Working parents and carers of children aged 9 months or over are now entitled to 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time. 50 hours of nursery can cost around £14,000 a year, so it's a welcome relief for many. There had been warnings that parents would struggle to find places but the government says it is confident about meeting demand. From next September, the offer is set to rise to 30 hours, and include children up to school age too. Education Minister, Baroness Smith has said it'...
Oct 02, 2024•28 min
Many pensioners in England and Wales will lose Winter Fuel Payments this year. This annual payment had been universal and worth £200 or £300 pounds a year, depending on your age. From this winter it will be restricted to pensioners receiving Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits. The reason for means testing it this way is to save money - about £1.5bn each year. In a statement the government told us that "given the dire state of the public finances we have inherited, it’s right that we t...
Sep 28, 2024•25 min
Not every dream job has an obvious route to success, so how do you make your passion project pay without falling behind on your bills? Visa research shows that around 45% of Gen Zs (people born between the late1990s and the early 2010) have a side hustle, but it's not just for the cash. More than a quarter of those are working at a passion project. So how do you make it if you want a career in comedy or to bag an Olympic gold? Do you have to tell your boss if you're doing extra work on the side?...
Aug 28, 2024•28 min
Nearly 10,000 people have needed free debt advice because of accidental overpayments by the Department for Work and Pensions in the past 12 months. That's according to figures from Money Wellness, a debt advice company which is funded by the government's Money and Pension Service. It says because most of its clients are low income households these debts can have significant knock-on impacts on the rest of their finances. The DWP says its staff work hard to support customers, and it's important t...
Aug 24, 2024•25 min
Felicity Hannah looks at giving someone Lasting Power of Attorney - that's the authority to manage your financial affairs in the event that you couldn't. What are they, how do they work and how much do they cost? This programme is dedicated to answering your questions. On the panel we have Sam Cox, knowledge officer from the Alzheimer's Society and Melinda Giles, partner and head of court protection at Giles Wilson Law. Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Neil Morrow Editor: Jess Quayle (First ...
Aug 21, 2024•32 min
New tactics to fight mobile phone fraud are being rolled out across England and Wales. It's when mobile phones are stolen not for the value of the physical handset but for criminals to access the banking and financial apps and steal money from victims. Paul Lewis speaks to the national lead on robbery, Commander Richard Smith, about how new intelligence and techniques to pursue suspects have led to arrests and prosecutions going to court. More and more of us are paying tax on our savings. Recent...
Aug 17, 2024•25 min
Average rents in the UK rose by well over 8% in the past year, according to the ONS. In today’s King’s Speech, the new government has committed to introducing legislation to give greater rights and protections to people renting their homes. That included ending no fault evictions and reforming grounds for possession. So what will that mean for your money and your home? Joining us are Jasmine Basran from Crisis - a charity for people experiencing homelessness, Richard Donnell, from the property p...
Aug 14, 2024•29 min
More than 9 out of 10 people did not pay for financial advice in the past two years and that number is growing. The figures come from surveys by the financial services consultancy The LangCat. It found the proportion of people paying for financial advice fell from 11% of adults to 9% between this year's report and one they did a year ago. We'll hear from them about the reasons behind it. What will the new government do to change employment rights and wages? We’ll discuss the potential new employ...
Aug 10, 2024•25 min
A new government has taken office so what might that mean for the financial issues you've told us you care about? A big topic you got in touch with us about is the cost of care in old age. Unlike NHS services, social care is not free at the point of use and a place in residential care costs around £60,000 a year according to carehome.co.uk. The bill can go up enormously for anyone who needs extra support. Plus it's a devolved issue with different rules depending on where you live. A cap limiting...
Aug 07, 2024•29 min
The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has swept to power promising change, but there will be no change in the rates of the three big taxes - income tax, National Insurance, and VAT to protect what their Manifesto called 'working people'. So what will the new Labour government and the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves mean for our money? The listener being chased for more than £60,000 worth of energy debt she didn't owe. It comes as new, exclusive figures reveal more people are seeking help from Citiz...
Aug 03, 2024•25 min
Almost 300,000 flights will take off over the summer months and whilst most holidays go without a hitch, others fail to get off the ground. Last year saw widespread disruption at airports, in August there was an exceptional IT failure at the UK’s main air traffic services provider NATS over a bank holiday Monday which affected around three quarters of a million people. Strikes and staff shortages also caused disruption. In this programme we'll discuss what your rights are if your trip is delayed...
Jul 31, 2024•29 min
This time next week the General Election will be over. As the days count down we'll get into the nitty gritty with listener questions on Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and ISAs. Some lawyers and listeners who are acting as powers of attorney have told Money Box they're having problems dealing with banks on behalf of their clients and relatives. The Association of Lifetime Lawyers, a group of legal professionals who support vulnerable and older people, has also told this programme banks need ...
Jul 27, 2024•25 min
Around 38,000 children move into care every year in the UK. That's one every 15 minutes and a significant number of looked-after children will remain in the system until they reach adulthood. So what happens then? In this programme Felicity Hannah talks about what happens when you leave care. Without the bank of Mum and Dad, what financial support are those young people promised? We're joined by Jess and Callum, two care leavers as well as Kirsty Doull, Care and Transitions Lead at CELCIS, which...
Jul 24, 2024•28 min
There's less than a fortnight to go before the polls open in the General Election. The deadline's passed to register to vote, but there's still plenty of time to work out where you'll put that cross on the ballot paper. This week Money Box is talking about housing - focusing on your questions and comments. Imagine being told you owe more than £7,000 for your gas. You spend months trying to explain there's no way you could possibly owe anywhere near that amount, only to be told one day that becau...
Jul 20, 2024•25 min
The number of people working into their late 60s, their 70s and beyond is rising. In this programme we'll discuss what that means for their employment rights and what it tells us about their finances. Back in the 90s, only around 5% of peopled aged 65 or older were in work. In the early 2000s, that rose to around 6%. But recently released data from the Office for National Statistics shows that today almost 12% of people in that age group are in some form of employment. That's almost one and a ha...
Jul 17, 2024•28 min
Nineteen days to go before your cross on a ballot paper will help decide who runs the country. You have been telling Money Box what matters to you. This week we'll discuss how much tax you already pay and whether that will change after 4th July. The head of the UK payment regulator has rejected calls to delay a new fraud reimbursement plan which is due to begin on 7th October. It will mean that victims of fraud are fully reimbursed for losses up to £415,000. We'll have more on this story. And mo...
Jul 13, 2024•25 min
As we continue our series of listener questions ahead of the election, we focus on the Cost of Care and how care later in life should be paid for. Dan Whitworth has been to Shipley to meet Graham, who’s concerned about the cost of his own care – he wants to know what politicians plan to do about it. Energy companies are continuing to hang on to billions of pounds of their customers' money, which has built up as credit on their accounts. The energy regulator Ofgem says that during 2023, the avera...
Jul 06, 2024•25 min
We hear from a pensioner on benefits who tells us she was shocked to find herself having to pay tax on her pension for the first time. With expert help, we explain the so-called ‘triple-lock’ mechanism and why the point at which you can be taxed on your pension has become a big talking point in the election campaign. Also in the programme, sneaky hidden extras on your online shopping have been banned under new laws passed this month. So called ‘drip pricing’ is when consumers are shown an initia...
Jun 29, 2024•25 min
What are the financial issues that you will be considering when you decide how to cast your vote in the General Election in July? Research shows that the economy and inflation are two big issues on our minds - we'll hear from some potential voters on what they'd like to see. New figures from UK Finance, which represents banks and other finance firms, revealed that in 2023 a record number of people lost more than £450 million to thieves who tricked them, manipulated them and then drained their ba...
Jun 22, 2024•26 min
Money Box can reveal that the government is recouping more than £250m pounds from over 100,000 carers who it says broke the earnings rule and should have lost their carer's allowance. The numbers came from a Parliamentary Question this week asked by the chair of the work and pensions select committee, Twice as many women as men are being chased for these overpayments. We hear from a carer who has around £5000 worth of debt as well as finding out more about rights for carers affected. The Departm...
Jun 15, 2024•25 min
Do you get as much as you give when it comes to your job? We've had some important jobs numbers this week - with official data showing there are more vacancies than there were before covid but, the number is falling, while unemployment is rising. But alongside that, wages are going up too - by around 6%. In this episode, we ask if you’re getting enough value out of your employer. We hear from listeners on how they asked their bosses for a pay rise, how they dealt with back pay and how they're ma...
Jun 12, 2024•29 min
The Pension Dashboard is intended to provide an online service to millions of people who have paid into a pension at work by showing all their pots and their value in one place. But the National Audit Office this week revealed a 'digital skills' shortage is behind delays, providers now have until October 2026 to connect to it. The costs of the dashboard are also up by almost a quarter to £279 million. Some people hoping to sell their leasehold homes are being charged large amounts by their freeh...
Jun 08, 2024•25 min
This week marks two years since the historic reform in family law, known as the 'no fault divorce', was introduced. It was aimed at reducing conflict during separations and meant that couples could divorce without the need to apportion blame for the breakdown of their marriage. This change led to a surge in new applications at the time. Divorce itself hits the bank balance with annual incomes falling by an average of £9,700 in the year after separation, according to Legal & General. From liv...
Jun 05, 2024•28 min
Digitally excluded. An elderly couple have their accounts frozen because their documents were out of date - despite having being customers for their bank for nearly two decades. We hear from Tom and Marian Doughty who say they were left with weeks of sleepless nights. Can you boost your state pension by filling old gaps in your national insurance record? A new online calculator from the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC aims to answer that. The Treasury says the new service will bring “p...
Jun 01, 2024•25 min
Unpaid carers spend at least 35 hours a week looking after someone close to them. That someone may have an illness, a disability, a mental health problem or even an addiction, but what matters is that they cannot cope without that care. There are almost 6 million unpaid carers in the UK with 40% living in poverty according to charity Carers UK. This week we have a special audio diary from one carer trying to hold down a job around those care commitments, we will also hear from those who have giv...
May 29, 2024•28 min
A senior MP has told Money Box that the government must take urgent action to stop carers working up thousands of pounds of debt after unwittingly receiving overpayments of Carer's Allowance. Unpaid carers, who look after a loved one full time, are entitled to nearly £82 per week in Carer's Allowance. On top of that they can earn up to £151 take home pay. But stray above that earnings limit, even by just a few pence, and they lose the full allowance. The Department for Work and Pensions is alert...
May 25, 2024•25 min
Around 10 million people across the UK live in a leasehold property. That means they viewed the house or flat, bought it, may be paying off a mortgage to eventually own it outright. However, they are actually tenants of whoever owns the freehold. What they have bought is the right to live in the property for a given amount of time. Sometimes that's for the best part of a thousand years - sometimes it's for much less. In this episode we hear from leaseholders on what some of the issues are, inclu...
May 22, 2024•29 min
New regulations aim to ensure that victims of fraud are treated fairly, no matter who they trust with their money. The financial watchdog, the Payment Systems Regulator, says many firms are not doing enough to refund victims of authorised push payment fraud. Currently the majority of high street banks are signed up to a voluntary charter that makes banks liable for customer losses. However many people hold accounts with firms known as Electronic Money Institutions, or EMIs. Such firms are regula...
May 18, 2024•25 min
This week car insurance bosses, appeared in front of MP's as part of an investigation into the cost of premiums. They're continuing to rise and according to price comparison site Compare the Market are up 46% over the last year, making the typical payment for comprehensive insurance £892 a year. Consumer group Which? say some insurers are charging 'eye-watering' APR rates on those spreading the cost over the course of 12 months. So, we put your questions and comments to the Association of Britis...
May 15, 2024•28 min
Tens of thousands of people who juggle caring for a loved one and having a job may be forced to cut the hours they work, according to the charity Carers UK. In April the National Living Wage was increased to £11.44, but the earnings limit for the Carer's Allowance did not go up by the same amount. The result is that some carers will be limited to working just over 13 hours a week, anything above that and they'll lose the entire benefit. Some carers have also faced demands to repay thousands of p...
May 11, 2024•25 min
