This email was sent to Money Box subscribers on 5 November 2011

Dear Listener

Let me concentrate on the known knowns in an unprecedented week of chaos and turmoil.

 

La Reyne le veult – with those words of Norman French the Queen signified her assent and the planned changes to state pension were implemented by the Pensions Act 2011. The direct.gov website has already been updated and you can check your own state pension age by putting your date of birth and sex into this calculator http://pensions-service.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp and you can read more interesting stuff and see tables and so on at www.paullewis.co.uk/spa.htm.

 

The Department of Health stepped into the ‘how can I afford my heating bill’ debate by offering £10 million to the Dept for Energy and Climate Change to boost its Warm Front programme in England. Good news as far as it goes but a small drop compared with the £235m cut in the Warm Front budget this year. Another £20 million will go to a Warm Homes, Healthy People fund to be administered through charities and local authorities. But that sum can also be put in the context of a £600mn reduction in the cost of the Winter Fuel Payment which will be £200/£300 (depending on age) for this winter compared with £250/£400 for the last three winters. And the real problem is the big rise in fuel costs compared with incomes which are pretty flat.

 

Finally in this week’s not-on-the-programme items the Government produced an ‘offer’ for some public sector workers on the changes to their pensions. I won’t go into the details but you can see what I said on Breakfast TV here www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15573296 and read the full – overwhelmingly full – detail on the Treasury website. Most of it is factual though there is a tinge of propaganda about the way some of it reads www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/tax_pensions_index.htm.

 

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

 

It’s been the week that put the ‘eek!’ in Greek as European leaders finally admitted that there were circumstances in which Greece could leave the 17 nation eurozone. And George Osborne went almost as far as to say the Bank of England and Treasury were drafting contingency plans in case it happened. The European Central Bank, though, refused to join in. Its new President Mario Droghi said “it is not in the Treaty. We are all bound by the Treaty, and so we cannot really conceive of situations which are not envisaged in the Treaty”. But what would it mean for people with money or property in Greece? Would it be converted to new drachma? Would its value plummet internationally? And would taramasalata become cheaper at your local delicatessen? Oh, and what about those Euro notes with a Y in the number? We (try to) get answers.

 

If your financial advisor changes from a limited company to a partnership does it still have to meet compensation claims made against the limited company?

 

National Savings & Investments withdraws more of its products from Post Offices including two popular savings accounts. What are the alternatives if the Post Office is the handiest place to run your bank account?

 

And who will inherit if you don’t make a will? The answer may surprise you. So why not use Make A Will month to make one free (as long as you give your lawyer’s fee to charity)?

 

That’s our four story agenda for our 24 minutes of prime time radio on Radio 4 Saturday at midday, repeated 9pm on Sunday or of course online anytime www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox.

 

There is more information on the stories on our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox where you can also download transcripts and send us ideas or problems you want us to look into. And why not Have Your Say on financial advisors who disappear?

 

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 13,500 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.

 

Money Box Live is back this Wednesday at 3pm with Vincent Duggleby after its short break discussing the financial implications of divorce and separation. And the following week, 16th, I am in Harrogate with a special Money Box Live from Harrogate Grammar School Academy discussing student finances.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

Paul

 

PS I will be on BBC One Breakfast on Saturday trailing one of our stories. And back on Breakfast later in the week, probably on Thursday 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.

 


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