Success stories and listener financial wins

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK I cashed out my entire four hundred one K thinking someone stole my identity. A fake email cost me my dream home after I sent my personal information to a scammer. My AI agent wired thousands to an account I'd never seen. If billions of people feel unsafe, that's no longer a security problem. It's an economic one. At Gen, we're building the trust layer for a more fearless planet with products and technologies from our global brands, Norton, Lifeelock, Avast and Money Lion See it in action at genendigital. com When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant You keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns With Granger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts, and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place, so nothing gets in the way of getting the job done Call one eight hundred Ganger, click ranger. com or just stop by Ranger for the ones who get it done We need you. We need you to be part of our team. State, I am eligible for child benefit, but I want to be paid nothing because that can help her earn national insurance credits. And I just wanted to get some clarification, but also some advice. G Martin Lewis, please open his brackets if he's going to close them. Ben in Burry with a badge at some point in the future. Hello and welcome to the Cunningly named the M in Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. I don't really I know This is our Question Tim episode where you are asquiire's extremely savvy questioners get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything open brackets within reason, closed brackets. And this week, you ask me If I claim marriage tax allowance, will I have to do a tax return? Will the Chancellor's new ICer rules ruin my marriage savings If you don't have any national insurance contribution years, do you still get a state pension? My dad's on a prepayment meter. Is there anything he can do to cut the rate? And we finish with a success. Yes, you help my finances and you help me find love. It's worth a listen on that one Play the theme tune Hello and welcome to this episode of the Question Time podcast. Yes is where you get to ask me a question on anything and everything open brackets within reason close brackets and joining me for the Question time podcast is the one the only Professor, Dror Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire, the curator of questions himself. Adam applause when you edit it, Matt. Hello, M. Hello How are you? Yeah, I'm all right. I' got the doctor in the right place this week. You got the doctor. You didn't put the Lord in though ' a one off bring you back. Right? I don't think you've earnt Lord yet. Okay, not yet One day And it's interesting because we have to be We have to be very on this podcast I'm delighted to hear that we are becoming the pedants podcast of choice. And I say this in a nice way. The pedantry we get is good, positive, encouraging, joining the club pedantry. But I even got it from my daughter. Who noted Yeah, who noted last week I had apparently gone had The podcast where you can ask me anything and everything within reason close brackets. You didn't open your. hadt open my brackets. And she noticed that. She noticed and she wanted to point out to me that I couldn't close a bracket because I hadn't opened a bracket And then she did ask it. Which I thought was very nice because she's wonderful. She said, is it a problem, Daddy As like it's not.'s not People are not gonna to mind that I didn't open my brackets. I haven't seen actually, I haven't looked in the emails yet to see if anyone's compingone else noted noted my lack of bracket br. Martin Lewis, please close open his brackets if he's going to close them. That's what they'll say. What is he closing the bracket to? Does the close bracket apply all the way back until the previous opening brackets on two podcasts ago? Yeahes. so that the entire two podcasts content is within a bracket. Oh, but it's very nice that she's listened to the podcast. She loves the podcast. listens to the Quion time podcast every week. It's really great. What I love is it's prompting m because I want I want her to understand, I don't want her to follow in my footsteps, but I want her to understand how money works because obviously when people meet her, they say to her, Oh, you must know everything about ISIS and things like that. You can imagine the pressure. And she's thirteen. and she does have a pretty good knowledge. but actually, since she started listening toQion time I'm getting a lot more money questions about what does this mean and how does this work on the back of her listening to questuestion time So it's absolutely wonderful for me alongside the other thing that I'm trying to do with at the moment, and which is to explain the difference between the executive of the legislature and the judiciary which I really wanted to understand how separation of powers works. I'm like an old mini Monteski for anyone who knows that reference. We should probably move on at that point, although I do need to say something else. Oh go on. Totally separate point Sebastian and Authority of Fact checking, Rosie, is not here this week. No JDPR No GDPR, but the wonderful Claair is sitting here in Rosie's place and I'm debating notot made my mind up yet. Rosie never speaks Do we let Claire speak? It's not stopping Rosy speaking, it's sort of just become a thing. It's a thing now she doesn't speak, but Is it that all of your fact checkers don't speak and they are just their silent wisdom? We don't know shall we play it by air and see how we feel as we go a pod? Yeah,hould we do a question? Clarire is smiling at that by way. Okay Claire's giv me a smile at that. Okay. Let's with a question, ye. Okay. One from Darren who has to start with a question. I think we should do questions throughout this questQion dime podcast. Okay, Maybe we willll start We could questions. Okay, yes, good. Okay. Darren's emailed this in, Martin and Liz podcast at bbc dot co dot Uk. He says, de, Martin Simon, Matt, Matt and Rosie. And Claire. and Clairel We're adding Claire. It's the whole family I am a high rate taxpayer We have two children, aged fifteen and thirteen. For the last thirteen years, my wife has been the full time carer for our severely disabled youngest son My wife claims carer's allowance and we claim disability living allowance on behalf of our son. We do not claim child benefit If we were to claim the married person's tax benefit, would I or my wife, be required to complete an annual tax self assessment I'm quite worried about having to start doing this as I'm notoriously bad at this type of admin and would be worried that I might fail to submit a return one year and receive a fine, especially as our son's care needs are high, and we don't really get much free time to fill out taxing tax returns. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your question, Darren, Yeah, really interesting Let me deal with the second issue first, the marriage tax allowance and then we'll come on to the child benefit and I'm afraid it isn't going to be an issue for you. You cannot claim marriage tax allowance. The marriage tax allowance. is for non taxpayers, which is your wife married to a basic rate taxpayer, which isn't you You're a higher rate taxpayer If you go over the high rate tax threshold even by a pound, you can no longer do the marriage tax allowance which is why it'd be worth increasing your pension by a pound in that situation so that you were no longer a high rate taxpayer and then you would still be able to claim the marriage tax allowance. What the marriage tax allowance does is it allows a non taxpayer to apply to have ten percent of their personal allowance, the amount that they can earn tax free each year, to be shifted to the basic rate taxpayer So that basic rate taxpayer then has another twelve hundred and fifty quid roughly that they can earn ax free rather than paying twenty percent tax on it. So the typical saving is around two hundred and fifty quid a year and you can back claim it But you can't do it because you're a high rate taxpayer So You were asking about the self assessment, wouldould it make it more difficult?? I'm not sure whether my answer is better or worse for you. You're not going to have a self assessment problem because you can't claim the marriageax allowance, I'm afraid. But it may be useful for many other people out there. So if you are listening and you are in a relationship where one of you is a non taxpayer and it Non taxpay just means you don't pay income tax. you don't earn enough to earn to pay income tax in the year. I don't care if you're a volunteer, I don't care if you work, I don't care if you don't work, I don't care any of those circumstances that peopleople always ask me questions, what if, what if If you don't pay income tax in the tax year, you're a non taxpayer And if you pay twenty percent income tax, you're a basic rate taxpayer And if you two are married or in a civil partnership, not just cohabiting, then you are entitled to use the marriage tax allowance go and do a little bit of reading on it because if you've been entitled to it for four years previously as well, it can be worth one thousand two hundred fifty quid for you when you get a backdated payout O a thousand pounds as part of that Now the second bit, I'm trying to work out why you don't claim child benefits Now my assumption is that it's because you're a higher rate taxpayer And the way that child benefit works is you've got the high income child benefit charge that starts to ively take away child benefit once The highest earner is earning sixty thousand pounds until the highest earner earns eighty thousand pounds where you don't get any child benefit at all My assumption is you know that but I just want to check because it used to be fifty thousand pounds where it started to be taken away and sixty thousand pounds where you didn't get it. That changed a couple of years ago If you earn over eighty thousand pounds You're right, you don't want the child you don't want child benefit because you're just paid back in tax and that's a hassle although I would still suggest But your wife registers for child benefit at the zero rate. So you say I am eligible for child benefit, but I don't I want to be paid nothing. because that can help her earn national insurance credits as childcare. And that is the trigger for earning National Insurance creditits of childildcare is claiming child benefit. She may already have that, but that's just worth checking into. If you're earning less than eighty thousand pounds then you do want to pay, then you do want to get child benefit because there's still a net benefit for you And it doesn't always mean you will get the have to do self assessment now because I believe this year they brought in a simplified form I will double check that and if I'm wrong, I will add in an edit later in the podcast. And if I don't edit it, you listening will know I'm right and you don't need to do self assessment tax on it So I'm afraid we've given you one answer in the negative, but maybe there's a chance that you're missing out on child benefit because your earnings are under eighty thousand pounds. And again, it's the highest earner if you're in a couple, it's the highest earner's earnings. And if you're thinking, isn't that a bit unfair? Yes It's very unfair It is the ridiculous scenario. that if you have two neighbourors and one of them earns eighty thousand pounds and their partner earns twenty thousand pounds, they don't get it But if the two people Living next door both earn seventy thousand pounds so have a much higher total income, they are entitled to some child benefit. It is a ridiculous system that is very unfair for Dominant Turner single earner and single parent households And it's one I have campaigned on it works similar for the tax free childcare allowance too. But you know what? I don't win all the campaign I do. When does the higher rate kick in High rate tax kicks in at fifty thousand The child benefit cuto offff through the high income child benefit starts at sixty thousand and is fully gone by eighty thousandars. So they're all different thresholds So Matt, I mean, after last week when I said Evs would be a caller and you disappointed me on one of them, we're going into our second question It's Evens. Is it a caller? What do you think . It's a caller. It's Katie and Petbur Hi Katie. Hi Katie. Hello Hello. Hello. What can we do for you? Yeah, so I'm an avid listener of the podcast. And I was recently looking like K I'm going to do this now So you know who Rosie is If you have a listener. So Rosie never speaks But this week Rosie's away and Claire, wonderfully from my team, is filling in for Rosie. So I've decided to subvert the whole podcast format. Claire, say hello There you go. Rosie never speaks but Claire does. They are' so mean. Oh Rosie. And Rosie doesn't mind. but I hope she doesn't mind I don't think Rose'll mind. Right? Sorry, Katie. Let's get on with your question No that's fine. Well yeah, so I was listening to one of your most recent podcasts about the new ISRuls and the changes coming in from April next year And I just wanted to get some clarification from you but also some advice about what I would like to doort when it comes to my ISS So me and my partner, we've been together for a very long time. We've just had our second baby, what say J just, she's ten months old now. Well, congratulations anyway That' the first opportunity I've had to say congratulations, so even though it's ten months I'm saying. That's fine. And We have a house and a dog And essentially the next event on our horizon is a wedding U We're not engaged yet, but the forever financially savvy bone in my body says to doesn't matter and you know I want to prepare myself financially for this. so I'm going to start saving and investing money now for something in the future. Listen, I think that's great. Whatever the cause, whatever the motivation that you put in, if you want to demarch Demark this as wedding savings? That's great. It might end up being savings for something else. you never know Y. saaving and investing and protect yourself is always a good idea. So I mean, and hey, sounds like you've got two kids, you' got a dog, you've got a house. sounds like you're a pretty estabished couple. This It's not It's not You've been on three dates two weeks ago and you think he's kind of cute. you know You're a little bit further along the path than that one. I think it sound sounds good to me. U So yeah, so I've been investing for a while in my stocks and shares, Iir. I'm not a beginner investor and the sort of timeline by sort of having my head is sort of within the next sort of five years or so and So I'm quite comfortable with that sort of level of risk. My plan was once I sort of hit the goal that I have in mind In my stocks and shares ISA, I was planning to sell shares and assets and then transfer that money from my stocks and shares ISA. into my cash icer just to protect the money once I've hit that goal from any sudden drops in value just as I'm about to spend it. D risk, the classic you're moving it into a d risk point once you want to crystallize the assets and spend the assets yet. ah U but I'd like your clarification on, you know, these new IOles Am I still able to do that? No. Yeah yeah, if I can't do that, what do you think I should do once I've get my goal. so Let's just go into this. So this is about the fact And this is all on the back of from next year, under sixty five s will have a reduced cash ISA allowance. Currently everybody can put twenty thousand pounds a taxare into an IC or an individual savings account, whether it's in stocks and shares or whether it's in cash, and then it's tax free From next year, the maximum you are able to put in the cash bit is twelve thousand pounds. You could still continue to put another eight thousand pounds into stocks and shares and what was announced last week is effectively the government's idea at anti avoidance measures because what they didn't want people doing is saying, well, I can only put twelve thousand pounds in a cash icer, but I can put twenty thousand pounds in the shares icer. And I can hold cash in a shares Ier, in a savings element in a shares Ier. so I could just use my shares E as a cash er and put all the money in there But the main anti avoidance measures they've come up with, there are two The first is From next April, you will not be allowed if you're under sixty five to transfer money from a shares Ier to a cash Ier You will be allowed to transfer from a cash isicer to a shares iser The second rule is that if you hold cash, in a shares er cash or that savings earns interest Th that interest will be taxed at twenty two percent S. From your perspective, you have one choice. Now I presume that your de risk period is potentially You're talking two three, four years away, it's not before next April Yes, yeah. So I mean, obviously the one route would be if it was before next April, well you've still got until next April to be able to d risk get the money out and move it into a cash er. And it's worth you thinking Is there any amount of that money you would want to do this with now if you're going to be doing it pretty soon afterwards anyway, but if you're going to be doing it another year or two away you don't want to your other option within that I mean, it is quite simply D risk I mean, you could argue you could put it in money management funds, but they are slightly more volatile than put it into cash savings. within a shhaaz ISA orr you simply just say These are the rules, I'll de risk I'll leave it in cash in my shares ISA and I will pay the twenty two percent tax because you don't want to lose the Ier allowance in case you wanted to invest it again My question would what rate taxpayer are you? Well, this also complicates it. at the minute, I'm a twenty percent taxpayer. the time I would sort of start to deerisk myself, I probably will be a higher rate taxay payer just because of the frozen thresholds, basically. Yeah. Yeah you're being fiscally dragged into the higher rate tax threshold. Do use your personal savings allowance You know, the thousand pounds of interest that you can make each year outside of ISIS Not No no So that that should be that should. It's a shame. I was hoping youd say yes, because then I that could make the answer slightly happier As you say no, and you've got that unused. I mean, look, one thing you could simply do Depending on how much money you're taking out, is you could just take the money out and accept you take it out and If you're a basic rate taxpay, can use you can make a thousand pounds of interest a year tax free anyway outside of V an ISA. If you're buying then a high rate taxpay, it's only five hundred pounds of interest a year, but it's worth noting if you're just above the threshold of high rate tax It may be worth in this circumstance, doing a slight increase in your pension contribution put you below the threshold. So Let's say, you know, you were five hundred quid above the threshold in earnings, then put five hundred quQid in your pension because if you're below the threshold, you can then make a thousand pounds of interest as a basic rate taxpayer rather than five hundred pounds of interest as a high rate taxpay. Do you see what I mean? Yes I'm sorry. Oh You've got a little one in the background, I can hear okay. Did you get that? out down Yeah yeah got it. yeah. You got it. So it may be worth doing that. So look, one option would be when you get to that point is take if you're not going to be if you're going to be spending it then there there's no problem you taking it out of your eice or it's slightly frustrating, but there's no problem. And you may as well take it out and utilize both your personal savings allowance and if you have a cash iser allowance that year that you haven't utilized with the money For the rest of it, if you are a higher rate taxpayer then the tax that you wouldd pay if you took it out outside a personal savings allowance would be forty percent And it's twenty two percent that you're being charged inside the IS, so it's still slightly cheaper than taking it out But the honest thing is it's just really it will be really frustrating I understand the government have done this as an anti avoidance measure I think it has some real unintended consequences. You are a classic example of one of them It is preventing you from disking when you want to. I also think it's difficult for people who want to drip feed money into the market, that it makes it more tough that they can't put the payment in when they've got it. It has to be a much more complicated way of doing it. And we will wait and see what the net impact of that on a population level is once it comes into place next April. Yeah, because obviously I mean, I have a specific event in mind, but I also sort of was thinking about early retirement and you know, will'll also sort of and using my ISS to sort of bridge that gap before being able to get my Personal workplace pension and I mean, I know that's a long time I that would be a long time in the future, but I mean, if anybody was thinking about it now as well, you know In a way, if you're taking money out, it's not as bad because you're taking out and you're going spend it Right. So that's not the issue is holding cash in there is the real problem Now there are and it's outside of my expertise, there are money market funds and there are other much lower risk funds. So there's an argument that says Depending on when you're de risking, you could still de risk in a sh a stocks and shares type environment by using money market funds, actually, I tell you the one thing and I should have said it earlier shhort dated guilt. You know what they are? I know what guilt is, but a short dated one I'm not so familiar with Okay So a guilt for those who don't know is effectively a loan to the UK government and it's done that you buy your guilt, you're loaning the government money and it will pay you both income in the forms of a dividend, which is taxable as income like savings. and it will pay you An amount normally at the end, which should be more than you paid. so you might pay ninety eight p and you get a pound back at maturity Now if you buy a long dated gilt the value of the guilt will go up and down with interest rates and the same will happen with a short dated Gilt, but What short dated means is literally the maturity date is not a long way away So you could buy a short dated guilt for six months And in six months time, you know exactly what the government will pay you. So if it costs you ninety eight p or ninety nine p, it will pay you a pound and you might get a little bit of interest too. Normally, the reason people choose short dated guilts outside of an ICA is the capital gain you make. So the increase from the ninety eight p to the pound It is Tax free So It can be very it doesn't apply to capital gains tax. It's exempt from capital gain tax. So the amount that you can get if the gain is where you're making it most can be very effective for people who hire or top rate taxpayers and can actually net in it better than the savings account Now you're within an IS so that wouldn't matter anyway but you may find You know, let's say, if you're d risking from shares Eight months before you need the money, you might be able to find a short dated guilt which gives you an exact return as long as you hold it for the full eight months until it matures You may be able to find an eight month guilt give you an exact return in eight months time as long as you hold it for the eight months time and pay a little bit of income on top which might outperform your cash savings Clearly, I've explained that quickly and you need to do some reading on that It sounds like you're financially savvy and that is worth looking into for you. Yes, that wouldll be great. yeah. But I mean, they're trying to shut off these routes. That is the overall problem here is the aal problem. So the Now just let's go let's change subject slightly the wedding, marriage You're obviously takes two Yes. Are you both thinking of this or are you thinking of this? No, no, no, we are both thinking of this. What will be the trigger for it U well, we've got a big family holiday, our first big family holiday. and coming up this September So I think maybe a question might be asked. Okay. But in terms of actually the tim like the timeline of everything we basically I would like to wait for my youngest to be sort of Five years old Ish just so that they can enjoy it as well and not be so needs so much babysitting on the day. What is your partner's name Scott And will Scott listen to the podcast He He may do because I've asked a question, but J I mean he's going to hear that you've just said you're expecting a question to be asked. I mean, we need to be we need to be straight about this, Katie Oh no, no, he's no, I've been this has been a conversation. You've been dropping so say not so subtle hints Yes, yeah Yeah And of course, from my perspective in a financial perspective, the benefits of marriage or civil partnership are absolutely huge financially for inheritance tax and passing assets between spouses and all of that type of thing So it is absolutely beneficial. if you're in a long term relationship, It is hugely beneficial financially to be married or if you don't like the baggage of marriage, a civil partnership does the same thing compares to cohabiting. So I approve I approve. Okay, G. It sounds. if anything happens, I can email back in into the We would love to hear. We'll have to do an update on the story. We'd absolutely love to do that. Yeah. Thank you so much for your question. I hope it managed to help somewhat. I mean we're still all working our way through this new structure that the government has come up with for when it comes in place next April, but those are my provisional thoughts. Yes, no yeah. as feel I mean, I feel like most probably people into of this sort situation is is You sort of get a bit punished for doing the right thing almost but never mind. Yeah. And of course, I I shouldn't I shouldn't say what I'm going to say, The plan is it will be happening next April. And one suspects there might be different personnel making decisions, so who knows? Yes, yeah, yes, that's true. Okay. thans so much. Thanks for your call. Nat you. No, thank you very much. Thank you Its prodroucer Matt here just jumping in to let you know that if you want to hear Martin's full podcast where he explains everything you need to know about the role changes with ICers and lifetime ICers, you can find that three episodes back from this one on BBC Sounds. Why not go and listen to it after you finish this episode That was very interesting What have you got for me next? I've got a read. o, a read from Phil Phil's emailed in to Martin New's podcast at bc d. co. Uk and he says, Dear Matt Simon, and of course, Martin at the and end I like it. It's funny. He says, I have what I thought would be a simple question, but I'm struggling to find an answer. I have a family member who's approaching forty and has no national insurance contributions as they haveve never worked, claimed any form of benefit or had children. Asreuming this continues and they fail to achieve ten years worth of contributions or have bought ten years worth. My question is, as they don't qualify for the state pension under current rules, what would they be entitled to if anything Okay, really interesting question. I'm going to answer under current rules. Obviously, this individual won't be reaching their state pension age for another minimum twenty seven years. So things could have changed in that time You are quite right, there is a hard bottom and a soft top when it comes to the state pension. What I mean by that is When I talk about how many years you need to of national insurance contributions, for those who don't know, national insurance contributions are When you work or as rightly pointed out, if you get certain benefits, or if you look after children, you get a national insurance credit. I almost think of it like a token. For each year that you work, you get a national insurance credit token that goes into the piggy bank and I generally say you need thirty five years worth ish of national insurance to get the full state pension. but it really is an ish someome people it's more for some people that's less. And just because you've got your full state pension entitlement doesn't mean you stop paying national insurance if you're working and you're under state pension age which people get frustrated about Bottom is a hard bottom Because to get any state pension, you need ten years of national insurance credits And I went through this in a lot of detail when I was doing my campaign last year when you could buy back think it was fourteen extra years the window was shutting on that and there was a lot of urgency and talking about whether it was worth buying extra years. And in fact, we had someone who had nine years' worth and wanted to know if it was worth buying and buying just one year suddenly was hugely valuable and had a payback time of withithin three months of getting their state pension, they would have got back the money that they paid to buy the extra year because you go from nothing to effectively a third of a state pension or just under a third of a state pension once you hit ten years So you asked me what you would get, well, you wouldn't get a state pension if you had under ten years worth of contributions If you had no income And remember, income can be derived from savings. So if this person, I don't know why they're not working If this person has a lot of assets, then the assets would be converted into a calculation to be income The obvious thing for someone with no or very low income is pension credit pension credit is effectively a top up to any or no state pension that you get to give you a minimum income. So for people who have less than about two hundred and forty pounds of income a week, including state pension and any private pension and any income from savings and investments then they can get the pension credit top up So my and pension credit interestingly is actually a gateway benefit that opens up access to a whole other load of benefits. So I don't know the reason that this person is never working if it's because they've got loads of assets and loads of family wealth, then they won't be entitled to pension credit if they they because I doubt it's because of health issues that they're probably be entitled to certain benefits. so I have no idea what the issue is here, but my answer would be pension credit. I feel I'm doing it on a slightly theoretical basis though with the information that I have Are you sitting there thinking, Oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to Martin Lewis podcast at bbc. co. uk And please do start them Dar Martin. No, dear M Dear Martin, there m Ho' you got for me now I have got a caller. Well done. I've got Ben and Berry. Hi, Ben. Hi guys,' right Hi Ben. Wlcome on board. Your badge will be flowing its way. It will be Ben and Berry with a badge at some point in the future. I can't wait the fr of Baron What's your question Regarding my dad, he's seventy eight. He's on pension credits. he's got a smart prepayment meter. He keeps saying that basically he's putting more and more on the the prepayment meter and with the energy tariff going up, is there anything that he can do He doesn't use much Electricity it's only about four kilowatts a dayck. Okay. So There are limited choices here The prepayment market is much less competitive than the other market So funny, we were talking about this in the podcast last week because I've given evidence to the public accounts commommittee on this exact issue just to set the big picture here. Prepayment meters used to be more expensive than paying by monthly direct debit which was always the cheapest. Th I think it was probably about eighteen months ish ago that they changed it. So now if you're on the price cap, you know the standard rate if you haven't got a special deal or you haven't got a fix or anything, Prepayment is now a couple of percent cheaper than monthly direct debit and is actually the cheapest way to pay which I think was a good move by the regulator because it is the one that the most vulnerable people tend to be on. However It is very uncompetitive So in most cases, especially if you don't have a smart meter, you are stuck on the price cap. And even though direct debit is more expensive on the price cap If you pay by direct debit, that's where all the competitive switches tariffs are So you know, the cheapest fixes on the on the direct debit are far cheaper than the prepayment on a price cap The first thing we need to look at is anything available? Now you said he's got a smart meter Yeah That's useful There's virtually nothing if you're on an old school meter for prepayment There are occasionally smart prepay fixes available is one right now It's EDF, it's fixed for a year, on average and it depends on the region. so you'll have to forgive me, I'm going to give you an average. On average It's five percent cheaper than the current price gap just to put that in context The cheapest fix available for someone on direct debit is around sixteen percent cheaper than the price g. So you can see five percent cheaper isn't that great. And it actually where is fixing that sixteen percent less than the price cap is a no brainer because We think the price cap when it moves in October is going to stay roughly the same and the price cap when it moves in January is it's a bit more crystal ballgazing, but it's going to stay roughly the same as the July price g And so therefore the wriggle room, you know, if it's sixteen percent cheaper, I mean, it's pretty unthinkable that you're going to pay more over the year. on the fix that you would do on the price cap a five percent it It's not quite a no it's not quite a no brainer in the same way So that is roughly where we are Uh How does that sound? Yeah to be fair I'm with you, he asked myself. so I was sort of thinking of referring him and then he he can get a bonus credit as well, which might sort of seem him through a few weeks as well. Well that's sort of that's not too bad. Yeah How's this health by the way? Can I ask, I don't mean it in Yeah, didn't help me Yeah, he's healthy. He's got all like he goes on the he's got the social tariff for like Virgin and Sky and whatever. So like we We sort of maximize that. I was just checking whether he should be on the priority serervices register which is basically that If there are difficulties being had, it's not about price. it's about difficulties being had that he should be seen as a priority customer. If you know for example, if had difficulty reading his meter or if he would cut off and that type of thing. sounds like he's all right, though for that He is, but that's definitely something we'll look at. It's something worth knowing for maybe, you know as people age, you know mayaybe in seventy or eighty years time when he when he's of a much older age, it might be worth knowing for that point If you look at me that so So yeah, I mean, it is very difficult on prepayment. And again, if I go back to the evidence session I gave which was meant to be at how you help vulnerable people with energy, one of the big points I made is most vulnerable people are on the form of tariff, the prepayment meter, which is less competitive, and therefore can't access the cheaper deals. So we have yet again the poverty premium in operating within energy on this basis And I'm afraid I don't have much of a solution for you apart from that DiSics, which sounds good with the money that would be coming in But at least well I can put I have been trying to do something about it in the bigger picture, if not in the micro picture Now that's brilliant. That's brilliant.'ll look at. We'll look at switching them over to that man. Yeah. So make sure you do it a comparison, but then yeah, once you know it's the right tyiff get your get the referral fee that you get and hopefully you get paid and he gets paid and then you both do doing well Yeah, hopefully. All right. Good luck. Thank you so much for calling. Thank you, By. Just a quick note, energy tariffs do change pretty much daily. So what I was saying in that was at the time of recording, you may be listening later, the same tariffs may not be available. So I would always go for this. I'd go onto a price comparison site. As I often say, I'd go to one that's whole of market by default. There is only one. I'm not allowed to tell you which one it is So if you're not on that one and you're on one of the others, what you must always make sure you do is there'll be a little box at the bottom somewhere that says as quietly as they possibly can So you need to tick the show all tariffs because many of the cheapest tariffs at the moment don't pay comparison sites, so they won't be in their default search. So make sure you do tick that Okay, those are our four main questions, Matt.. Now this is normally the time where you give me an ascance or a funny question. Yes. Have you got one for me? I wish I could sit here and say yes, but I have to scour in the inbox for hours and hours and hours, I could not find a single one. So the inbx isn't that big is it The inbox is massive. We get got loads of emails.' very pleased to hear it. I never see it Okay, look, listen people, you're letting young Matt down The man has spent, I mean I'm worried he'll lose his hair. I'm worried for his health the stress. I mean, just imagine the panic he has. comoming to this podcast, ready to produce it and he has to say No Martin We don't have an achance. We don't have a funny. And he's worried. he's worried, you know, I might there might be physical violence. I mean, admittedly he's not that worried as he records in Manchester and I'm in London so it would be a little bit different to do But in a metaphorical sense there might be physical violence. I hope not. him for him not not really. All right. I'm trying to them to I'm try tocrage him sorry carry on'try sor Right. And so but I don't blame thatat Listeners, I don't blame Matt I'm blaming you. You know, you come each week, you listen to the podcast, you get your answers, you enjoy the banter. You feel you're part of the team. Well If you're part of the team, where are your ascants and funny questions? That's what I have to say to you So Question time listeners, my Eesquires to all my Equires listening You've let us down this week. We need your funny. We need your asance questions. We need you. We need you to be part of our team and help feed in to what we can feed back to you A anina I think so. All right, they how do they send them in? Just email to Martin Lewis podcast at bbc. co d. U and address them to dear Martin. dear. And put. This is my Acance funny becausecause I knew you were short. And hey, you will be an Esquire, or maybe you come on to ask it in person and then you get a badge even though it's not a money question. Imagine. Am I uplifting you? I'm bribing you at the same time So what we're gonna to finish with then Well, I have a nice success that I thought we could do Okay, good. I like a love of success. love of success. This one's been sent in by Flavu I think is how you pronounce their name. spell F L A V I U. Yeah, I'm leaving that one to you. Flavu Equire Nice. We know how to pronounce a squire. We do know how to pronounce a squire. They say Dear Professor Lord Dr. Masquire. missing a few there, but I'll take it. And Martin OBE You're not an OB,? CBE. But I mean now I know why you like the success because it starts with Professor Lord Dror Matt Equire. I mean, it's how to get my attention They go on to say you asked for more personal experiences in the pod. So I did actually just a reminder on that This is about personal experiences and also responses. If you have something that helps one of our questioners and you've heard a question and you've had a similar experience, then get in touch on the back of those. We'd love to hear that as well as your questions, please. Yes, we would. They say so I finally thought it was time to write in with my repeat successes as a longtim listener. Your embrace of the nerdy side with your wife helped me lean into mine when dating I know. Wait to tell Laura that that's amazing. It wasasn't a success with everyone, but my partner responded to instantly and now it's all over our joint life. She's a better listener but doesn't know I'm sending this in We're all in with time of use tariffs, running around using maximum electricity in cheap times. Our typical usage is five to seven kilowatt hours a day, but our record is twenty five kilowWatt hours on a windy Saturday in April for which octopus paid us ninety one p So for those who don't know, if you're on the octopus Agile tariff, and it's only for sophisticated users like Flavu who understand what they're doing I mean, last week during peak times, it was four times more expensive than the price cap. So you really have to understand it During some other times, they can pay you to generate electricity. I've seen it's up to nine pence a kilowatt hour. In which case, everything you've been waiting to do, you turn on. I mean, if you've got an electric vehicle charger, it's time. and your car's time, it's like up one of your friends, do you want to bring your car on to my house in charge it? Be you're being paid to use energy because it's It's instead of shutting the net off in the surplus times that they do it that way. carry on, I'm loving this. carry on. During expensive times, we just go on impromptu dates instead of cooking. Nominally, we're nineteen percent down on the best one year fix when we started a year ago Brilliant., you could get batteries too, and really ramp up as well if you've been saving. Yeah. You'd really have to think about it, wouldn't Additionally, between us, weve stacked up roughly two thousand eight hundred pounds in switching bonuses over the past year, all going into our honeymoon pot. So that's bank account switching and there are loads of bank account switching bonuses and deals available at the moment. That's really cool They then say, which brings me to We're getting married in August, MSE marital success expert. Love it, love it and huge congratulations and Mazto from me The bonus they say, last year I managed to buy my mum seven extra state pension qualifying years for about six hundred pounds, takaking her from nine to sixteen enough to actually qualify for state pension. That one felt good And how much does that fit in? That was not planned, but that fits in with what we've already been talking about this programe. This is the best email ever. Thank you very much. They finish with thanks for everything. Your show has touched more aspects of my life than I ever expected. lovely to hear that. I found that quite moving actually Thank you so much. We get so many, I was joking before about telling everybody off and not selling in the funny questions. We get so many Lovely emails and questions and it is it is joyous. to feel a part of people's lives and to be able to do something that helps people in this way. It is a wonderful thing I am very, very lucky to have my job And I am also lucky to have Matt alongside me and Claire here in the studio, fact checking me live as we go. And I think that is a really good way to end. Oh, it was, it was. Did you hear my paroration? I'd finished? yeah. I was al ready to go Badge update. Badge update. Yes. Badges. So if you come on the podcast, you get a badge. you can call yourself in a squire if we read out your question. But if you command the podcast, you could also call yourself an a squire, but you will get sent a badge And these badges are badges that I designed and I think they're fantastic. I still haven't seen it yet As you will have heard, Rosie's away, Claire is sitting in for her. Rosie went to Manchester. She's got a bag of badges, but I haven't seen Rosie since she got back from Manchester so that she can give me my badge. Ros is Badge hoarding. She's got to be very careful how I say that. Rosie is a badge hoarder. hoarder. Yeah. hoarder. Yes So I had an email from someone who came on the podcast, Joe They say hello, Matt, so it was just sent to me. I just wanted to let you and Martin know that I just returned home today after a lovely week in Portugal with the family What would normally be a depressing return has turned around by the arrival of my squire Badge, which has really made me smile. Thank you so much. I enjoyed listening to latest episodes by the Pool. Our first badge recipient, how lovely. loveve it and I'm glad you had a good holiday too. She sent a picture with her thumb and then the badge in the What a lovely uplifting way to end. Let's stop it there And that's for this week's Question timeim. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a newQuion time episode each Monday alongside the big topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? two doses of money saving tips and tricks a week