Saving for Retirement and Hollywood Strikes
Summary
Moneybox investigates urgent financial matters impacting Britons, from the critical issue of inadequate retirement savings and calls for increased pension contributions, to the second Royal Mail price hike this year. The episode also delves into the government's proposal to digitize paper share certificates, raising concerns about potential losses of individual shareholder rights. Finally, it examines the significant collateral damage of the Hollywood strikes on thousands of self-employed UK film and TV crew members, highlighting the industry's reliance on American productions and the disputes over residuals and AI.Episode description
This week there have been warnings that millions of people aren't saving enough for retirement and calls for pension contributions to be increased. One thinktank - New Financial - released a report saying that despite the success of auto-enrolment nearly a third of the UK workforce are not saving for a pension at all. Most aren't saving enough and will have smaller pensions in future. The government says auto-enrolment means billions more is being saved into pensions.
If you are one of the millions of people who own shares directly in a UK company then you may have to give them up. There are just two weeks left to have your say about the future of how those shares are held. It's because paper share certificates are on the way out to be replaced by digital versions. We'll discuss what this means. If want to have your say email "digitisationtaskforce@hmtreasury.gov.uk".
If you're wondering where your favourite show on Netflix or Paramount has gone it might be a victim of the strikes in Hollywood where 11,000 writers and more than 150,000 actors have been on strike for the last few months. It means a large number of productions being filmed or produced in the UK have been put on hold, leaving the mainly self-employed crew members with no work and no financial support. We'll hear from those affected.
Plus Royal Mail has announced that the price of posting a letter will rise in October for the second time this year. We'll have the details on that.
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Sarah Rogers Researcher: Sandra Hardial Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm, Saturday 9th September 2023)