Dear Listener

Another Bank Holiday and another abbreviated newsletter as the tiny team struggle to bring you normal service in just seven working days spread over two weeks. Actually most of the team have been here almost full time, Bank Holidays notwithstanding. Though we will all be off on Friday and Saturday. Bliss. A long weekend. I could get wedded to the idea.

We have been getting a very strong response to our item last week on HMRC’s get tough tactics and we will be returning to the story later. Some of you may have seen the reprise on BBC Breakfast this (Thursday) morning with Money Box listener Deborah Fox and me. So keep your HMRC tales coming in. Two people have written to praise HMRC and I am equally interested in those. But much more frequent are the many accounts of errors and unanswered phones. Let us know what has happened to you through Have Your Say www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox.

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

This Bank Holiday weekend we are devoting the whole programme to one story – the death of final salary pension schemes. We were going to call it ‘Are final salary schemes dead?’ But as everyone we spoke to agreed they were, effectively, a gonner (though lingering on in their final stages) the question seemed rather otiose.

So the question then became What Killed Final Salary Schemes?

Was it Gordon Brown’s tax grab? The less well known but equally damaging Lawson’s Law? (Yes that was Nigella’s dad when he was Chancellor). Or perhaps inflation? Rights for early leavers? Growing longevity? Poor investment returns? And new regulations such as FRS17, MFR, and Scheme Specific Funding? We don’t mention the last three by name as we did try to keep the whole programme as free from impenetrable jargon as possible. So if you don’t know your DB from your Money Purchase don’t worry they are either not there or are explained. And of course we have to ask if it was caused by actuaries and the mistakes they made? Something Britain’s top actuary denies.

We end up firmly on the Orient Express as the murderer becomes all of the above. And we have to turn again to Britain’s top actuary to assess each of the accused and put a number on their culpability for The Death of Final Salary Schemes. The answers may surprise you.

So for once I know exactly what is in Money Box and I shall be sitting in my garden in the sun listening to the pre-recorded programme with you! Find out what did kill final salary pension schemes by listening to Radio 4 on Saturday just after noon. The repeat is on Sunday at 9pm and you can of course listen any time via the podcast page www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox. Check out our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox to follow links, download transcripts, send us stories or ideas you want us to look into and let us know your view on today’s programme moneybox@bbc.co.uk.

This newsletter is available at bbc.co.uk/moneybox/newsletter around the time it hits your inbox (tell your friends who don’t subscribe) and you can join more than 6300 others who enjoy my random but timely thoughts on money and a few other things whenever I’m awake at twitter.com/paullewismoney.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS There will be no programme trail on Breakfast this week.

PPS Don’t forget to vote on Thursday, people died to give you that right.

e-mail Paul Lewis