Safer Savings
The Financial Services Authority has stepped in to help people who have money in building societies that have merged or are about to. Under previous rules when societies merged they could only trade under one banking authorisation and so anyone with money in both was only covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to a total of £50,000 in both the merged societies. That menat someone with £50,000 in each before the merger would have to move half their money somewhere else entirely to be sure that all of it was covered by the scheme should the parent building society go bust. But now the FSA says that if one building society merges with another people with money in both societies will have separate cover of £50,000 in each if two conditions are met.

First, the money was in each society before the merger happened. That date is the formal transfer of the separate societies into one. Secondly, the merged societies must continue to trade under their old, separate names. Nationwide has kept the Cheshire and Derbyshire brands and Yorkshire has kept the Barnsley brand. Skipton will also keep the brands separate when the merger is finalised at the end of February. But Chelsea absorbed the Catholic Building Society on 31 December and the brand disappeared.

The rule only applies to building societies. Banks which have merged are already free to trade as separate entities and some – such as Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest already do.

The new rule only lasts until September 2009. However, the FSA is consulting on whether the £50,000 limit should apply to separate brands even when they are owned by the same bank or building society. It is also considering the amount of the limit which may be increased.

Winter Fuel Payment
If you were born on 21 September 1948 or earlier have you had your Winter Fuel Payment yet? The payment is £250 this year – and £400 for those born on 21 September 1928 or before. If you have not had it you should make sure you claim before 30 March 2009 or you will lose the payment for the 2008/09 winter forever. The payment is per household. So a couple who are both entitled get half the amount each. If one qualifies and the other does not then the qualifying person gets the full amount. If one is above 80 and one 60-79 then the payment is split £275 and £125. Slightly different rules apply to couples on pension credit but the total amount should be the same. People in care and nursing homes who get pension credit will not get the payment though others in care homes will. People in hospital for more than a year or serving a prison sentence do not get it. People living abroad cannot claim it for the first time. But if you live in Europe you can get the payment as long as you have claimed it once while living in the UK. The payment is tax-free and does not affect means-tested benefits. Most people do not need to claim. But if you reach 60 and do not get a state pension then you should make a claim. Call 08459 15 15 15 or visit www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/winterfuel

Credit crunch what credit crunch?
Jewels, pop music albums, cars and sports memorabilia have all featured in these pages before. And despite the global financial downturn people are paying record prices at auction for rare and special items.

However, a cricket cap belonging to the legendary batsman Donald Bradman failed to live up to record predictions. In 1956 Bradman sent the cap to his godson Richard Robins in England, writing on it ‘On his twelfth birthday I gave Richard Robins one of my Aust. XI caps’ and signed it. The cap’s current owner paid a record A$425,000 for it in 2003. But no-one was prepared to pay the A$450,000 (£200,000) reserve at an auction on 15 December leaving Leski Auctions trying to sell it to one interested bidder for at least A$337,500 (£150,000)

Get your tax back
HM Revenue & Customs has £250 million of our money which it should not have – and it has launched a new campaign to give it back. Tax is deducted automatically at 20% from the interest earned on savings. The banks or building society then passes it on to the Revenue. The result is that the Treasury’s bank account is swollen with tax it should not have. The Revenue says that about three million people – most of them pensioners – can reclaim their share of this pot.

Two groups of people can reclaim money. First those whose income was below their tax allowance. That depends on their age in the tax year. If their income is below their tax allowance they should pay no tax and can reclaim all the tax which was deducted. The reclaim can be made back to the year 2003/04. The tax allowances for each tax year are set out in the table. People whose income was slightly higher than the tax allowance should have paid tax at a lower rate of 10% which is half the rate of 20% used for the automatic deduction. So people whose income was less than the total of their tax allowance and the lower rate limit can reclaim up to half the tax deducted. The allowances and lower rate limits are shown in the table. To get the higher allowances your birthday can be as late as the last day of the tax year on 5 April.