hal Baird learned the splitter in a hotel conversation with Fred Martin, the coach who had taught it to Bruce Sutter. Sutter’s splitter carried him from Cubs farmhand to Hall of Famer.

Baird went on to coach at Auburn and continue proselytizing about the splitter. Most of his pitchers picked one up. John Powell set an NCAA strikeout record. Tim Hudson became an MLB All-Star. At Auburn years later, Mize was working to develop a third pitch, and Baird pupil Scott Sullivan passed along photos of his grip. Mize would be the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft.

“I never knew anybody who had a really good one that didn’t find a way to be successful,” Baird said.

One morning inside the Reds clubhouse this spring, Cruz held his right hand to his thigh, his index and middle fingers spread wide in a “V” shape. As he talked about his splitter, he mimicked an exercise he uses to perfect the way he grips his best pitch. He has practiced it so many times, so many ways, it’s now habitual. He holds his iPhone like he’s gripping a splitter.

“If you want to get to the big leagues,” Cruz said, “you need something special.”

Cruz’s splitter was responsible for 80 of his 98 strikeouts last season, even though he threw the pitch only 35.9 percent of the time. He recorded the fifth-best strikeout rate of any MLB pitcher.

But Cruz does so with eyes wide open, fully conscious of its reputation and why it vanished for so long from the pitching landscape.

“It’s a life-changing pitch, no doubt,” he said. “But it could be the end of anybody’s career.”

In some ways, the splitter is viewed as a pitch of last resort. Cruz said he’s seen pitchers who throw splitters for a few years until “their elbow is completely gone.” He understood the risk. But he needed a way back into baseball, and thanks to the splitter, he finally broke into the big leagues 15 years after the Royals drafted him and after stints in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and independent ball.

Others who had major league stuff without a splitter shied away from it so as not to endanger their career. 

“I remember in Minnesota, it was a no-no,” former Twins and Tigers pitching coach Rick Anderson once said. “We were using it down there when we thought a guy might be running out of chances.”

But is it really as damaging as its reputation suggests? Even in this age of excess information, no one has cracked the secret to arm health. Dr. Keith Meister, a leading orthopedic surgeon and the Texas Rangers’ team physician, recently cited sweepers and other power changeups as reasons for spikes in arm injuries. A study from the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine found velocity to have greater correlation to UCL injuries than pitch type.

“For some reason, we think (the splitter) is the singular cause of Tommy John, but whatever,” Mize said.

Mize underwent a UCL reconstruction in 2022, though he attributes his elbow issues to a back problem — which later required surgery — that led to mechanical issues.

“I talk to teammates who have had TJ and don’t throw a splitter,” he said, then turned sarcastic. “So OK. It’s not the fact that we’re throwing 100 (mph) every day?”

Royals pitching coach Brian Sweeney said it’s non-negotiable that if a pitcher is going to implement a splitter, he does so in the offseason. It requires a particular training of the forearm muscles. Sweeney said the Royals had a pitcher messing with a splitter earlier in camp, but they shut down the experiment out of fear of injury.

Baird taught his pitchers to spread their fingers only to a point of comfort and made sure their hands stayed behind the baseball as if throwing a normal fastball.

That variation is common to the modern-day splitter; pitchers no longer uniformly split their fingers wide to the degree Sutter did. Many pitchers employ alterations that make the pitch closer to a change-up than a true splitter. Former reliever Blake Parker threw several variations of a splitter for more than a decade, and said he occasionally experienced forearm soreness and stiffness between his index and middle fingers, but nothing debilitating.

Parker helped Stephan throw his splitter when they pitched together in Cleveland in 2021. Stephan spent that season as a Rule 5 draft pick buried in the bullpen, sometimes going a week or two without getting into a game. During Stephan’s downtime, Shaw taught him the splitter grip he learned from Putz. Parker, who’d learned his grip from former reliever Tyler Clippard, advised Stephan on the pitch’s mechanics and usage.

A year later, Stephan emerged as the Guardians’ setup man, and his splitter carried a whiff rate of 53.6 percent and an expected slugging percentage of .186. Hitters rarely touched the pitch, and when they did, they did nothing with it. That performance landed Stephan a four-year, eight-figure contract, two years after he was stuck in neutral in Double A.

“You see it work a few times,” Stephan said, “and then it’s your favorite pitch.”

Soon, though, Stephan will undergo elbow reconstruction surgery, wiping out his 2024 season. Was it the splitter that did it? Or everything else?

“I think there was a lot of anecdotal (evidence),” said Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder, “people saying, ‘It’s bad for the elbow. It’s bad for the arm.’ Well, pitching is bad for the arm.”

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When Roger Craig, another forerunner of the splitter, became Tigers pitching coach in 1980, he asked each pitcher to at least try the pitch. Four-fifths of the Tigers’ 1984 World Series-winning rotation used the splitter to varying degrees. Jack Morris used it to launch a Hall of Fame career.

Forty years after the Tigers’ last title, their pitching staff is again populated by splitter guys, with starter Kenta Maeda and reliever Shelby Miller signing this offseason and joining Mize. Miller learned the splitter last season after signing a minor-league deal with the Dodgers. Coaches told him the pitch would pair well with his penchant for elevated fastballs. Once approaching an early ending to a promising career, Miller posted a 1.71 ERA in relief for the Dodgers last year.

The reason for the splitter’s resurgence is not rooted in any reassessment of its health risks. It’s simpler than that:

“The numbers against it,” Miller said. “They’re great.”

Splitters leaguewide generated a 32.3 percent strikeout rate last season, higher than even the en vogue sweeper. MLB batters hit only .199 and generated a minus-74.3 run value against splitters, a pitch considered effective against both right-handed and left-handed batters. In a game where virtually everybody now throws high-90s fastballs, pitchers need to find another way to gain an edge.

“It’s crazy, this game,” Sweeney said. “Everything comes back around.”

Two trends might be fueling the revival at this particular time: the riding fastball and the launch angle revolution. With hitters reshaping their swings to connect with high heat, the splitter can sneak past them.

“A fastball delivery, a fastball arm speed,” said Cleveland pitching coach Carl Willis, “you see fastball out of the hand.”

“So now you throw the split,” added Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt, “and it’s gone.”

“It’s just there,” said Rockies catcher Jacob Stallings, “and then it’s not.”

There’s also the overseas influence. Shohei Ohtani uses his split as a putaway weapon. Kodai Senga’s “Ghost Fork” has devastating movement. High-profile international signings Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga are bringing splitters to MLB this season. Imanaga signed with the Cubs in an offseason several of their pitchers were trying splitters. Padres pitchers Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui whirled splitters in the league’s opening game Wednesday, ahead of Yamamoto showcasing his own splitter in his Dodgers debut Thursday.

Goodness that Yamamoto Splitter is nasty pic.twitter.com/02wWgofamx

— 野球しようぜ (@7hodvj9oCM78910) March 1, 2024

But in today’s game, the pitch is not just an import.

“I think definitely more guys are throwing splitters here in the U.S., and I’m one of those guys,” Maeda said through an interpreter. “I never threw a splitter in Japan. That’s something I picked up here.”

There’s no universal splitter. Some resemble a sinking fastball, while others mirror a fading changeup, whichever variation best fits a pitcher’s arsenal and saddles hitters with another out pitch to dread.

Tyler Beede decided he needed to learn a split before he spent last year with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, since the pitch is so prominent there. Now he’s back on U.S. soil in contention for a Guardians roster spot and considers his split, a harder version of his changeup, his top pitch.

“It acts as if it’s a left-handed slider,” he said. “It has that dive.”

And nowadays, the splitter isn’t just for those searching for a breakthrough.

Wheeler, Philadelphia’s ace, wanted another option to combat left-handed hitters, who logged a .722 OPS against him in 2023. Wheeler settled on the splitter after he and pitching coach Caleb Cotham decided his arm action wasn’t conducive to a typical changeup.

“I think this could put me over the top and hopefully get a Cy Young,” Wheeler told reporters in Clearwater, Fla.

Zack Wheeler, Disgusting 86mph Splitter. pic.twitter.com/qQapwxFXyO

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 11, 2024

Even as the splitter spreads like it’s the ’80s all over again, it is not a pitch for everyone. Plenty of big-league pitchers have attempted to learn the pitch only to abandon it. Tigers ace Tarik Skubal had a failed flirtation with the pitch three springs ago. Padres starter Dylan Cease tried to learn Toronto ace Kevin Gausman’s splitter this offseason but couldn’t tame it. Sweeney spent three seasons testing it in Japan, but never mastered it.

“I never knew someone pick it up really, really well who didn’t pick it up quickly,” Baird said.

But for those who do master the splitter, it can become an asset unlike any other.

In 2021, 64 pitchers used the splitter in a major league game, according to Statcast. In 2022, 73 pitchers threw the split. Last season, the total increased to 84.

“Like I said, it was taboo, and there wasn’t a ton of volume,” Mize said, “so you had to find guys who threw them, and that’s where the conversations were had. Now we’ve got three, four guys in the clubhouse now, and that was not the case even a few years ago.”

— The Athletic‘s C. Trent Rosecrans and Chad Jennings contributed to this report.

(Top photo of Yamamoto’s splitter: Masterpress / Getty Images)

A woman’s arm broke after she got into an arm-wrestling fight with a complete stranger, and a year later the arm still hasn’t fully recovered.

Daisy Johnson, 24, from London, was celebrating Easter with her friends when she decided to take on a man in an intense arm wrestling match.

The 24-year-old suffered a spiral fracture of her humerus, a bone in the upper arm that connects to the shoulder, and was in severe pain for the next few days.

She said: ‘There was a conversation about the subject of gym and my ears perked up. This led to the friendly match after I declared that, ironically, I could “beat anyone in an arm wrestle.” My arm felt like the limp arm in Harry Potter!

‘The pain started to increase as the adrenaline wore off. The humerus then had to be manipulated back together, which was extremely painful!’

Daisy was celebrating Easter Sunday with her friends at the local pub when a complete stranger from a nearby table came over and struck up a conversation with the group – and once the gym came up, she decided to join in.

One thing led to another, and Daisy then challenged the stranger to an arm wrestle, confident she would beat him, and the pair started their fight on the table.

Shockingly, Daisy’s arm broke during the struggle, with an unmistakable cracking sound, and she was rushed to hospital.

She spent four days there after her broken arm was manipulated back into place and recovered with the help of painkillers.

Normally the fitness fanatic spends most of her time in the gym, but with her broken arm that was not possible and she spent the following months trying to regain her strength.

To start, she focused mainly on other parts of the gym while her arm was in a sling, and once she was ready, she started trying to get her arm repaired.

However, after a year she still feels like her arm has not fully recovered and even says it is ‘slightly deformed’ and ‘shorter’ than her other arm – but she is still determined to get back on track come.

She said: ‘At the time I thought I had just dislocated my elbow joint and I was convinced that as soon as someone put it back in I could go back to the pub!

‘Everyone thought I was joking because I was pretty sure I had done something and had to go to hospital, until realizing that my arm looked visually deformed, everyone quickly realized I wasn’t joking.

‘I had to hold it against my chest, otherwise it would literally swing around loosely. I spent about four days in the hospital on a ton of morphine.

‘It was frustrating. As a girl who spends most of her time in the gym strength training, it was mentally difficult for me to have to completely change my training.

‘However, no fitness journey will ever be without challenges and once I accepted this and viewed my injury as a challenge, I was able to make the most progress.

‘I discarded the sling about three months after surgery, but it took months before I got to the point where I could put body weight on the injured arm.

‘After a year of recovery, the arm is still not completely back to how it was and I’m not sure if it will regain its original mobility, strength and range of motion.

‘Visually the injured arm is slightly deformed and therefore shorter than the good arm. But I would like to get stronger every day.’

A TV and broadband expert has shared his ‘no-brainer’ TV licensing trick that could save you £169 a year.

The cost of a TV license is set to rise in the coming weeks, so you may want to check now if you can save some money.

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Struggling households could save on the cost of a TV license through a little-known rule.

We spoke to Nick Baker, broadband and TV expert at Uswitch, who revealed his useful tip that could bring you valuable savings in 2024.

To legally watch or record live TV in Britain, you need a TV license, which currently costs £159 per year.

However, from April 1, the price will rise to £169, so it’s worth finding out if you can be exempt from the payment.

Nick said: “There are a few exceptions when it comes to who has to pay for a TV licence.

“Under current rules, those over the age of 75 who receive a pension credit are eligible for a free license.”

Nick added that for people in this situation, applying for this is a “no-brainer” and could provide you with a useful savings boost.

You can request the discount on the TV license website or by calling 0300 790 6117.

In the meantime, we will explain to you in detail what Pension Credit is and how you can apply for it.

What is pension credit?

Pension credit is available to people over 75 years of age.

The benefit tops up state pension payments of up to £201 per week – and is paid to those who have reached state pension age (66) and are on a low income.

Surprisingly, an estimated 850,000 eligible households are not claiming the benefit.

Depending on your circumstances, you can receive different amounts of pension credit.

It consists of two parts and retirees can qualify for one or both parts:

• Guarantee credit – supplements your weekly income to a guaranteed minimum level. This is £201.05 per week if you are single and £306.85 per week for married couples.
• Savings credit – offers extra money if you have saved money for your pension. You can get an extra £15.94 per week for a single person or £17.84 per week for a married couple.

These figures will increase from £201.05 per week to £218.15 or for couples, from £306.85 to £332.95.

If you receive the savings credit part of the pension credit, this will increase from £15.94 per week to £17.01 or for couples, from £17.84 to £19.04.

You can also receive an additional pension discount if you are disabled, have caring responsibilities or have to pay certain housing costs, such as mortgage interest.

For example, you could get €72.31 per week or €61.88 per week for each child or young person you are responsible for.

If you have a serious disability, you can receive an extra €76.40 per week. If you care for another adult, you can get an extra €52.75 per week.

To be eligible, you must live in England, Scotland or Wales and be of state pension age.

But you must also have an income that is so low that it must be supplemented with Pension Credit.

Your income is calculated on the basis of your AOW benefit, other pensions, your income from work and self-employment and certain social security benefits, including the informal care allowance.

But not all benefits are counted as income, including:

• Adult Disability Payment
• Attendance allowance
• Christmas bonus
• Child benefits
• Housing benefit for the disabled
• Personal Independence Payment
• social fund payments such as winter fuel surcharge
• Housing benefit
• Municipal tax reduction

How do I register?

You can apply for a Pension Credit up to four months before reaching the state pension age.

Crucially, you can claim at any time after reaching state pension age, but your claim can only be made backdated by three months.

This means you can get up to three months of benefits with your first payment if you were eligible during that period.

But if you go further, you won’t get more than three months’ back payments.

With your application you will need a number of personal information, including your citizen service number and information about your income, savings and investments.

When it comes to actually applying, you can do this online on the government website.

You can also apply by telephone on 0800 991 234 or by post. The address to send your claim form to is:

The Pension Service 8
Mail processing location B
Wolverhampton
WV99 1AN

What other benefits can I get on Pension Credit?

In addition to a free TV license for the over-75s, claiming Pension Credit can result in a whole host of other discounts and freebies.

If you claim it, you may be able to get help with housing benefit, if you have a rental property, and a discount on council tax.

This also makes you eligible for living expenses payments and the Warm Home Discount scheme.

You will find more information about Pension Credit and how to apply for it in our guide.

Do you have a money problem that needs to be solved? Get in touch by emailing money@the-sun.co.uk.

Moreover, you can join us Sun Money chats and tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories.

FREDDIE FLINTOFF appears to be back at work after his horror car crash in 2022.

The former cricket star looked fit and healthy in a photo shared online as he showed off his scars for the camera.

2

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Flintoff was seriously injured in a car crash at the Top Gear test track in December 2022 while filming the now-canceled car show.

But after recovering from the ‘life-changing’ injuries he suffered, the 46-year-old is back to work for the BBC.

Flintoff appears to be filming the second season of his hit show “Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams,” in which he tries to get kids involved in cricket.

The star posed for a photo with young cricketer Subhajit Naskar at the Cricket Association of Bengal. In the second season, his show focused on cricket in India.

While other pictures showed the retired England all-rounder being presented with a jersey of Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders by Bengal cricket president Snehasish Ganguly.

The second season of Flintoff’s show comes after he… MEGA a seven-figure deal with the BBC last year.

A TV insider told The Sun that the star’s return to the screen is a hugely positive step after the harrowing crash.

They said: “This will be a huge comfort to his fans as it shows he is making a good recovery and returning to two of his greatest passions: sport and television.

‘Obviously there are some scars, which everyone expected, but Freddie seems to have made huge progress since he last played cricket in public.

“He clearly feels comfortable enough to be in front of the camera again, which was not the case this time last year.

“These are nervous first steps because he is recovering both mentally and physically, but the TV program he is making is a real passion project for him.”

The first season of Flintoff’s show saw him return to his hometown of Preston to get young people involved in the game that made him an international superstar.

And fans are eagerly awaiting the second season of the series, which will now take Flintoff to cricket-mad India.

Some restaurants may promise an extraordinary experience, but none can deliver in this way.

Two-Michelin star chef Rasmus Munk, from Alchemist in Copenhagen, has announced that he will offer guests the chance to have a meal at the edge of space.

Next year, six lucky – and extremely wealthy – tourists will get the chance to fly in a ‘space balloon’ 3.5 kilometers above sea level.

During the six-hour experience, each diner will be served dishes inspired by the role of space exploration.

But at an astronomical price of $495,000 (£388,535) per ticket, this could be a high price to pay for a restaurant with (literally) no atmosphere.

The culinary expedition takes place aboard Space Perspective’s Neptune spaceship.

Despite its name, this spacecraft is not actually a spaceship, but rather a pressurized capsule suspended beneath a huge hydrogen balloon.

Without rockets or jet engines, the flight should be so gentle that anyone can participate without any training.

The balloon is planned to take off from Florida at a fairly gentle speed of 12 miles per hour.

At the highest point, guests can look down on Earth through the largest window ever launched into space.

According to Mr Munk, dinner will be served as guests watch the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth.

Importantly, he notes that the craft will not enter microgravity during the flight, so guests and food will not experience any weightlessness.

Mr Monk said: ‘In this experience, I want to highlight food as a common thread in our human existence, and it will be truly meaningful to serve it while gazing at the curvature of the Earth.

“I am honored to be part of what I believe will be a once-in-a-lifetime, transformative experience.”

The company has kept the details of the menu vague, aside from the caveat that they can’t cook with an open flame.

Given how small the capsule is, it’s not clear if the food will actually be prepared on the vessel or if it will simply be served there.

But if it’s anything like previous menus at Alchemist, the dinner will undoubtedly feature a host of new techniques.

Previous menu items, or “impressions” as the restaurant calls them, have included carpenter ants in candy, a cod eye gel and a dessert served in a silicone cup.

In 2010, the restaurant even created a sakura blossom dish for the Japanese space agency.

While it’s obviously extremely decent, the mission to dine six people in space is also keen to promote its socially conscious reputation.

Guests will ascend to the edge of space on the world’s first ‘carbon neutral spaceship’.

All proceeds will be donated to the Space Prize Foundation, a charity committed to improving the role of women within the space industry.

Alchemist also suggests that the experience of looking down on everyone on Earth can be “a sobering reminder that our fates are intertwined.”

Roman Chiporukha, founder of SpaceVIP, which organizes the experience, said: ‘This maiden voyage is just the first chapter in SpaceVIP’s mission to harness the transformative power of space travel to elevate human consciousness and shape the course of our collective evolution to give.’

The effect of looking at Earth from space, also called the overview effect, is a psychological phenomenon reported by some astronauts upon reaching space.

Those who visit space sometimes report feeling a change in consciousness or a connection to the fragility of the Earth.

In its statement, Alchemist writes that seeing Earth from space “has the power to create a cognitive shift and inspire a greater appreciation for Earth and a deep connection with humanity as a whole.”

But whether showing people the Earth while they enjoy a half-million-dollar dinner will actually break down the barriers that divide us remains to be seen.

Currently, Space Perspectives has yet to launch its first commercial flights, but it hopes to do so before the end of the year.

If successful, the company could join a number of other companies vying to provide the first wave of space tourism.