Energy Bill Support and Christmas Cheer!

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Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast. People in England and Northern Ireland are racing to buy a new home before the April increases in stamp duty. Some working parents with babies have a deadline of New Year's Eve to apply for funded childcare. The Moneybox listeners who got an early Christmas present this year and specially recorded for us the Barton Road Choir. Thank you.

More of that later, but not me singing, you'll be pleased to know. But first, electricity and gas suppliers say they're offering over £500 million of additional support. for customers this winter. Prices will rise again on New Year's Day and the latest figures from the regulator Ofgem show customers already owe suppliers a record...

£3.7 billion in unpaid bills. And of course, all of this is against the background of nearly 10 million pensioners no longer being given the winter fuel payment unless they get pension credit. So how do people who are struggling with their bills... for a share of these hundreds of millions of pounds. Dan Whitworth's been investigating.

Well, there are six companies which cover the majority of the energy market in Britain, Paul. The largest two, by some way, are Octopus and British Gas. Both of them told me they run a scheme called You Pay, We Pay, which sees them match certain payments made by people. Thank you. people 85 000 of their customers have benefited so far and what about some of the others don't

Well, quite a few, EDF and OVO, just for example, actually help customers directly or by referring them to third parties, organisations like charities, to make sure they're claiming any benefits they're entitled to, like a financial health check. And also to make sure... And what about help that doesn't involve cash? Well, another aspect of the support on offer is help to increase the energy efficiency of homes as well as giving out things like heated blankets.

Tracy emailed Moneybox to say she was struggling a couple of years ago, called Dr Puss for help and got a £50 credit and a heated blanket, which of course won't solve everyone's problems, but it does show there is some help out there. Yes, and I'm sure everyone would like... a bit off their fuel bills, but who qualifies for this help?

Well, this is tricky because it varies from supplier to supplier. So qualifying for help can include things like if someone receives certain benefits, if someone's a pensioner, if a customer is in debt, and if so, by how much, also how long they've been struggling for. If you're struggling, call up your supplier and tell them they are obliged to offer help. There's a lot of help available and you should ask for it if you need it.

Well, thanks, Dan. Well, listening to that is Ellen Fraser from management consultancy Boringa, which focuses on the energy industry. Ellen Fraser, what's your single most important piece of advice for people who are struggling with their energy bells? I think to some extent, Diane actually covered it in the introduction there, which is if you need help, please...

please pick up the phone to your energy supplier. It's really, really important to face into the debt as quickly as you can. It's not going away. It's not suddenly going to disappear. And a lot of people have, you know, debt isn't their fault. And just... Finding the courage to ask for help is really important. So simple advice, pick up the phone to your supplier. People don't like admitting it, though, sometimes, do they? I mean, should they get someone to help them with it?

Very much so. And we quite often find that people who are struggling to find the confidence find it really helpful to have somebody sit with them when they're actually making that phone call. An energy supplier has to speak to the account holder for data protection reasons. But rather than nagging somebody to make a phone call, somebody that you're worried about, a neighbour, a loved one.

The biggest gift that you can give them is just a bit of your time. Spend some time sitting with them, encouraging them to make that phone call and supporting them as they're making that phone call as well, just to be a little bit more tenacious, have some courage in terms of asking for help.

and be honest about how much debt both is on the energy bill, but actually is in their life more generally. So people who are typically in energy debt have debt challenges elsewhere as well. And be transparent with the supplier. Yes, be honest about things that may be embarrassing to you, but it is important, isn't it? And how much help is there? How much are suppliers obliged to offer?

So the actual financial obligation is relatively limited. Dan mentioned things like the debt repayment period and supporting with payment plans, etc. There are certain elements of it that are mandatory. What we're finding, though, is that debt is such a problem across industry. A lot of suppliers have put together these hardship funds and the you pay, we pay schemes. And exactly as Dan said there, there are tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of pounds worth of help available.

Yes. So they have these hardship funds. Some have charities, don't they, as we heard from Dan. And Tracy did get £50 off Octopus. Why are suppliers doing more than they have to, though? Because their reputation isn't that they're very philanthropic. Yeah, exactly. But energy suppliers are working really hard to rebuild trust with the customer base. We know through the last few years that trust in energy suppliers has been really, really bad.

So they're working hard to rebuild that. In addition to that, debt helps nobody. It really doesn't look good for energy suppliers to have a significant amount of debt sitting on their balance sheet. And it clearly doesn't help their customers either. So it's in everybody's interest to face into the challenge and reduce the debt as much as possible. Yes, reduce some of that 3.9 billion.

in long-term debt that we heard about, which is extraordinary. And we've heard some examples, and just briefly, how much help can individuals get? Is there a limit? There isn't a limit, but energy suppliers try to help as many people as possible. So somewhere typically between 50 and 200 pounds can be accessible to customers. Obviously, you've got to be in quite a lot of financial difficulty before you unlock the top end.

Yes, very helpful. And just in a word, just to go back to your first answer, bills are rising again in 10 days' time, people already afraid to put the heating on. In a word, your advice to them? Pick up the phone, talk to your supplier.

Ellen Fraser of Boringa, thanks. And if you're listening to us on Saturday the 21st, you have until midnight to get a claim in for pension credit, which, if you're successful, will qualify you for the winter fuel payment. So if you've been putting it off, please do it now. claim by calling 0800 99 1234 0800 99 1234 until 3.15 on Saturday afternoon or of course online until midnight.

Please do it if you're struggling. Now, for some listeners, Christmas presents came early in 2024. Here's just a few of our Moneybox winners. Hi, I'm John from South Wales. My 83 year old mum was a victim of a horrible scam. She saw a famous person promoting cryptocurrency online. So a woman from Eastern Europe called her up and sort of romanced my mum. My dad had dementia and this woman said that her dad had dementia and scammed around £80,000.

All her life savings. Mum was really, really upset. So I wrote to Dan from the Moneybox team and he got involved and wonderfully got the money back. And my mum was so pleased. and her confidence came back. So thanks to Dan and the Moneybox team. Hello, I'm Jax Higginson. And I organise the North East Skinny Dip, a successful annual charity event that raises thousands of pounds for mental health.

In March of this year I was making the mandatory move from working tax credit to universal credit and during my application I was told that I would have to declare all of my fundraising as personal income. Not only did the team provide the catalyst to a positive outcome, they held my hand throughout the entire process with patience and compassion. And of course, the Northeast Skinny Dip continues to thrive. Thank you, Moneybox. I hope you have a peaceful and easy Christmas.

Good morning, Moneybox. It's Michael ringing from Chester. Happy Christmas to all the Moneybox staff. I'm just ringing to say thank you for all your numerous shows this year. I've listened to every single one. They're all incredibly useful. In particular, I was really pleased to listen to your show back in November. And following that, I was able to reclaim some money from my student loan of over £1,500.

Such welcome money at this time of the year. And thank you to Paul and the team for helping me to achieve that. John, Jax, and Michael. And more thanks to the man we're now calling Danter Claus later. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates.

Don't wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash P-O-D-K-A-T-Z 13. Just go to Indeed.com slash P-O-D-K-A-T-Z 13 right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed, is all you need.

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Inflation is rising again. On Wednesday, we learned that prices rose by 2.6% in the year to November, the biggest annual rise since March. That's well above the Bank of England's 2% inflation target. So, no surprise on Thursday that the Bank of England kept the bank rate... changed at 4.75%. And that was the signal for...

Well, little change in the cost of mortgages. The average new offer for a five-year fixed-rate deal was 5.23% on Friday. That figure from the finance data firm Moneyfax. A lot of percentages there, so to make sense of them, life... now to Paul Herbert. He's a mortgage broker from Tembo Money. Paul Herbert bank rate has fallen this year but no further cut this week. Do you expect mortgage rates now to stay at this level for a while?

Well, it's difficult without a crystal ball, but we would expect some movement early next year. I think the next time the Bank of England will meet up is in February, and there is some hope that there will be a rate reduction at that point. Yes, and what's that going to do to house prices, though? That's always the big question. Often with rates coming down, the byproducts of that is property prices do go up.

I think one of the things that buyers can look at is you can always switch your rate after you receive your mortgage offer almost up to the point of exchange of contract. So to be flexible with your broker in terms of getting... The best still possible before you move in is the advised option. Yes, and of course, from 1st of April, there are changes to stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland anyway, particularly for first-time buyers. Is that affecting the market now?

Absolutely, yes. It's definitely a busier November and December than what we normally expect. In particular, with first-time buyers, it's certainly noticeable that... they want to get on the property ladder before the change takes into effect on the 1st of April. Just give her the numbers on the change. What's it being changed to? Well... It does depend on whether you are a first-time buyer or a home mover, but I think it's probably best to focus on the first-time buyers in this situation.

at the point of up to 300 is going to be the new threshold and it can change wildly up to that point so from that point so 350 the difference would be a two and a half thousand pounds

But if you went up to 450, the difference could be 6,250 to what you'd be paying now. Yeah, so that's a big difference. Let's hear from Amelia. She's 24, hoping to buy her first home just outside London before the 1st of April. And we caught her between viewings.

properties that are now at that 425 or under because that that is my budget so now everything at that level is having multiple offers on it many viewings because a lot of people are in the same boat as me and trying to get in and get it secured before that stamp duty comes into effect so the properties that are sort of at that level are now almost being pushed up in price because there's so much competition for them i'm definitely worried it's a real big concern because

I don't find somewhere probably this side of the new year. I'm not going to have enough time to get the legal work completed and the mortgage application through before that deadline. So, Paul Herbert, it's three months before the rates change. Is there time for Amelia and others to get everything done before April and avoid those stamp duty rises? There is time.

Not a lot of time. You have to consider it take roughly if you're buying a house, a freehold property, you're looking at roughly around eight to 10 weeks to get to completion. With a leasehold flat or masonette, you'd be looking at 10 to 12 weeks. So that window is narrowing every day. So I'd probably say you've got to the end of January realistically. and one tip would be to make sure that your solicitor is on board to get you into the property before that deadline.

Yes, I'm sure solicitors who deal with this are very well aware of it, but yes, there's no harm in reminding them, is there? Now, after April, first-time buyers will still have an advantage over other buyers, won't we? people who are just moving home, I mean. The penalty for missing the deadline is £2,500, as you said, but it's still better for first-time buyers.

Yeah, absolutely. There's still a threshold up to, say, 300,000. You can still take advantage of Xero's stamp duty. And if you compare it with home movers, they do tend to pay a little bit less on stamp duty. I think it's probably more of a psychological thing where they're going from paying absolutely nothing to something is a much more bigger psychological barrier to overcome. Yes, because a lot of first-time buyers now can buy well under the limit, can't they? But that will be harder.

when it falls to 300,000. And so people who are... in the middle of this, or maybe not even started this, do they have to be very well organised and make decisions fairly quickly to finish it all by the end of March?

Absolutely, yes. And we're finding that a lot of first-time buyers are very savvy with this process. But yeah, just the advice is to keep... keep looking for properties, have open dialogue with your brokers, make sure that your budget is well set and where you possibly will be taking your foot off the gas in December because Christmas is just around the corner.

keep viewing yes i know i know you told me earlier that you're working even though christmas is approaching so um just very briefly how busy are you at this time extremely busy Extremely. But no time for Christmas shopping at the moment. Oh, dear. Well, I hope your relatives are listening and not expecting too much. Paul Herbert from Timbo, thank you. Scotland and Wales have their own distinct taxes on property purchases, and these changes are not happening there.

Treasury told us it's committed to making home ownership possible and claims that the budget increase in stamp duty on people buying a second home in England and Northern Ireland will result in 130,000 additional transactions over the next five years by first-time buyers. and others who are moving house.

Now, one of the big expenses for working parents is the high cost of childcare. But in England this year, there's been an expansion in the number of government-funded hours working parents can claim to help with their childcare costs, extending to babies as young as nine. months. And parents who have a child who turned nine months since the 1st of September have to apply for that.

Very soon. Moneybox's Emma Smith is here. Emma, remind us how those hours work in England. So, I warn you, Paul, it is a bit complicated. Emma, when you looked at this, you told me your brain melted. It did a little bit. It's different... depending on the age of the child. Now, in the past, working parents got 30 hours of government-funded childcare in the term after their child turned three years old. This year, that was expanded. In April, two-year-old children of working parents became...

entitled to 15 hours and then in September parents of nine-month-olds were also included. These hours are for term time only which is 38 weeks but many nurseries spread the hours across 52 weeks a year. We asked parents in Liverpool how they've been getting on with the changes. I have a little girl at nursery. She turns two in December. So the manager just sent me a link through email. I just followed the link.

Done all the steps and then got given a code. Sent the code to the manager and everything's gone through perfect. It's just a little bit more support and help really. It's nice to have.

There is a little help, yeah. One is three and one is five months. So at the minute, my three-year-old gets 15 hours and he's going to 30 hours in January. It was quite easy to do the government website. You've just got to keep remembering to... re-register every three months i think it saves us like 300 pounds a month because he gets 15 hours free my son joshua is 11 months old we took advice from the nursery and they were really helpful and it was through the

government website, I think, yeah. We got a code and then we sent that code to the nursery by email. We got there really early. We actually secured the place in the nursery before Joshua was even born. I actually work in the nursery that my child goes to, so that's nice that I'm always there with her.

We do currently have a waiting list of the year. So basically sign your kids up as soon as you can because it's a massive thing now. So obviously everyone's wanting childcare places and it's going to be hard getting into childcare at the moment. So get a place as soon as you can. Parents in Liverpool who did get through the complexities of this, and Emma, they mentioned using the government website to get a code. Is that where you begin?

Yes, the best place for parents to start is the Child Care Choices website where you can answer a few questions to find out what you might be eligible for. You need to put your income, your child's details and where you live in the UK and it will tell you what you might qualify for.

They can do it online for these hours in England at gov.uk and search free childcare. If you're eligible, you'll then get a childcare account and a code to give to your nursery or childminder. Although there is no guarantee of availability of places. and hours at nurseries and some have waiting lists as we heard in Liverpool so it's worth checking first. And in September next year the 15 hours offer for nine month olds in England will increase to 30 hours so demand is likely to stay high.

Department for Education told us it's working closely with the early years sector to recruit the necessary staff. And Emma, there's a deadline coming up, isn't there, for people with very young children? Yes, eligible working parents of babies who turn nine-month-old between the 1st of September...

and 31st of December this year can now apply for 15 hours of funded childcare for the term that starts in January. The deadline to apply for this is very soon, New Year's Eve. So do it as soon as you can, but please get the code because the nursery will have to...

process that code before you can get the hours. Thanks Emma and remember throughout the UK there's also what's called tax-free child care which is a top-up on the nursery fees parents do pay and that's worth up to £2,000 a year per child. that too on the excellent childcarechoices.gov.uk website and guaranteed to cure any brain melt. And here are some more listeners whose Christmas came early in 2024.

Hi Money Bucks, Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you from everybody at the Roma Project in Coventry. We've been a long established charity and unfortunately the death of our project manager, Bernie, was unexpected and out of the blue. With hindsight, we've learned now that he was the only one that had access to the bank account to make actual payments. I would say I'd spent three or four hours every day, probably for the best part of a week, getting nowhere.

I emailed you. We had a brief conversation. Within 20 minutes that morning, I had somebody on the phone taking personal responsibility for it. Without your help this year,

I don't even think we'd still be existing as a charity. So thank you very much. Have a great holiday. I was called by somebody who told me that they were from my bank that somebody had fraudulently applied for a credit card in my name and it was your piece that really alerted me to the fact that that wasn't actually reassuring i realized that it was a scam so i'd like to thank you

for that warning and thought i had to let you know hi my name is kevin over the last two years up until july of this year universal credit has been wrongfully chasing me for approximately 13 and a half thousand pounds i tried getting the situation resolved to no avail i was put in contact with dan from the money box his involvement brought about a resolution in my favor i'd just like to say a big thank you to dan from the moneybox team

Dave, Kate and Kevin. Well, you may join them in 2025. Send us your wishes or just what is going on by emailing moneybooks at bbc.co.uk or use WhatsApp to send a voice note, which we love, on 033. 0306 783 183. That's 0306 783 183. In our post-Christmas show, Felicity Hanna is here looking at the cost of pets, from debt bills to...

Dog Christmas parties. Really? In today's podcast, the reporters were Dan Whitworth and Emma Smith, researcher Joe Krasner, studio manager Chloe Wilson. Our editor is Jess Quayle. And to play out this pre-Christmas BBC News... money and work production for BBC Sounds is another winner of 2024, the Barton Road Choir, who you may have heard in the Moneybox Live podcast on housing. A few weeks ago, they won the People's Choice Award at the Lancashire Choir of the Year final.

Here's the prize winner's version of Winter Wonderland. So from me, Paul Lewis and the whole Moneybox team, Merry Christmas! Oh. Walking in a winter wonderland Walking in a winter wonderland Walking in a winter wonderland Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong. Hello, I'm Greg Jenner. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy show that takes history seriously.

And we are back for series eight, starting with a live episode recorded at the Hay Literary Festival, all about the history of the medieval printed book in England. Our comedian there is Robin Ince. And then we'll be moving on to The Life of Mary Anning, the famous paleontologist. of the 19th century with Sarah Pascoe.

Then it's off to Germany in the 1920s for an episode on LGBTQ life in Weimar, Germany with Jordan Gray. And then we'll hop on a ship all the way back to Bronze Age Crete to learn about the ancient Minoans with Josie Long. Plus loads more. So if that sounds like fun, listen and subscribe to You're Dead to Me on BBC Sounds. Through frontline reporting, global stories and local insights, we bring you closer to the world's news as it happens.

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