Student Loan Terms and Conclusion

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Products and technologies from our global brands, Norton, Lifeelock, Avast, and Money Lion See it in action at genendigital. com I wouldn't worry about the tax at the moment. I'd worry about the interest you're not earning enough. Listeners, this isn't good enough. There's a badge going. There's freebies. This is a podcast about saving money. I literally couldn't apart from it about cashback, I couldn't tell you anything you said at this qu. The whole point of having a credit score is to enable you to get the right form of credit Hello and welcome to the cunningly named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going be about. And this is our Question time episode where you, our extra savvy questioners ESQs get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything open brackets within Reason clloseed brackets. And this week, you ask me We're on benefits, so do we have to pay tax on savings interest Should I close my old credit card to boost my credit score Should we go for higher pay, lower pension or lower pay, higher pension? Then we have a success on how giving to charity pays And to finish, you asked me, what three consumer laws would I pass if I got the chance? I answered off the top of my head Let me know what you think and let me know what you do too Play the theme tune Welcome to this week's episode of our Question timee podcast. Yes, it's the one where you can ask me questions on anything and everything open brackets within reason closed brackets Now For those of you waiting for Professor Sir Dr Matthew Burnham Esquire, or even for PPS podcast producer Simon. Oh no That's not happening. Today, I have an existential question for you When is a mat? Not a mat I'm not sure I have an answer but today we do have Matt with us, just not our usual Matt. Today's Matt is Matt Lanceley and I probably need to reveal on that a secret about the BBC. It has a Matte cupboard where it keeps talented producers called Matt locked away until required. It's a little cramped space, not many perks, but some say there are so many matts because the BBC wants to walk all over them Yeah, we won't have that type of talk on this podcast. We don't walk all over Mats on this podcast, although he iss new, so I might give it a go. So may introduce new to this podcast, the one and the only Question timeim producer, Matt Lanceley. Hello Matt. Hello Martin, it's so good to be here. Yeah, you're right. The cupboard is a little bit cramped sometimes. we know about the facilities? What do they have in there? Well, I mean, obviously they have one computer to share between all the mats, but of course it's only the highest ranked mats to get to use it at first. So that'd be Matt Burnnam, wouldn't it? Yes, of course yeah. The listeners curtcy, I actually have the number three tattooed on my forehead. Oh So it goes Matt Berner, Matt Chwley Steemed Filild live presenter, and then me if I'm good. But you know, it's a massive treat to be here. Thanks ever so much for having me. I'm going to pretend I'm delight to have you, but've now I've heard that you're third ranked. I will be writing to editor Tom saying, you know, why am I down the pecking board or What the eararth is going on But I believe Matt Chulley' still stood outside number ten D down Street, I'm afraid. Okay fine. That's h.re Mat Chulley producing me either.'ll make it all polit political. We don't want any of that. Anyway, Matt it iss lovely to have you on board. Thank you so much for joining us. You're going to be the curator of questQions today. What do you have for me? What have you got first? Our first Equire this week is the lovely Elaine. Elaine says Dear Martin, we are a married couple in our fifties and our only income is ESA support group and carearers allowance, which I know are taxable income We have one hundred fifteen thousand pounds in savings and earn two thousand three hundred pounds in interest annually. So my question is, do we have to pay tax on our savings? Thank you very much, Ellaine Thank you for your question, Elaine. but if you forgive me, I think you're asking me the wrong question. The first thing I hear in your question is we have one hundred fifteen thousand pounds of savings and earn two thousand three hundred pounds in interest annually. That's just not enough interest. There are lots of savings accounts paying you over four percent, some at four and a half percent. That question should be, we have one hundred fifteen thousand pounds in savings and earn nearly five thousand pounds a year in interest annually. So the most important start point is that you should be in savings accounts that pay more. I'm going to talk more about that in a moment, but let me answer your core question first because it does impact the strategy whether you pay tax on the savings or not. Now you get employment and support allowance, which isn't a means tested benefit, although there are certain means tested elements of it You also get cararerot's allowance. My guess is your total income from that is somewhere in the region of two hundred, two hundred and twenty, two hundred and thirty pounds. I'm going to put it around that level whichich means annually you're earning somewhere around twelve thousand pounds a year Everyone is allowed to earn twelve thousand five hundred and seventy pounds a year from all earnings, including savings interest. So just on your ESA and carearers allowance alone, I suspect you're earning below the taxable amount. But for people who have low earnnt income, there is a special savings allowance. It's called the starting rate of savings. And what that says is you can earn an extra five thousand pounds from savings interest alone if you are a low earner So here's how it works. You've got up to twelve thousand five hundred and seventy pounds. Now for every pound of earnnt income you have above that, You lose a pound of that five thousand pounds allowance. It's really complicated to do in audio, but let me try. Imagine you had earned income of thirteen thousand five hundred and seventy pounds. That puts you one thousand pounds above the twelve thousand five hundred and seventy pounds allowance, which means your starting savings rate, the extra amount from the starting savings rate you can earn from interest on your savings tax free is four thousand pounds. If you earn a thousand pounds more from earned income It would drop to three thousand pounds. Plus, remember as a basic rate taxpayer, you get a thousand pounds of personal savings allowance that you can earn from interest tax free. So all in all, in your circumstances, I think depending exactly what your earnnt income is, you could probably have earned income plus savings interest totaling up to around eighteen thousand pounds and not pay any tax on it. And fromom what you've told me You're not close to that. And even if I boost your interest to five thousand pounds I still don't think you would be close to it and you could always put some in a cash icer where the interest is tax free anyway. So ono what I think is probably the more important part, what do you do? Unless your savings accounts are currently fixed, you're free to take money out and put them in a new savings account. So I'd probably be putting some into a cash icer just as rates are high. Top paying cash icer at the moment is trading two hundred two It's got a promo rate at the time of me recording this at four point six two percent. but that does vary. It's a cash iser. so you could put twenty thousand pounds in each So you could have forty thousand pounds that is never taxable. After that, for large amounts of money, easy access, you've got something like Chase, which pays four point five percent for new customers, assuming you're not a customer there already. Now the key thing with Chase is you have to open its bank account to get it, but its bank account you can just open without switching to and it doesn't do a hard credit check and you work it varin app. and it pays you four point five percent interest. afterfter a year, the rate will drop and you'll want to switch elsewhere, but you'll get the four point five percent And the rate it drops to is still better than what you're earning at the moment, to be honest. You've also, if you could lock money away for a guaranteed rate, there's a nice offer at the moment from Marcus, which is part of Goldman Sachs. It's another app based bank You simply go to Markcus and you can get a one year fixed savings account at four point six percent. That's only a smidge below the best buys But uniquely as a non cash Ia fixed rate savings account, it allows you to close the account early if you needed to withdraw money. You would pay an interest penalty, ninety days worth of interest for doing that, so it isn't something you should be putting money in if you think you're going to need the money But it's a great way to lock meoney away, get a guaranteed rate with the option if you really needed it of taking money out And there are just loads more accounts over four percent if you don't like the app based accounts. There are good information sources online. So my most important thing for you is I wouldn't worry about the tax at the moment. I'd worry about the interest. you're not earning enough. Elaine, I hope that helps you. I suspect life is quite difficult because I know that earning and support allowance is a benefit for people who have a disability or health condition that limits your ability to work So it's really important that you make those savings work best as they possibly can for you. So we're going to question two now. now Matt, the other Mat's format is at this point we have a caller. Are you following other Mat's format? Are you being your own Mat He's already left me several very threatening voicemails actually for not following his format quite strictly. So I apologize to all the Map for that. This week people were just very busy, I'm afraid, a little bit retant to get into touch. Where you offering them the badge I know about the ESQ. Did you know about the ESQ badge that they would get if they call in on the show? I'd heard Legend and tell of the ESQ badge no one bit this week, I'm afraid. Listeners. Listeners, this isn't good enough. There's a badge going. There's freebies. This is a podcast about saving money. There was a freebie available and some of you didn't take it Hang your heads in shame, people Hang your heads in shame. As for you, Matt, I think we need a voice or something. I think you have to put on a different voice and we can pretend it's a caller. Well, that is quite a challenge to lay at my doorstep, but I will just hear you go, Oh, please don't do this to me. I'm doing it though Matt. I'm sorry that's the nature of question. We put people under pressure, We make them feel a little bit awkward, not our callers, we make you feel nice, but this is about the producers. So Produce a mat What voice are you using I can do a half decent Australian. Let's do it. That wasn't it then, but I could might Is this a long or short question? It's a fairly long question, but I will give it a go. Give it a go. We'll get to a few sentences through If it's a nightmare, I'll let you off, otherwise we'll keep going all Challenge, except. Okay. Let's do this.id We just go for this? I will. Don't you wor mean, I'm not being mean. No, no, I'm going to look very capable at the end of this, don't you?,. So this question comes in from Allison, just to get that out of the way before this descends into mad Dear Rosie, Mitt and Martin. And they addressed it to Matt. It was another Matt but' keep going I like it go on. Yes, and there's a note from Rosie saying that's the correct way to address emails. So we'll bear that in mind going forward. I'm looking for I'm looking for some advice regarding cashbeck reward credit cards and how changing them affixs your credit score I'm going throw in a night there. I currently have a cashback credit card that I've held for at least five years In the first year, it offered a very good cashback percentage, but over time over time, I'm gonna have to startop because just using a cash backack. Ges Vick Try saying vanilla air freshening in Australian acc. Completely I literally could havepart from it about Cashback. I couldn't tell you anything you said at this point. I just completely lost focus. Cishbick. Oh nice. Would you like me to? I don't know what one. I think I think I need to do my job. I think I think you need to go back and read your normal voice because I've lost it. Okay. I'm very sorry that my accent was so good that it literally disrupted thep. Hishpk Let's go over to. know Rosy is also in hysterics. For regularss, as you'll know, Rosie is the guardian of all of the fact she's hear but never heard and Ros is also tears in her eyes a bit like me. Okay came back. Why don't we start again Understood. And would you like my traditional just you non specific English terms. Okay, Kishbek. Right No, stop A Dear Rosie, Matt and Martin. Good. I'm looking for some advice regarding cashback reward credit cards and how changing them affects your credit score. Got it. I currently have a cashback credit card that I've held for at least five years In the first year, it offered a very good cashback percentage, but over time, the rewards have dropped to almost nothing Because of that, I'm considering opening a new cashback card elsewhere to take advantage of better introductory offers. However, I've heard that closing old credit card accounts can negatively affect your credit score and your history with lenders. I'm also concerned that opening a new cashback card every year and then closing old ones might make me look risky to lenders, even though I always pay my balance off in full every year In f and never carry debt What would generally be the best approach in this situation and then have given you sort of multiple choice. Okay That's like a mastermind Is it better too Keep the old card open and apply for a new one Close the old card after opening a new one or avoid switching cards too often I'd really appreciate any guidance on how to balance getting better cash bug rewards while still maintaining a strong credit profile, many thanks, Allison Thank you so much for your question, Allison. As I always say, credit scoring is more art than science. So there is no hard answer behind this And in a way I would mainly say I wouldn't get too hung up about it This isn't going to have in the long run, a huge effect There might be a short term dip in the credit score your credit reference agencies give you. Remember, they are just a loose indication of how that credit reference sees you as a typical customer, but each firm scores you when you actually apply, scores you differently based on its own wish list what it wants Now this one is really interesting because there are lots of different factors at play here Firms tend to like evidence of longevity So when you're closing and when you're switching, that is miningly negative But then When they assess you, two of the big factors that they look at when their're credit scoring is your debt ratio, your unsecured debt percentage of annual income? Well, that's unaffected by you having these credit cards. It doesn't change. You're not talking about borrowing more, you're just talking about using a different credit card for doing so. But more interestingly is your credit utilization Which is the percentage of available credit used. Now, you could argue that by keeping an extra card open and increasing the amount of credit you use, if you're not spending anymore, your debt as a proportion of the credit that you have is actually reduced. So there is an argument that having more credit would benefit you. But credit utilization only tends to really be an issue if you've got a high debt ratio, if you've got using a high proportion of your annual income as onsecuure debt, which by the sound of it, if you're talking cashback credit cards doesn't really matter. My main reason for keeping a card open would be if they ever gave you existing customer card offers. If not, my preferred way of doing this if you don't need the credit, I would keep it tidy and get rid of old unused credit cards. While you may take a short term credit hit, it's only going to be minor do it just before you're about to make a big application. like if you're about to get a mortgage, you're about to do something. it's probably even important I go there. I'm just going to change tax slightly before I finish that I tend to think of your credit score. Again, it doesn't actually exist as a concept, but building up your credit worth enough is you like bit like savings. you're saving it up. for when you need it And what I always find quite amusing, not in a funny way, but in sort of it's a strange way of thinking People get so worried about lowering their credit score that they don't do anything Well, the whole point of having a credit score is to enable you to get the right form of credit. It's to enable you to get a cheaper mortgage, It's to enable you to get a cheaper balance transfer. It's to enable you to get a good and high paying cashback credit card So the idea that you would not get a good and high paying cashback credit card to protect your credit score is a false logic You protect your credit scores so you can get a good high paying cashback credit card. There is a hierarchy of usage here, mortgage most important, clearing off expensive debt, second most important. But by the sound of that, not many of those other things apply. What you really want to do is do what's right for you first. You've got that credit score, utilize it on the thing that will give you the most improvement, which is in this case, unless there's elements you haven't told me, which would change circumstances, in this case is getting your cash backack credit card. As for closing the old card, I would probably do it. If you're doing this once a year, it might have a short term hit on the score that you see, but it shouldn't really be a case of is going to last a long time and give you a real detriment in a way that would stopping you getting any big important products. Just be careful, you're having you're not doing lots of different transactions, lots of different applications in too short a space of time. People worry way too much about small moves in their credit scores from the credit reference agencies. So many people get in touch with me and say, it's dropped three or four points And it's like who cares? Three or four points is nothing. If it drops two hundred, something systemic is going wrong. If it drops three or four, it's likely just how that particular credit reference agency is scoring based on something very, very minor. Don't sweat the small moves. So I think you're fine to go and get your Kishbeck card Whenever you want Oh no. I've got threatening voicemails from Producer. I'm now banned from the entire nation of Australia. Yeah, that's f good. I don't think producer Well actually Professor Sir Dr. Matthew Burnnam Misquire is the type of person who would think he has the power toan you from Australia I I could hear him saying that. I could hear him doing it. Oh no. okay, right Moving on and muting my emails. Okay, so I think we're all callers. have do we even have later do we have a voicemail, perhaps? Yes, we do. We have a voiceme standing by. Okay so good, so we're going to hear someone's voice other than me, producer Matt, an Australian producer Matt at some point in this podcast. That's good dear. What's your next question for me, Matt Well, we're going to do something a bit different now. We're going to go to one of our success stories that we get sent sometimes. Always great to hear. This one's from Sarah in Scotland. Not going to do an accident, don't we I'm slightly disappointed. I'mightly I'm just looking at Rosie, Rosie, do do I try and push Mat to in a Scottish accent or do I leave it? Rose is giving me a slightly asant look, she thinks we might offend some of our Scottish listeners And therefore, I think I've been told we can't do it. My Scottish accent's far worse than my Australian. that should tell everything you need to know. Okay. That's fine. So here's our success story then sent to was by Sarah in Scotland. Hi, Martin. I haveve been a higher rate taxpayer for a couple of years now and give regularly to a number of charities using gift aid. Following your advice, I wrote a letter to HMRC. I was over the amount of giving which can be claimed online and asked for my tax code to be changed, listing all my gift aid giving. They have now changed my tax code and have sent me a one thousand seven hundred ninety pound rebate It is especially useful living in Scotland as you become a higher rate taxpayer at a much lower income threshold. Thanks so much, Sarah in Scotland. Absolutely a pleasure, Sarah and thank you so much to giving to whatever charities you chose to give to The people will know giftaid, if you're a UK taxpayer, you are allowed gift aid box when you donate to a charity and the charity automatically gets twenty percent tax that you paid back Now because of reciprocals, so if you donate eighty pounds, it gets twenty pounds and twenty pounds on eighty is twenty five percent. so the charity gets twenty five percent on top, which is a needlessly complicated explanation I've just given you, so we ignore that if you didn't get it The point is, if you're a higher rate taxpayer or top rate taxpayer or in one of the different bands that are in Scotland, you are entitled to get back any excess tax you paid above the twenty percent. So if we take the very simple example of somebody in England who is a higher forty percent rate taxpayer, if you get paid one hundred pounds You take home sixty, will'll ignore national insurance. The charity can claim twenty pounds So that puts you up to eighty. There's another twenty quid there And if you fit in your gift aate in your self assessment tax return, or you get in touch with HMRC if you're not doing a self assessment tax return claim that extra tax back. Now of course, you could also then donate some of that to a charity too and claim extra gift aid back on the top of it if it all fits. But yes, we've done this before, talked about it in the pod before. It's amazing how many people who are higher rate taxpayers who don't realize that when they do gift aid, there's a little bit of extra money that's yours and you could even just make a bigger donation to charity knowing it's coming back to you and you should claim it Thank you so much, Sarah for getting in touch That's really appreciated Now we're going into our last question of the day, I presume. Is this the voice note or is that the funny The voice note is the funny. The voice not is awaiting you in the And we're in the near future. All right, Matt, we're not going to do any accents. We're just going to keep this totally straight. Let's get into it. So this one comes in from Paul Hi, Martin and the presenter, brackets Matt. I mean pull It's all very well to butter up Matt Burnham. Matt here of course is not jumping above his station but Matt Burnham certainly is with that Find a butroom map But you still want me to answer your questions. I think you need to be a little bit more careful. I mean, I could say scrap this question, let's go to a new one. If I said that Matt, would you allow it? Absolutely not. We've got Paul's question in front of us. We We need to get him his answers, Mart spoil sport carry on me I'm asking on behalf of my girlfriend. She currently works for an employer and earns around twenty eight thousand pounds a year with an employer pension contribution of twenty eight percent She's been offered a new job that pays thirty four thousand pounds, but the new employee's pension contribution is only six point five percent. Yeah, I'm just filtering that a pension contribution twenty eight percent. That is absolutely huge. I'm guessing it might be a final salary type contribution at that type of level. But carry on She is forty seven and has been employed with the twenty eight percent pension contribution compomany for twenty five years. Would she be better off for her pension earnings into her pot by moving job or staying where she is for the bestment of her current employer's contributions? She would not be able to increase her contributions to make the difference with her new employer This is all assuming she works till retirement age, An advice would be immensely appreciated, Paul Love your work and genuinely think you should be nominated for a knighthood Personal opinion, but I'm sure many agree. Oh Thank you very kindly for that, Paul. So let me just do some numbers off the top of my head. The first job is twenty eight thousand pounds but with a twenty six percent or twenty eight percent contribution. so that's around an eight thousand pounds extra pension so puts you at around thirty six grand. Second job would pay you thirty four thousand with a pension of around two thousand so that's also thirty six grand So the total Rumeration package is pretty similar on both. I have to be honest, I don't quite understand The line was what was it Matt? wasas it She wouldn't be able to, what's that line? Paul says she would not be able to increase her contributions to make up the difference with her new employer I don't understand why not, I need to be honest eararning six thousand pounds more, the difference between the pensions on my back of the envelope calculation is just under six thousand pounds. you could easily put the entire six thousand pound pay rise into your pension and you'd have exactly the same cash flow on the second job as the first job and the same pension. So because the total amounts are the same, and remember, your pension contribution comes from pre tax income So it's not a question that you're thinking well, I'd only actually get in my paypack at this amount. It's coming from pret tax income if you're doing it the right way. So I don't understand why not. For me, this is very close. What I need to be careful of is that we're comparing like for like So there are two main types of pensions, defined contribution and defined benefit. better known as money purchase and salary schemes. Money purchase is where you build up a big pot of money, hopefully if you're lucky and you use that for your pension provision. Final or average salary schemes are where each year you earn Let's say you earn a third of a year's salary in pension contributions and what deb you get at the end is a percentage of your final or your average salary. If it's those two schemes, then it really is difficult to compare and you would need to get a projection on your current scheme, which is likely to be the final salary scheme if you stayed until retirement versus leaving now, and you should be able to ask them for that. But if I assume they're both money purchase schemes, I think they're pretty much of a much ness based on what you've told me. I may be missing something This is only back at the envelope. And ultimately then I think this is far more about which job is better for you. Which job would make you more happy? whichich job would give you the better lifestyle? Which job has better career progression? Does one of these jobs offer a higher salary if you stay in it for five years and you progress than the other one I think all of those factors are just as important at looking at the just taking a snapshot of the income on the day that you move and the pension on the day that you move. Forgive me for not being able to answer It's far more complicated if maybe's civil, I don't know if you's a civil servant. It's civilvant pension currently becausecause that's the sort of twenty eight percent contribution. And it's very that's a gold plated type pension depending on the scheme that you're in But if it's not, then it's much of a much less. Sorry for going around there but hopefully's some interesting thoughts in the discussion for you anyway So we've had a f questions In the format, this is now the funny or less a funny more in acance different and non practical money saving question And yes, for the funny this week, Martin, we've got a voice note for you Him Martin, and Matt number two As you know, MPs have the chance to introduce private members bills If one came to you and said, what three new rights Would you like to add? or indeed, what would you like to take away for an old badlw What would your thoughts be? loveove the show and look forward to your ideas. Thank you Martin, I'm going to be strict. I know you've got ideas far above your station, but I'm going keep this I'm going to keep this to consumer rights only, please. Come to does onene podcast tell me I've got ideas above your station? I can't believe it. Okay, so let's have a think three. Now as always, like most people, things I'm currently working on tend to come to mind most pressingly. I put out a statement just before the King's speech. on something I work on with my money and Mental Health Policy Institute chararity, which is that I's very disappointed this year that we're not getting independent regulation of bailifts. So many people in the country who have bail lifts knocking on their door have mental health problems. I get far too many cases of Distress, upset bullying, bad treatment coming from bailififfs. That is not to say all bailifftss are bad, but it is to say that there are too many cases of bad behavior from bailiffs. I simply think for an industry that is doing what it's doing, coming into people's homes and taking their stuff, and so many of those people are vulnerable people do not think you can rely on self regulation in that sector And I think it's absolutely outrageous that yet again no government is putting in to have a proper independent regulator of bailiffts. So that would be my first one. Second one on consumer rights, you say Yeah look very simple. Consumer rights only. Going back to when they brought in the Consumer Rights Act I gave evidence to that parliamentary committee for the Bills committee, I think it's called. And one of the things I said at the time was because they basically wanted to say Don't you like all these new rights and these stronger consumer rights that we're putting in? And I did I was in favor of it But I said the biggest problem is The only way to enforce these rights is to go to court And if you've got a faulty kettle or a faulty toaster Going to court is really difficult is off putting. So people have these rights but they can't enforce these rights if you have a dispute with a company. So I would probably put in a bill For a low end ombudsman alternative dispute resolution type, I mean frankly, with the growth of AI, we could even have AI doing it. It may not give perfect adjudications, but at least it would give people a chance of having a cheap and easy and quick and hopefully free adjudication where if they're having a consumer rights dispute, they can go to some form of independent third party go to them get a proper resolution that is binding on the companies involved if there's a disagreement. And I think that would be very useful strictly on your consumer rights area that you gave me. And the third one and yeah, I mean this is one I've been calling for for at least a decade. I'm going to count this as consumer rights. You may not, but hey, it's my podcast all right. Student fininance Student finance has been a political football for a very long time And one of the great problems is the terms at which people get their student loans are not locked down. So what I would like to see is a statute that locks in the terms when you get them. There is some flexibility here could say certain terms are fixed and certain terms are variable. So let's take an example, you know If you are repaying nine percent of what you earn above a repayment threshold that goes up with inflation for thirty years, I would say the nine percent is probably fixed, the thirty years is probably fixed, and the repayment threshold is probably variable within certain constraints. And that should be enshrined in law so that when young people aged eighteen are signing up for a contract that with the current planlan five student loans is a forty year contract for many of them and they're doing it at eighteen when they don't understand the financial system. They should have at least some transparent, rigid understanding of what this is actually going to mean Without allowing secondary legislation, that's delegated legislation, i. e, those that don't have to pass a vote in Parliament, to be able to change it at the whim of a future government. So I would like to see the terms locked in at the point that you get them out. My entire campaign about the current Chancellor freezing the repayment threshold. If it had been announced, I mean, I don't want it to happen. But if students had been told when they signed up the repayment threshold is variable and it can be changed and it can be frozen, then While I wouldn't like it, I wouldn't feel it's the moral breach that I think it is right now, which is a retrospective breach of contract. So I would like to say my third rule is I'd like to see student loan terms locked in by statute with the knowledge of what is fixed and what is variable. There're such long terms, there's such a misbalance of power between the state and the people who take out the loans that it should not just be left up to the whim of ministers. And of course, As I always say Parliament is omnip competent. If it is locked into statute, And if a government really wanted to change the rules, then it could take a vote to Parliament and it could change them in future. And I think it needs to be that level of materiality, that level of force that should be in place before they can change it. I got quite serious then, didn't I? Not really the funny, but I do think it's an important point. Noope, notothing wrong with getting serious at the end. I'm just glad you didn't go down the route Daining that every Thursday going forward is now Martin dayay or something like that Only on five live. O only On on five live or for people who are listening to the podcast on these days. Andatt, I think we managed to Well, done, I think we managed to navigate quite well you being another map rather than the normal mat, even though people are writing to our map rather than you but you're very kindly stood in It's no problem at all. I'm very used to it. I frequently work on Matt Chley's show on Five Live, working for an editor called Matt, and then I'm called Matt. So frequently people get my attention by just throwing things at me There really is a Matt cupboard at the BBC You heard it here first. Matt, thank you very much. It's been wonderful to have you. How have you enjoyed your first experience of doingQestion time? My small taste of power has been fantastic. Thanks so much for having me. I'm going to go and reply to all those angry voiceemails from Australians and main producer Matt. O, than you very much to today's curator ofQuions, Matt Lanceley, everybody Thank you so much. All right. All right, that's enough That's too much You know, I'm not the other m, don't you? Yep Thank you Thank you so much.