A WEEK IN PERSONAL FINANCE

Catching individuals not paying any tax and moonlighters not declaring second incomes contributed to the Inland Revenue's raising of pounds 1.6bn from counter-evasion and -avoidance work, according to its annual report for 1994-5. The Revenue admitted about 7 per cent of PAYE taxpayers - roughly a million and a half people - had been given the wrong tax codes.

A survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed more people went house-hunting last month. The Building Societies Association and the British Bankers Association reported drops in loan figures, but analysts detected slight signs of a recovery in the housing market.

Internet users can test the effect of Budget tax proposals via a tax model developed by the Institute of Fiscal Studies available from noon tomorrow. At 6pm on Budget night the IFS will have amended the model to allow individuals to enter their circumstances and see how they have been affected by Ken Clarke's Budget. http://www1.ifs.org.uk/

Insurance and pension companies are taking legal action to prevent compensation claims for alleged mis-selling of personal pensions going through the courts. Meanwhile City regulators decided not to take disciplinary action against the Prudential over its use of a controversial approach to selling personal pensions. This involved getting customers transferring pension monies out of employer-based schemes to sign a declaration saying they had not been advised to transfer by the Pru.

The Data Protection Registrar has warned credit reference agencies which supply lenders with confidential information about an individual's finances to crack down on leaks. The fear is that data has been passed to debt collectors, private investigators and marketing businesses.

Almost eight million mortgage- holders have had to cut spending on holidays, entertainment, cars, clothes or even food to afford mortgage payments over the past three years, according to a survey for Direct Line, the telephone insurer which has recently started selling mortgages. Average mortgage payments by the UK's 17m homeowners are pounds 300 per month.