This email was sent to Money Box subscribers on 12 June 2010

 

Dear Listener

 

Marilyn Monroe was said to love the camera. And it loved her. She looked – contemporaries say – even better on 10x8 black and white prints than she did in real life. I am the opposite. Of course, in truth I don’t know if I really do look worse in my images or if that is how I in fact am. But I do know that I never feel at ease when I am being snapped. If you can call what a professional photographer takes in a studio with lights and a Canon 5D a ‘snap’. So apologies to Muir and his two assistants (see below) for using that four-letter pejorative for what I am sure will be great pictures. Or as great as they can be with a subject who has an uneasy smile, an awkward body and clothes that don’t quite feel as if they fit.

 

Perhaps that is why it took longer to take the images than the thirty minute debate they were to illustrate. Sarah Beeny – presenter of Channel 4’s The Property Ladder – and I were discussing whether investment in property was a good idea. I was supposed to say ‘no’ and she was expected to say ’yes.’ But in fact we pretty much agreed with each other. Becoming either a property developer – buying cheap, doing up, selling dear – or a landlord – buying cheap, painting magnolia, renting out – were both jobs that needed skill, thought, and dedication. Neither should be attempted by amateurs in their spare time in the hope of making a quick buck. But we differed in one important way. She loved the camera – and it loved her.

Sigh. But on to the programme….

 

…in Money Box this week.

 

What happens if you transfer money using an online bank account and put in the wrong account number and the money goes to someone else? That is the nightmare suffered by one Money Box listener. His bank won’t tell him where the money went citing data protection laws. What are your rights?

 

Child benefit has been paid to parents for their children without a means-test since 1946 – then it was called Family Allowance and was 25p for each child except the first for whom nothing was paid). But with the Government determined to save every penny it can, child benefit may not be paid for all children and without a means test for much longer. We debate if child benefit should be means-tested or taxed? Should it be paid only to sub-teenage children? And why is it so much more for the first child in the family?

 

If you are approaching retirement you could be in for a nasty surprise when you come to buy a pension for life (an annuity) with your pension fund. The amount you get is lower than it has ever been (or at least since records began). So how do you make sure you get as much as you can? And is it worth putting off retirement to see if rates rise?

 

We talk to a credit-worthy couple refused a mortgage because the flat they lived in could not be properly identified.

 

And your chance to suggest where the axe should fall. The Chancellor has asked the public for its ideas on where the government can save money. So this week we are asking for your thoughts. We will do a round up of them in the future.

 

All that – probably and subject to breaking news and the usual 24 minute cut off – on Money Box at noon on Saturday, at nine pm on Sunday, or at any time on the website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox. 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 Have Your Say on Child Benefit and let us know your candidates for T H E  A X E.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

 

Paul

 

PS don’t forget the programme trail on Breakfast on BBC 1 between 0845 and 0900 on Saturday.

 

 

 


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