Dear Listener

Northern Rock continues to dominate the news. Yes, that is the start of last
week’s newsletter – but it’s still true! This week though we’ll be looking at a
rather ignored group – the 180,000 Northern Rock shareholders. Unlike savers
their money is anything but safe. Their windfall shares were worth £2255 when
Northern Rock building society turned itself into a bank exactly ten years ago.
But now they are worth less than £900. And this week shareholders learned that
the £71 dividend they had been promised would not be paid. Ho hum, you might
say, that’s shares for you. But shareholders are angry – they say they should
have been told what was going on earlier. And we get the latest on the future
of Northern Rock - will it be sold and if so to whom?

Away from… no I said that last week too! So I’ll try again…

We take a look at the companies who buy up homes from people in debt at below
market value and then rent them back to the former owners. The idea is that
people can remain in the home they could no longer afford to buy. But how long
they can stay there as tenants is uncertain. There's a risk they could end up
being turned out by the new owner after as little as a year.

Insurance to protect your repayments on a loan if you fall ill or lose your job
is still being widely mis-sold despite two years of action by the Financial
Services Authority. We ask the man in charge of the FSA’s work why so little
has been achieved after two years of what he calls ‘clamping down’ on firms
that mis-sell payment protection insurance.

There’s a big change on Monday if you want to give someone else the power to
take care of your financial affairs when you lose the ability to look after
them yourself. The existing Enduring Powers of Attorney will be replaced with a
new Lasting Power of Attorney – more complicated but perhaps more thorough. The
new rules apply to any powers made from Monday. But any EPAs made before Monday
will still be valid indefinitely. The public guardian himself, Richard Brook,
will be on the programme to explain all.

If you normally listen to the repeat of Money Box on Sunday at 9pm, it won’t be
there this week. But I might pop up in a rather odd role in its replacement
‘Radio 4: This Is Your Life’, part of an evening celebrating Radio 4’s 40th
birthday. Listen if you can.

Remember that Money Box and Money Box Live can both be downloaded now, so you
can listen to them on your computer or MP3 player anytime, anywhere. And you
can sign up for a weekly download to make sure you never miss an episode.

Best wishes


Paul Lewis

PS Don’t forget the live preview of Money Box on BBC1 Breakfast between 8.45
and 9 Saturday morning.
 

e-mail Paul Lewis