Dear Listener

Equitable Life – the return! It’s been a while but this week a leading barrister has said that the Financial Ombudsman let down policyholders who complained about the way Equitable treated them. The Ombudsman replies.

People in a good company pension scheme are warned about the dangers of accepting a cash payment to leave it.

Another bank is in the dock. This time it's Britain's biggest store card provider, GE Capital. It has been fined £610,000 for not giving customers the right information when selling them insurance. GE runs the store cards for 20 well known High Street stores. And up to 850,000 customers could be due money back.

More than two million pensioners fail to claim a billion pounds off their council tax. A leading charity tells the Government to give the reductions automatically – and restore the £200 one-off payment to help older people with the cost.

Many banks and some building societies have still not raised the rates they pay on savings, three weeks after the Bank of England put up interest rates. We name the good, the bad, and the really disappointing.

That’s all in a thrilling Money Box, live on Saturday at noon, repeated Sunday at 9pm and any time on the web.

Paul Lewis

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