One of the UK's biggest banks has announced plans to stock £5 notes in nearly 400 of its cash machines.

HSBC said it was introducing the notes to a further 210 of its ATMs across England and Wales during the coming two months.

The move follows a trial carried out by the group with the Bank of England in 2009 under which 100 of its cash machines in the South West and Midlands dispensed the notes.

More than one in four people are getting into debt to fund their holiday, a survey has suggested.

Around 28% of people admitted they had borrowed money to pay for their summer break, a fifth of whom said they would rather be in debt than go without a holiday, according to online travel agent sunshine.co.uk.

But more than half of those who used credit to fund their trip admitted it would take them more than a year to clear the debt.

Retail giant The John Lewis Partnership has been hit by a shortage of gift vouchers after the printing firm it used collapsed into administration, the group has confirmed.

Some stores are understood to have seen sales come under pressure after the group was forced to rely on reserves of vouchers when security print firm BemroseBooth called in administrators in June, according to a report in Retail Week magazine.

The blow came at a key time for voucher sales, during the summer wedding gift season.

Economists are divided about the direction of the housing market as Nationwide said prices fell for the second consecutive month during August.

The group reported a 0.9% fall to leave the average cost of a home at £169,347.

The latest drop follows a fall of 0.5% in July, and is the first time house prices have dropped for two months in a row since February 2009, according to the Nationwide index.

Double-dip recession fears have been fuelled as the UK's powerhouse services sector registered its slowest growth in more than a year during August.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's (CIPS) latest activity index - where a score over 50 signals growth - fell from 53.1 to a disappointing 51.3 last month, the biggest drop since May 2009.

Services firms are shedding jobs at the fastest rate since October last year while sales growth is at a 14-month low, CIPS added.

Women in London are paying twice as much as men for the Government's cuts in public spending, a new report has claimed.

Research for London mayoral hopeful Ken Livingstone suggested women are more heavily affected by cuts in housing benefit and pension changes.

Even if cuts in child benefits and family-related tax credits are discounted, women are paying for 66% of the cuts in London, the report claimed.

Firms have been urged to examine their wage systems to make sure they comply with equal pay laws amid the continued gap between the earnings of men and women.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said full-time female workers are paid 16.4% per hour less than men on average, rising to 21.6% in private firms.

The commission and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) published a new guide so employers can check pay systems.

One in five people on low incomes struggled to afford food in the past financial year, a survey has indicated.

Around 19% of people from low socio-economic groups said they had been unable to afford to eat three meals a day at some point in the 12 months to the end of March, according to poverty charity Elizabeth Finn Care.

A further 8% of people on low incomes or benefits have also not had enough money to buy essential food items, such as bread or milk.

Ofgem has launched an investigation into four energy companies amid concerns of mis-selling to consumers.

The energy regulator said it was prepared to take "strong action" if it found that npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy and EDF Energy were failing to comply with new obligations to prevent mis-selling.

It has set up a hotline for consumers who are concerned about the sales approaches employed by suppliers to sell energy contracts, either face to face or by telephone.

Four million consumers whose benefits are paid into Post Office accounts are being forced to travel to one of the group's branches to get their money because they cannot use the Link ATM network.

Link said despite the fact Post Office Card Accounts were connected to its network early this year, cardholders with one of the accounts were only able to use Bank of Ireland cash machines.

It said the Bank of Ireland operated less than 4% of the ATMs in the UK, leaving the four million people who had their benefits paid into a Post Office Card Account who were not near one of the bank's machines, still needing to travel to a post office branch to get their money.