Dear Listener

It has been a busy week for official announcements. Changes to child support; a Bill to enact the more rapid rise in state pension age and the not quite compulsory workplace pension scheme which will begin for some next year; no-one will be forced to retire from their job at a set age after 1 October 2011; a Law Commission consultation on pre-nuptial agreements (in England and Wales); and new tax reclaims announced by HMRC.

Most of those items are in the programme. But on state pension age let me say that we did publish the table showing the revised pension ages on 22 October 2010, before the details were officially announced and long before the final table was published in this week’s Pensions Bill. Oddly, because the law has not yet been passed, the normally helpful www.direct.gov.uk does not include them even now and won’t until the law is passed. So our table is still the best place to answer the question – when can I get my state pension? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/money_box/transcripts/spa_changes.pdf

No room here for my views on the Bank of England interest rate decision (keep Bank Rate at 0.5% and freeze quantitative easing – printing money – at £200bn for now anyway). But you can find them by burrowing through my tweets www.twitter.com/paullewismoney.

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

New tax fiasco? I put the question mark in the interests of balance. The Revenue will be pursuing another 450,000 people over tax it failed to collect – this time from 2007/08. We explain how to appeal against the new demands. On the positive side (never let it be said….) any earlier tax that HMRC has failed to gather by using tax codes is being written off. Though any refunds due will be paid back to 2004/05 hopefully before the end of 2012. And 250,000 people who get the state pension but whose tax was wrongly calculated will also be let off right up to 2009/10.

The Pensions Bill (don’t yawn it’s really important) apart from implementing the more rapid rise in state pension age (it will be at least 66 for anyone born on 6 April 1954 or later) it will introduce the new workplace pensions that start for some in October 2012 and will apply to everyone at work aged between 22 and pension age who pays tax from October 2016 with full contributions due from October 2017.

Pre-nups, or Marital Property Agreements which can be pre, post or during a marriage or civil partnership, are the subject of a Law Commission (England and Wales only) paper. We ask what it should recommend and how you can protect your property within a relationship now before the law is changed.

We talk to the Justice Minister about his ideas of insuring against divorce costs and talk to one man whose company claims to provide divorce insurance.

And what is the best – and worst – way to get foreign currency? Some banks no longer use the Visa or Mastercard bulk rates. And some airlines….well wait and see.

We hope to get at least most of that into our 24 minutes of joy live on Saturday at 1204. Repeated Sunday at 9pm and listen any time via the podcast page www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox Check out our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox to read web pieces, download transcripts, follow links, send us stories or ideas you want us to look into and Have Your Say on money and marriage (and civil partnership).

This newsletter is available at bbc.co.uk/moneybox/newsletter (tell your friends who don’t subscribe) and, as I mentioned, you can keep up with my random but timely thoughts on money 24 hours a day at twitter.com/paullewismoney.

Best wishes,

Paul

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

e-mail Paul Lewis