This email was sent to Money Box subscribers on 17 September 2011

Dear Listener (skip to *** to miss out the chatter)

 

Another busy week. How do we solve the problem of paying for the growing costs of long-term care as people live longer? That was the debate I chaired at the Chartered Insurance Institute on Wednesday. Two economists, a director of social services, and a representative of the insurance industry all expressed their doubts that the recommendations in the Dilnot report on paying for care would encourage the insurance industry to develop products for people to insure themselves against the cost of care. Too uncertain and too complicated was the general view.

 

Although I was chairing – and therefore scrupulously impartial! – the CII did ask me to write a short piece for the accompanying publication where I do express my view that any solution to the cost of care must involve using the £1 trillion or so locked up in the homes of the people who need that care. Read it here (p.22) www.knowledge.cii.co.uk/system/files/CII_Special_Report_on_Long_Term_Care_Final_Web_Version.pdf

 

Then on Thursday it was a dash from the Breakfast studio – where I was talking about the rising cost of energy bills and how to keep them down (and we are doing that on Money Box too this week) – to the Houses of Parliament to give evidence. The Government is planning to reorganise the way that financial services and the companies who run them are regulated and supervised. The changes are immensely complex and need a very long and complicated Bill to amend the already long and complicated law. So a joint committee of MPs and Lords is subjecting the Bill to what is called ‘pre-legislative scrutiny’ (PSL).

 

Yesterday they wanted to hear from people who are on the side of consumers. As a freelance with more than 25 years’ experience of doing just that I was pleased to be invited along to represent the press along with Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis. Though we were not alone as one of the peers on the Committee was Baroness Wheatcroft aka Patience Wheatcroft who writes for The Times. I argued that the New Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA which will replace the FSA) should be more focussed on consumer protection and more willing (and able under the law) to name firms, products, and adverts that were giving it cause for concern. Points that I have made in Money Box interviews with the FSA for a decade. You can watch the event here www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=9043 (our bit starts around 42 minutes in) and no doubt a written record will appear in due course.

 

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

 

How can a single trader lose $2bn (about £1.3bn) in a matter of days without the bank’s own compliance officers noticing? That’s what UBS trader Kweku Adoboli.is alleged to have done. We ask more about the complex financial instruments he was trading.

 

Are insurance companies – in particular Royal Sun Alliance – responsible in part for the rising cost of care insurance premiums? It’s a serious allegation. But if I tell you that more than 100 cases a week are going through the courts alleging that. One judge has said the practices by Royal and Sun Alliance are viewed by some of its rivals as falling somewhere between sharp practice and outright fraud and if widely adopted could put up the cost of insuring a vehicle would rise by a quarter, you can see it is an allegation that is seriously made.

 

Tenancy deposit schemes are supposed to make sure that tenants in England and Wales can be certain their deposit of six week’s rent will be returned, or if it is not, any dispute is handled impartially. But many tenants are reporting it is not working.

 

Ryanair changes the way that customers can avoid an administration charge which costs a family of four £48 on a return trip. But what will the alternative cost?

 

And as the last of the big six energy announces its winter price rises for gas and electricity we look at how you can reduce your heating bills this winter.

 

Five items and we will try to get all five into our 24 minutes. Find out what we manage on Radio 4 at midday, or at 9pm on Sunday, or online anytime, or get the podcast at www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox. On our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox you can follow links, download transcripts, or send us stories or ideas you want us to look into. And Have Your Say on tenancy deposits – we’d like to hear from landlords and tenants.

 

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 could join more than 11,500 people who follow me on Twitter to enjoy (or rant about) my random but timely thoughts on money and a few other things whenever I’m awake at twitter.com/paullewismoney.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

Paul

 

PS I will be previewing Money Box on Breakfast on Saturday around at 0845 and I am on Breakfast in the week, usually on Thursdays and usually around 0640 and 0820 talking about a money story and answering emails and tweets. But the time, and occasionally the day, can vary.


Writing Archive

Paul Lewis front page

e-mail Paul Lewis

All material on these pages is © Paul Lewis 2011