Dear Listener

It’s been a week of apologies. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has apologised. The Prime Minister has apologised. And now I’m going to apologise. Not for losing the entire Child Benefit database as they did. But for last week’s newsletter. When I wrote it late on Friday it was correct. But by the time we went on air eighteen hours later half the programme had been changed as events overtook us. That’s how the financial world is this autumn.

This week I hope the newsletter will be a better guide to what you actually hear on Saturday! But the exciting thing is – you never know!

So back to those apologies from the Chancellor and the ex-Chancellor after a junior civil servant put the personal details of 25 million people onto a couple of CDs and popped them into the post. They never arrived. Potentially putting into criminal hands the name and date of birth of every child in the country and the address, national insurance number and bank details of at least one of their parents.

On Money Box this week we’ll be looking at what caused the most serious breach of data protection this country has ever seen (and we’ve seen a few). We’ll explore what can be done to prevent such data breaches in the future. And of course find out what every parent should be doing to protect their money and their identity in case the discs do fall into the wrong hands.

As home repossessions rise – and will probably rise further in 2008 – a senior judge tells borrowers who get into financial difficulties that they shouldn't give in to bullying tactics by lenders.

We’ll also try to squeeze in a story about interest rates on some savings being cut even though the Bank of England base rate hasn’t changed for months.

And if you come across a couple of CD’s labelled ‘Child Benefit Database’ why not pop them in the post to the Chancellor? It would make his weekend.

Remember you can download Money Box and Money Box Live as a podcast so you can listen to the programmes on your MP3 player anytime, anywhere. You can even 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