Support Programs for Young Job Seekers

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Hello, welcome to this Money boox podcast The Bank of England warns inflation and interest rates will rise this year, creating difficult choices for people who need a mortgage. And youth unemployment scars the young people affected for life A new study finds that, as the number not in work, education or training grows to nearly a million But first Serious delays in releasing funds after a customer dies are occurring at national savings and investments, leaving many grieving families distraught It admits it's not meeting its normal fourteen day target even to respond to inquiries about bereavement claims, and many listeners are telling us of delays of months before they actually get the money Michael's wife died in September Her dying wish was that around four hundred thousand pounds in national savings and investments should go to their son buy a home for his new family but more than six months later and six weeks since probate was granted NSNI, the government savings bank, is still hanging on to her money Michael spoke to our reporter, Joe Krasner We confirmed with Dennis and I that they receive the grant of probate on the twenty third of March. And the solicitor apparently was told, Well there's a backlog We'll get aroundound to it whenever we can which was surprising because of the all the accounts are repayable on demand. They total in excess of four hundred thousand pounds My wife trusted Nis anday And that's why the money was there to gave explicitly instructions to me to try to help buy my son his first house from the proceeds They had a grandchild I was born two months before my wife died. So she just saw the grandchild really wants to a house for them So we've been chasing Fitis andoy every two weeks Since then, we've registered a far more complaint on the summh of April I telephoneed that onn the eighth of April and was basically told, well, we'll get round to it one day You can't go to the financial Ombsman yet because you're still within the complain period So it's basically you can't do much about it until we get around to it. We are stuck with ES and I basically ignoring contract liabilities and just saying we'll get around to paying you whenever we fancy paying you which for a savings institution, my wife trusted goovernment. And we just don't know what to do now. I'm so sorry. It must be so upsetting losing your wife and then going through all of this. When you have spoken to them and when your solicitors have spoken to them Do they give any reason as to why there's this delay is a backlog That's all they say, there's a backlog. Sorry, then employ more people to do the work that you're contractly obliged to do It's just simply there's a backlog. You can't do anything about it. You can't complain to the financial numbersman yet So goodbye That was literally the scale of the discussion I had with them And do they give any indication as to when you'll get an answer and when you can get your money We're now told it's going to be two weeks, but then again, two weeks ago, we were told it's going to be two weeks So the answer is no, we haven't been given any particular day or date to when they will deain to pay us There' be no commentary about interest on the amount it's not a small amount There's been no commentary on our complaint That hasn't been even acknowledged So I've certainly been looking for suitable compensation in due course. It seems as though it's just NSLI do what they want to do And we're going to get to a stage, I guess where The financial Ombudsman time period will click in But then again, by the time the financial Mbersment deals with it It's going to be another several months In the meantime, my son is there his out of your house talalking to Joe Krasner Well since we raised Michael's case with NS andI, it has told us it's now processing his claim and the money should be in his account early next week. adding it was, quote, extremely sorry that his family hadn't received the level of support they should expect Now that backlog, Michael mentioned, is partly due to the fact that NSNI has to devote some staff time to looking for nearly half a billion pounds due to the estates of thirty seven thousand five hundred people who died between two thousand eight and twenty twenty five, where their families may not even know They had savings there. a plan to deal with that problem, which we reported on in March, is promised later this month So with me in the London studio is Duncan Stevens, he's chief executive of Grettel. That's a free online service which tracks down dormant or forgotten financial assets for customers Duncan Stehvens, Michael clearly upset, not just about the delay, but about the way he was treated ringing every two weeks. and Eis and I apologised to us, but he says he just got Indifference and many other listeners have said the same. is this something Gretel comes across We sadly, we come across it all the time, not just with national savings but across the whole financial services industry. and frankly, it's it's one of those things it's very easy to train and it's it's therefore somewhat unforgivable that you would treat someone in such vulnerable circumstances in such a way. Yes, I mean, they do have a bereavement team. John emailed us. He's been waiting for money since that his late father invested in NSNI, half a million, I think in his case. And he told us he received no response to his complaint from NSNI and no further communication from the NSNI. bereavement team and we've had others like that Fancial firms, as I recall it have a duty to treat their customers bereave customers with care They do, yes. I mean reggulated financial services absolutely has a duty of care and it's regulated under the consumer duty Unfortunately, NSNI is not part of the consumer duty scheme. It is supposed to behave as if it was, isn't it? It is, yes How quickly should banks and others release the money to executives? I mean, clearly, they've got to establish that the person in touch is the right person, but that shouldn't be that difficult, should it It shouldn't been, and typically we see payments going out from anything from a matter of days up to generally about twenty eight days Right. so that's obviously a lot, a lot less than it's NS and I is is achieving Your organization finds missing funds and Michael's thought was, well, just employ more people to cope with this. But you understand what is so difficult about this job? I To an extent I do, I've worked in this industry for twenty eight years and I think one of the challenges that you have particularly around bereavement and vulnerability is veryer often, maybe not so much in Michael's case, but very often, you have people that don't have perhaps quite the complete picture. that the institution is looking for and even That's compounded even more. So if the organization itself doesn't have complete the accurate data or it has old data about the individual. That just makes it very difficult for the two to find a combined picture which actually aligns with their security veting Yes, I mean, Michael clearly knows about the account, he knows the numbers and everything. Whereas that won't always be the case. Well when you're doing acting as an executor, you have to go through lots of bits of paper that may or may not exist. you may not realise their relevance. Completely. and that is probably one of the biggest challenges that we see. We have individuals coming to us where They lost track of things potentially decades ago and they don't have the paperwork And very often they get dismissed by the organizations because The organizations will say, well You haven't got the paperwork, must have had your money already.. Now we've had an email just this morning about from Graham who asked two months ago about just about the balances of a deceased relative, and he's only had an acknowledgement. He's not even been told that two months later. That also seems unacceptable to him to me of Absolutely, yes. Now as you say, some of these are very old accounts and which have to be found. And we've got this previous story about losing track of thirty seven thousand point five thousand Customers I mean, do you understand how you can lose track of people? Is it just they move and don't tell you? That is absolutely one of the most common causes, yes. We see that more than any. and then that obviously then gets compounded if the individual has moved and then subsequently passed away What do you think NSNI should do? I mean, I should say we did ask them for an interview. It said no. and it did apologize to anyone who hasn't received the service they expect, particularly at a time of bereavement. And it says it's working hard on a plan to assure those affected are paid what's owed and returning its current and new bereavement claims back to what the standard they should be. And it's recruiting additional staff Is it' hard to get the right people capable of doing these jobs I think in terms of getting the right people to process the claims that are coming in now, that shouldn't be a problem. that should be fairly standard But as someone who ran to the largest tracing companies in the UK, I can absolutely categorically say it takes months to train people to do that accurately. So the tracing of the old ones, but the new ones should be more straightforward. And just briefly, what should people do if they think they're affected by this or like Michael, they're struggling to get relatives money now. what should they do briefly? If they're in the middle of doing it, keep a record of every conversation, every email, and then make sure you're aware of the timeline so you can go to FOS if you need to. the Financial Obitment service if it takes too long Duncan Stehvens of Gretel, thanks. The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods markarket, no antibiotics ever burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribbeye. Grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department, and round it all out with three hundred sixty five brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices Whole Foods Market, Make your summer sizzle This message comes from Capital One Commercial Bank Your business requires commercial banking solutions that prioritize your long term success. withith capital onene. Get a full suite of financial products and services, tailored to meet your needs today and goals for tomorrow Learn more at capital. one slash commercial member FDC Oh. The cost of borrowing has been held steady by the Bank of England On Thursday, its monetary policy committee held bank rate at three point seven five percent. but one member, and this was the bank's own chief economist, broke ranks and voted for a rise to four percent. And even the majority decision to hold rates came with a warning that the financial markets did expect interest rates to rise later this year. And and I quote, higher inflation is unavoidable, it said, as a result of the war in the Middle East. Now this uncertainty, of course, creates a dilemma for people who are looking to remortgage or indeed buy a home Should they take a deal now fixing rates at today's quite high levels or hold out in the hope of a more settled global situation sometime in the future? Gareth owns a house with his partner in South London. He fixed his mortgage rate at five point one one percent for two years just on Monday, because he was worried rates might go up It's always a gamble, isn't it? You never know what's going to be happening. We've always done fixed rate mortgages I run my own business. My partner works freelance for us just knowing our outgoings per month There's always been a security blanket, even if it means those outgoings are going to be more. And possibly there might be more now that we fixed it early on in case things do creep up further than actually us just fixing it at this moment in time we thought was a wise decision to make I don't think I've ever been anyone or somebody that's been particularly great at playing this game. I've never done the variables. I've never in a way sort of been tracking things almost day to day month to month probably getting the better deals. I've always gone for long term security in a way of just knowing what my outgoings are going to be. So You know, if anything now does change, I'm not probably going to kick myself Well, listening to that is Sarah Tucker. She's director and indeed founder of independent mortgage brokers, The mortgage Mum Sarah Tucker, given those clear warnings from the bank on Thursday, didid Gareth do the right thing on Monday? Well, it really depends on people's attitude to risk, as I always say, because actually the tracker rates that follow the Bank of England rate are either up or indeed down. they are lower than the fixed rates and as Gareth mentioned, it's whether you really value certainty at a really uncertain time or whether you're happy to take a bit of a risk to get the lowest rate on the market. Yes, I mean, you mentioned risk and he said it is a gamble, you know fixing at the time of such great global uncertainty. I mean, more than we've seen for manyany years. What are your customers telling you about their fears? They are very concerned, and we've never had so many people want to kind of hedge their decisions on the market as opposed to their own personal situation, which is always a dangerous thing, especially right now because everything is so uncertain But I think generally, people are waiting and seeing. and we're trying to tell people out there who have a remortgage coming up that that isn't the right thing to do. You should be able to get your reenortgage assorted and you should be doing it a lot earlier than you would normally. because if indeed rates do continue to go up, there's a way to mitigate that by fixing your rate now and holding that until you actually complete in six months time. Yes, I mean the bank did warn that the markets people who deal in these things were warning that bank rate was going to go up to sort of over four percent in the next few months. So is the trend upwards in your view? O are you seeing some hints as it was? It's continuing to come down slightly mortgage rates So mortgage rates have come down recently to where they were. So the sharp increase that we see saw in swWap rates and mortgage rates, when the first sign of the global conflict in the Middle East happened, they have come down, which is good, and they've been coming down in April There are three scenarios really that the Bank of England are talking about and it all surrounds the global tension, which is why it's so uncertain. If the global tension eases soon, we may expect them not to increase base rate at all and interest rates and they may even start to lower them at the end of the year. But the worst case scenario was quite the opposite wasn't it That was pretty extreme if it continues. We've got higher inflation, higher interest rates And just briefly, Sarah, if you would, tell me what's your advice, people looking to remortgage in fifteen seconds, shouldh they wait and see or act like Gareth They should act like Gareth if your rate is coming up in six months or less and know that if rates do go the opposite way and start to come down again, you should make sure your advisor will switch your rate for you. Sarah Tucker from the mortgage mum Thanks very much indeed People in their fifties who were out of work when they were young are likely to still feel the consequences in poorer finances, jobs and even their physical and mental health These findings were from a long term study by University College London published this week. It's tracked eight thousand people across Britain since the nineteen seventies, and it gives a stark warning about the long term effects of youth unemployment. Dan Witth been looking at the report. Dan alarming results, especially now the number of young people out of work is so high. Oh, indeed, Paul, and researchers describe this impact of being out of work when people are young quote long term scarring for their future prospects. Dr. Allina Palik helped write the study thoseose who spend longer time being not in employment education and training between the ages sixty and twenty four They were more likely to be out of work when they were fifty one. So they were also more likely to report that they don't feel good about their financial situation. And also they were more likely to report They have health issues, both physical and they're more prone to psychological distress And Dan, Dr. Poiques study looked at people now in their fifties. Youth unemployment was high when they were young and others said, We have very high unemployment now among sixteen to twenty four year olds. So what warnings does this research give us for how we treat those young people now Well, I think if you draw out the conclusion, Paul, it means not being in employment, education or training, that's known as a neat Well it's not just a pro problem for now, but it can of course impact later in life too. and that's a serious concern when you look at the youth unemployment figures today. Now latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows youth unemployment is around fifteen percent. That is three times the rate of the national average. There are currently nine hundred fifty seven thousand sixteen to twenty four year old meets, that is the second highest figure in more than ten years. And what's being done to address this problem, Dan Well, the government recently launched a major youth employment drive and that's backed by one billion pounds, which aims to help create two hundred thousand jobs for young people alongside what the Department for Work and Pensions described as the quote biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade. It's not just national government that's taking action, Paul, are trying to help too. One of them called Sar, helps around twelve hundred people every year find work or training Well I went to meet one young person, Spears helped in Leeds. He's called John and has overcome some big challenges to turn his life around and get a full time job helping run a community cafe I've got own pizza, chicks and beans, got option of sandwiches and some mashed potatoes. One of the busiest parts of John's day is the lunchtime rush. We've got chicken gou js, stir fry, sald wraps, and the fish chips on Friday. He works at the Bridge Community Church Center, working full time helping run the cafe. It's open to the public, But that lunchtime rush is when around thirty students from a nearby special needs school Harlin. Do you enjoy your job? You look like you enjoy your job? job someome brillant colleagues customers, school shoots are brilliant got a great supportive system here. I love it. Table four teteen Like all the people, the Spear chararity helps, John had what it calls barriers to employment Often these are things like having few or no qualifications, perhaps a criminal record, having left care, or as in John's case, struggling with alcohol and drug addiction What I would feel someoneuse I in my childhood And then What I lost off the coffs and trusting people I left un I didn't have any things keeping going. Ied started drinking heav started doing drinks cooking things quite often. He heard about Speer through his social worker and after completing the course, got his foot in the door at this community cafe A Wide just just two hours a day, five days a week. and from I built on it got the full time role. I think even personal life, I've been able to achie a lot. I've started the gym, I've made los of new friends, I' got really healthy. It's given me ambition and something to get off every day. It makes me happy. I've got a purpose That' in life. I think it's been my future a lot more open without a doubt, Nice to have something to get up for and challenge you every day. coming out. Thank you It's safe to say it's really difficult for young people to get a job at the moment. It's really common for us to hear from young people that they've done hundreds of job applications without even getting any responses. Meghan Williams is the regional hub manager for SpI in the North of England. So we run a four to six week programe initially and this is our work readiness training time with them And everyone who completes that four to six weeks gets one year of follow up support We do all the classic things you'd expect an employment programe to do CVs, job application support, we partner with local national businesses to run a brilliant mock interview session, but we are primarily a coaching organisation, so we spend most of our time coaching you people around different mindsets In twenty twenty five, Spear calculates it saved the taxpayer thirteen million pounds benefits saved and taxes paid over a lifetime of the hundreds of young people which it supported into educational work So over the past two decades, we've worked with over twelve thousand young people and we're really proud to say that over seventy percent of those young people who complete SPR are still in work or education a year later and we're still in touch with over ninety percent of them in that time. It completely blows my mind every time I see the level of transformation that happens in such a short space of time So we start with young people who can't make eye contact, they cannot introduce themselves. They cannot enter a room without feeling extremely anxious. And at the end of that four to six weeks, they will stand on a stage, give a presentation about their life, their challenges and the transformation that's happened. and it's this approach that ultimately brings about transformation. Oscar's twenty four and is at the opposite end of John's journey in so much as he's just finished his initial course with Spear and' now hoping to get a job. It started from the job centre recommended me to kind of go into Sar and see what it's all about and then once I got in there, I got in touch with the work coaches