...but never arrived.

Dear Listener

In 2010/11 the Government will spend £704 billion, which is £163 billion more than its income of £541 billion. Like the rest of us the Government will have to borrow to fill that gap. And that new loan will take the total overdraft the country has run up to more than £1 trillion (£1,179,000,000,000 or £19,650 per person) in 2010/11. (Note for the pernickety that is the debt as measured on an international method by Europe; our Treasury reckons it is only £952 billion). And by 2014/15 it will be about 50% higher. Where did this massive debt come from? How long will it take to get rid of it? And does it matter anyway? Questions to be asked and answered in our special Money Box on the Saturday of Easter weekend (April 2). If you have thoughts or questions you can email us now moneybox@bbc.co.uk – please put ‘deficit’ in the subject line.

‘Safe Pair of Eyebrows’ – the Daily Mirror had my favourite headline around a picture of the famous black tufts above Alistair Darling’s eyes. But after that there was little enough to raise a smile – or even an eyebrow. Tax allowances frozen – some for five years. Billions of pounds of cuts – detailed after the Budget. Winter Fuel Payment the same next winter as last (but somehow billed as a rise on what it would otherwise have been) and a recycled Conservative policy of scrapping stamp duty on homes sold for up to £250,000 to first time buyers – but limited for two years and paid for by a rather un-Conservative Stamp Duty on homes sold for more than £1 million, starting in 2011 and with no time limit. Though the Conservatives told me that reversing that tax “will not be a priority” if the Conservatives win the election. Rather they would spend available resources on not implementing the one percentage point rise in National Insurance from April 2011.

Forgive me for talking Budget but you will understand that with Money Box Live, Budget Call, the News Channel, writing about it, updating leaflets and books and preparing for Saturday there has been little else on my mind. But we will give you some relief in…

…THIS WEEK’S POST-BUDGET MONEY BOX.

The cheque guarantee service – which began in 1969 – will end on 30 June 2011 and the cards with the little £100 hologram on the back will be phased out. But some customers say they are being stopped already – more than a year before the guarantee actually ends.

Stamp Duty (or Stamp Duty land Tax to give its proper name) is a strange beast. Buy a home for £250,000 and the 1% tax costs you £2500. Buy it for £250,001 and the rate jumps to 3% and the cost is £7505 (it’s always rounded up). So that extra pound is taxed at a rate of 500,500% (yes, that’s more than half a million per cent). Needless to say, there are not many homes on the market just above one of these steps at £125,000, £250,000, £500,000 (and from 2011/12 in future £1,000,000), creating a dead zone of prices just above each one. And of course we will be talking about the Budget announcement to scrap the tax up to £250,000 for first-time buyers – but just what is a first-time buyer? And will the extra tax on million pound plus homes really pay for it?

Basic bank accounts are in the news this week. So who said this, and when? “Today in Britain up to 3.5 million adults have no bank account. The Cruickshank Report has revealed that a basic affordable bank account for everyone would be profitable for the banks and that using banking facilities - and not the cash economy - just to pay gas and electricity bills could save families 50 pounds a year, or one pound a week. I am now inviting the banks to work with the Post Office to offer this basic banking service to all.”

If you said ‘the Chancellor’ that is correct. But if you said ‘Alistair Darling’ and ‘2010’ both are wrong. We reveal the oldest reprise in this year’s Budget speech.

The Ministry of Justice gives us an on-the-record interview about claims management companies just a week after suspending the licence of Cartel Client Review – the claims management company which admits it has taken £20 million off tens of thousands of clients but has nothing to give back.

And whatever your plans over Easter cancel them! We will tell you what you should be doing before, or at the end of, the tax year on Easter Monday.

If you are thinking of going east, or sending your money in that direction, the debate on whether China is a good bet for your long (or short) term investments has been postponed again. It will happen after Easter.

Money Box is noon on Saturday, nine pm on Sunday, or on the website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox at any time. There you can also watch videos, follow up items, read web pieces, download transcripts, follow links, and send us stories or ideas you want us to look into. And of course Have Your Say on – one of the items.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme preview on Breakfast BBC 1 soon after 0845 on Saturday.

e-mail Paul Lewis