Heating Oil Guide and Banknotes

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Hello, welcome to this Money Box Podcast. More than fifty million pounds is to be given to people who heat their homes with heating oil after the price more than doubled in three weeks, but who will get the cash and how much? How do thieves fool people into investing in their fake schemes? And, forget the tortoise and the hare, neither won the money box race to be on our banknote.

But first, almost seven hundred mortgage deals have been pulled by lenders since the Bank of England changed course on Thursday and decided not to cut interest rates as expected. The new figures shared exclusively with Moneybox this morning also show that around one in five mortgage products have been pulled since the war in the Middle East began. Alive now to talk to Adam French from the financial data company MoneyFact.

Um Adam French, more than fourteen hundred mortgage products pulled. Have you ever seen anything like this before? It's pretty striking, isn't it? Um now we have seen worse happen in the aftermath of the mini budget in twenty twenty two when there were

far fewer mortgage products on the market to begin with. We lost around a quarter of the market in a single day then. And what was driving that was a little bit different. So then we saw that lenders were pulling products'cause they frankly didn't know where the funding was gonna come from.

Today we're seeing lenders pulling products because the cost of funding those mortgages is it escalating so quickly they feel much better placed, taking them off the market, repricing, and inevitably putting them back on the market at higher rates at a future. Yes, and the cost escalating because of the war and and the rising price of oil um and also the great uncertainty. What what are the typical mortgage deals left then? What and what's this going to cost people?

So it's pretty hefty at the moment. Let's take a two year fix, for example. That's gone from around four point eight percent on average at the start of this month. to five almost five point four percent today. Uh that's an extra nine hundred pounds per year, just over nine hundred pounds per year if you're borrowing say a quarter of a million pounds over a twenty-five year term.

So it's it's a sizeable sum of money and the bigger the mortgage you have, the more that will sadly add up to. So it's a lot of extra money people are gonna have to find if they are looking to buy or or remortgage this year. And what's the very lowest? Because last week we were talking about sub four percent. Is it is it sub five percent you're looking for now?

We've definitely waved goodbye to sub four percents now unfortunately. The very lowest on the market this morning available across the UK was four point zero one percent, but that was for someone who's got a

particularly well positioned as a borrower, lots of equity. Um where we're seeing rates go up quite a bit are those people who are maybe slightly riskier to lend to as far as banks are concerned. So if you've only got a five or ten percent deposit, for example, And very briefly, Adam, do you see this getting worse? I wish I knew, I wish I knew to be honest Paul. Who knows what's going to happen but the reality is a more volatile world is a more expensive world.

Adam French of Money Facts, thank you very much indeed. And of course, it's not just mortgages being effected by the war. And this week, the government promised £52 million to share among one point five million households in rural areas, particularly in Northern Ireland, who rely on oil for their central heating. Now the price of that, as we've reported, has more than doubled since the Middle East conflict.

erupted, unlike gas and electricity, heating oil is not protected by a price cap, and the Chancellor has promised to help the people who need it most. But, five days on from last Monday's announcement, not much detail has been published. And that leaves great uncertainty for people like Denise, who lives in a village in Suffolk and relies on oil to heat her home.

She's on a low income, she has mobility and medical issues, and she told our reporter Joe Krasner she hasn't been able to top up her tank since the price of five hundred liters doubled to almost eight hundred pounds. I thought, oh my god, I don't know what I'm going to do and I'm also getting low as well. I hadn't got a lot of oil left. So at that point I began panicking. I've really, really, really reduced

the amount that I would use oil for hot water and central heating, both of which rely on oil. So I'm washing in cold water and I'm putting on a lot of clothes. and the heating's quite kind of going down to below eighteen degrees. I mean my doctor has said that

below 18 degrees, your heart starts slowing down. And I'm just think you know, and I do feel sort of a bit sluggish and kind of uh you know, I can't afford to turn on um like use electricity or anything because it's absolutely prohibitively expensive. So because of the price now, are you unable to afford to use the oil? Exactly. I turn it on very minimally to try and get the heat up to about sixteen or seventeen degrees.

You know, but I'm still cold, basically. I mean it's really worrying because I can't turn it right up, otherwise I'll just run out. Well that was Denise talking to Joe Krasner. Moneybox's Sarah Rogers is with us. Sarah, you've been chasing the details of how this fifty two million pound pot of money will be shared out.

Yes, and of that one and a half million households that are using heating oil, seven hundred and sixty thousand are in England, half a million in Northern Ireland, and well over a hundred thousand each in Scotland and in Wales. So the money will be split up between those nations. England will receive twenty seven million.

Northern Ireland gets seventeen million, Wales three point eight million. In Scotland it's four point six million pounds, although we've also heard this week that the Scottish Government's gonna top that up to create a ten million pound fund. Well, it'll be available through the Crisis and Resilience Fund from the first of April, which is the new name for the Household Support Fund, which is something we've talked about before on Money Box.

Councils use that money to help people in hardship. That does include heating oil, but it also covers things like housing, food costs, or water bills.

Now this new money is specifically for people relying on heating oil who are vulnerable and on low incomes, but it's up to each council to decide what the rules are when it comes to getting it. So twenty seven million pounds and which councils in England will get this? Well this is where it gets quite complicated. The government told us they're only local authorities where the twenty twenty one census showed at least one percent of households rely on heating oil for central heating

Will get the money. So that's mainly rural councils. And the money will be allocated based on what's called a deprivation index. So, the best thing you can do is to contact your local council, go online if you can, and look for the Household Support Fund. You'll usually find details on how to apply. Thanks, Sarah. Now that's England. What about the rest of the UK?

Okay, so in Northern Ireland there's a big issue there because more than six out of ten households use heating oil as their main source of fuel. David from Newton Abbey told the BBC in Northern Ireland that he and his wife both get a pension, and he's not sure if they'll qualify for the help or not. I'm one of those on a bo a borderline, so you could either just be in or just be out. So it'd be nice to know and I'm sure there must be thousands of people along the same line.

you know, just because you're not on a a social benefit it doesn't mean to say that you don't see the hardship and you don't actually feel it. So it would be really good to get something coming through very soon. Thank you, David. We did ask the government in Northern Ireland how people can apply for the money. No one came back to us in time, but we will let you know when we do get those details. And what about whales?

Well, the Welsh Government says it's still considering how to best deploy the new money, but it does have something in place called the Discretionary Assistance Fund for those experiencing a financial crisis. The amount that households can apply for that has gone up from 500 to 750 pounds, and normally you can only access that once over a twelve month period. That's now been extended to twice.

Rydyn ni'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd. Yeah, so Scotland will launch its Scottish emergency oil heating scheme on april the first. We've been told that the details of who will be eligible and for how much will be released next week, and that the money will be administered by the charity Advice Direct Scotland.

Thanks, Sarah. Well, listening to all that is Matt Cole from the Fuel Bank Foundation. That's a charity which helps with fuel costs across the UK. Matt Cole, we're waiting for some details as we heard, but in England, each council... will desi decide their own criteria. Does that mean someone living in Suffolk, like Denise, might get help, whereas someone in a neighbouring area might they might do it differently there?

and another village just down the road will have completely different criteria'cause they're in a different council area and that's worrying people. Yes, and the government's very clear it's not going to everybody with with oil heating. Targeted support is the phrase because it says it has to balance the need to protect the public finances I suppose not spend as much while helping families with the cost of living.

But when pro oil prices soared due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, people were offered two hundred pounds each regardless of income, weren't they? Rydyn ni'n ymwneudol, ac mae'n ymwneudol iawn yn ymwneudol iawn. Mae'n ymwneudol iawn yn ymwneudol iawn, ac mae'n ymwneudol iawn yn ymwneudol iawn yn ymwneudol iawn.

Mae'n ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud. Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â'r unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw?

What we're calling on government to do is to keep monitoring and making sure that funding is available so when people flag to their local authority that they're struggling, they can't afford to fill their oil tank in their back garden, that somebody can step in and fill it on their behalf. So it's not just that yw'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn o'r hyn.

Rydyn ni'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw. Rydyn ni'n cael ei wneud yn ymwneud â'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau'r pethau. Yes, and we've had a lot of emails also about LPG, liquid petroleum gas. The censors found three hundred thousand homes across the UK.

are heated with LPG and Amanda emailed she is using LPG. What about those of us on L P G I have a two thousand litre tank to fill. It's already over seventy pence a litre before the current chaos Mae'n llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer yn llawer. Rydyn ni'n ymwneudol, ond rydyn ni'n ymwneudol, ond rydyn ni'n ymwneudol, ond rydyn ni'n ymwneudol.

ac yn unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw Yes, I mean you mentioned unregulated. I should say the Welsh government has already offered payments to some people with L P G Rydyn ni'n meddwl am unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw unrhyw?

Yn ymwneud yn y bungalow yn Banga sydd wedi bod yn ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl. And very briefly, Matt, your charity, Fuel Bank Foundation, is actually helping Denise since we put you in touch, buying her some oil. What is your advice to people running out of oil and struggling in the cold, briefly?

Uh so i i if you're if you're concerned, if you're running out, the best thing to do is to reach out to your local authority. They'll be able to provide some support. Also look at our website, fuelbankfoundation dot org. We've got some handy tips and advice there too. Matt Cole, thank you very much indeed.

Well, as we said, Maine's gas and electricity prices are capped by the regulator off Gem, but there was a warning on Friday that despite that, average energy bills could rise by three hundred pounds a year from July. And Sarah Rogers is still here. You've been looking at this, Sarah. This is a forecast at the moment though, isn't it? It is Paul, it's from Cornwall Insight whose forecasts though are widely respected, and what they're referring to here is the price cap.

which is the maximum your supplier can charge per unit of energy. We get an announcement by the regulator off gem every three months. That's after they've assessed what wholesale prices are doing. And we know at the moment they're rising. The good news is from next month the price cap actually goes down. That was already announced at the start of the year. So a typical household will see a cut of nearly£10 a month.

But from the 1st of July, that same household could see a rise of just under£30 a month if this new forecast is correct. We'll get the official numbers from OffGem at the end of May. And as ever, if you use more, you do pay more.

And Sarah, the price of crude oil is up again. It was one hundred and twelve dollars a barrel when I re looked recently. Um Tony's WhatsApp to us to say fuel prices at a garage near him have gone up thirty pence since this all started. Are petrol and diesel prices still rising? Yes, he's not the only one feeling it. Before the war, the average price of petrol was about one pound thirty two pence a litre. It's now up around 12 pence to£1.44 diesel's risen by about£24 to£1.66 a litre.

So that's costing around 13 pounds more to fill a tank than at the end of last month those figures are from the RAC. And as we said last week though, there are comparison sites online which will find the cheapest prices close to you. And that could save you a lot of money. Thanks, Sarah, very much for that. And emails are coming in on all those subjects, I must say, at the moment. Big Smile Days. att uppdatera hela familjen

Jag hetar ränd i toskel och så möter jag en kvinna på totalen. Men då får hon alltså ett samtal i en sån där mobilitstelefon. Nej men det är ju totalt livsfarligt, bör vi. Och kan vi verkligen gå och tala samtidigt? Jag tror inte det nu. Lotto har gjort vanligt folk ovanligt rika sedan 1980. اشتركوا في القناة

Now how do thieves persuade sensible people to part with tens of thousands of pounds? It's a question many of you have been asking, especially after the story on this programme a fortnight ago, about civil servant Sarah. She put a couple of hundred pounds into what she thought was a cryptocurrency investment, but ended up having three hundred thirty seven thousand pounds stolen.

all her own savings, and a six figure sum she borrowed from family and friends and banks. How can that happen? Sarah explains how she ended up using good money to chase bad. Initially they they drained me of my own savings very quickly within the space of like a couple of weeks. Mae'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n ymwneud â'n mynd.

Mae'r penderfyniad sy'n ei wneud yw'r penderfyniad sy'n ei wneud yw'r penderfyniad sy'n ei wneud yw'r penderfyniad sy'n ei wneud yw'r penderfyniad sy'n ei wneud But of course it doesn't, and Moneybox listener David would would still like to understand more. Hi Money Fox. I like to think of myself as somebody that would not fall for some of the scams that you um you outline on the programme. But it would be great to hear exactly how they happen. What is it?

that these people say to individuals to persuade them to part with their money, to to press the button that says transfer that cash out of my account into another account. I'd also be interested to know what exactly it is that people are seeing on the screen when they're when they're handing over their cash.

Well, thanks David. And everyone else who asks similar questions. Uh with us is criminologist Dr. Nicola Harding. She's founder of the Financial Crime Lab, which works with banks and tech providers to prevent fraud. Um Nicola Harding, it is a fair question, isn't it? And until it happens to you, it's very hard to see how these massive thefts work. I mean Sarah was lured in to a fake investment. W where does it begin?

I think, unfortunately, the entry point for these scams almost always looks ordinary. It's exactly as we might expect. We live, unfortunately, in an age of hustle culture, of opportunities. We've seen, you know, history tells us, we think about the dot com bubble, is that people did invest at key moments in time and they did make an awful lot of money. So people are, you know, in these times where it's we've we've just been talking about how

Yes, and you can understand people putting a couple of hundred pounds in with a bit of hope they might make some money. But what about David's question about what victims see and how it builds up? Are there fake websites? Are they manipulating real institutions? I think this fake websites, absolutely. They're not amateur operations that we're talking about here. They clone real FCA registered firms right down to the registration number, the branding, the language.

Rwy'n helpu. Rwy'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd. Rwy'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd yw'n mynd. There's that sunk cost fallacy of well, I've already invested this and I don't want to pull it out too early, be a bit silly and naive and then lose out. Uh and literally they'll see a page with their own money in an account and seemingly making gains or then losses, but all of that will be fake.

Absolutely. I mean they will they'll use very real looking payment processes to take the money from them, real looking compliance pages. They will show, you know, really nice. Mae'n rhaid i mewn gwirionedd yn ymwneud â hyn sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n.

Uh and then of course they say, Well, I'm sorry you're making a bit of a loss, but we'll help you get the money back if you just give us a bit more as happened to Sarah, and that really escalates it, doesn't it? Absolutely. And you know, the the thing when you're in in this moment is that these are people that you've put an awful lot of trust in already. So it's very difficult to then back down.

Yn ymwneud â'u pysychol gwaith, mae'n ymwneud â'u pysychol gwaith, mae'n ymwneud â'u pysychol gwaith, mae'n llawer o'u pysychol gwaith ymwneud â'u pysychol. but also they know exactly what they're doing, these professionals at this. And you know, for for every person that they're able to get an awful lot of money out, there's others that they're not successful with that they learn off and they are able to hone their skills.

Now David says he likes to think he wouldn't fall for it. Sarah said the same. Most of the victims we hear on Money Books say we don't think we could do it. I mean I sometimes talk about psychological warfare. How does it work? What how do they get you to put more money in? Mae'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw

they'll give you social proof. So one of the things, a tactic that they may use is to put you in a group with lots of other people who are seemingly like you, who are on this same journey, who are saying I I've just withdrawn this much. Oh, it was great for me the trade I did this morning. I got this. But actually all those people are the criminals themselves. They just look like they're people like you.

Nicola Harding, founder of the Financial Crime Lab, thanks for those tips and I hope that helps people understand it and of course avoid it. You can find out more by listening to Scam Secrets on BBC Sound.

Now last week I asked you what animals you'd like to see on the new issue of Bank of England banknotes. Dozens of you sent emails and voice notes the Bank of England's appointing a panel of experts to draw up a short list, then it will consult the public in the summer. But if the response to this programme is typical, Their decision might be difficult. Sarah's back. Sarah, very busy this week for you this week. We ended up with a very long list of noteworthy animals.

We did, and Seymour's suggestion of the red squirrel landed in our inbox pretty much as soon as you asked the question, Paul. But the eleven emails that followed each suggested a completely different animal. And after removing the jokes, which we'll keep to ourselves, we counted forty eight different insects, mammals, birds, and fish, which listeners thought would look good on a tenner.

Yes, my favourite was uh the wild boar from Stephen. I suspect he lives in the forest of Team where there's a lot of them. But not all our listeners took it that seriously. No, John thought the adder appropriate for money and there were magpies, squirrels, and fat cats to reflect what some people thought others might be doing without money. So what animal was the winner? Well we've got Ruth, Tom, Anna and Liz to tell us about the top two.

I suggested the wren for the new banknotes. These are lovely small brown birds. I see them frequently in my urban garden, and they are found throughout the UK and are the UK's most common residential birds. Rydyn ni'n ysgrifennu, mae'r fathin'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu'n ysgrifennu?

team hedgehog and I think it's really important that we put hedgehogs on our banknotes because we need to get businesses on board with protecting biodiversity. and the hedgehog is really vulnerable. They can be our friend. They eat slugs. This is the they're the ultimate Slug management system.

I have an early memory of my mother showing me a hedgehog bit she had found in our garden. Cradled in her hands, it looked up with bright beady eyes and twitching nose. I've had a soft spot for hedge pigs ever since. And our overall winner with twelve votes. Drum roll. The slug management system, the hedgehog.

So Team Hedgehog wins. Now you won't remember the farthing, Sarah, it disappeared in nineteen sixty. There were nine hundred and sixty of them in one pound, and there are five of them dropping into a metal bowl. Tell me what happens next. Well, the Bank of England has agreed that we can pass on your suggestions and the consultation starts this summer, so thank you for making the effort to send them in.

Thanks, Sarah. And to further muddy the warthog, I I asked people on X on Twitter, second and third came Fox and Badger, but top of their list was Larry the Downing Street cat, often seen on the news, but I'm not sure he can. And on that uh note it's probably just as well this podcast has filled its time, but we are waiting for your emails to moneybox at BBC.co dot UK and your voice notes and messages on WhatsApp O three oh six.

seven eight three one eight three. Serious or silly, we do read them all, and you might get on the show at Denise. Both David's, Tony, Ruth Tom, Anna, and Lizted. And remember, you can hear all our serious and silly items first by tuning in live to BBC Radio for Saturdays at midday.

Moneybox team in Salford was Sarah Rogers, Luke Jarman and Joe Krasner. Studio Manager Ethan Connolly Forster. Our editor is Jess Quayle. I'm Paul Lewis and this was the BBC News Money and Work Production for BBC Sounds. I'm Jamie Bartlett and for BBC Radio 4 I'll be looking at how Fakery took over the world. No, no, hang on, hang on, sorry. You're not Jamie Bartlett, I'm Jamie Bartlett.

Oh really? Well who am I then? I'm afraid you're not real pal. You're just an imitation chatbot I created to help me make this series on modern fakery. and why it's everywhere. Sounds good. What's gonna be in it? Well there's a lot. 1980s professional wrestling, dodgy academics, AI psychosis, COVID vaccine, skeptics, what's it called? Everything is fake and nobody cares with me, Jamie Bartlett. And me, Jimmy Botl. First on big big smile Fitt på att uppdatera hela familjen. Who's cube this?

Ingo, det är en bensinstation Sväng in, tanka. Alltid till ett hårt pris.