Money Box

When it comes to keeping our homes warm nearly all of us rely on just a handful of big energy suppliers. And during the winter, especially with the cold temperatures, we rely on those suppliers to do their job. When they don't customers can firstly complain to their supplier but, if they're still not happy, they can take their complaint to something called the Energy Ombudsman. It's a free, impartial service and gets thousands of complaints every year. In most cases, when the ombudsman makes a decision, that decision is followed to the letter, quickly, by suppliers. But in some cases that doesn't happen - we investigate one listener's battle over a £1,700 bill.
HMRC has told MPs it's going to take more care in how it handles its effort to crack down on fraud and error, after a mistake which led to thousands of families wrongly losing their Child Benefit.
It was the Scottish government's Budget this week and there were quite a few changes promised for people's pockets, we'll round up the details.
And, there's a huge amount to think about when buying a home, from sorting the mortgage to getting quotes for removal companies, but one thing you might not be expecting is that your new home might come with rules telling you what you can and cannot do with it. Restrictive covenants are binding conditions written into the actual property deeds or contracts. What can you do to protect yourself from any financial impacts?
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporters: Dan Whitworth, Eimear Devlin and Phil Simm
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 17th January 2026)

There's a topic that often appears in the Money Box inbox, inheritance tax.
It's money paid by the estate of someone once they die, as long as the total value of all their property, possessions, cash and soon pensions are worth more than a fixed threshold set by the government.
At the moment Government figures say just 5% of estates actually pay the tax, so relatively low, but there are changes coming in this year and next which could increase that number.
Questions around who pays it and how much it is as well as the rules around passing on wealth to loved ones are never far away from the top of our in tray. So, today we'll answer as many as we can.
Joining presenter Felicity Hannah this week is Clare Moffat, pension and tax specialist at the mutual life, pensions and investment company Royal London and Nina Sperring, wealth protection solicitor and partner at the law firm Price, Slater, Gawne.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(This episode was first broadcast at 3pm on Wednesday the 14th of January 2026)

More than 60% of parents who lost their child benefit because the tax office believed incorrectly they'd moved abroad, were in fact eligible for the benefit, which is worth at least a hundred pounds a month. As we've reported on this programme before, the mistakes were made after travel data was used to conclude parents had permanently left the UK, but actually many of them had simply been on holiday. The scale of the mistake has been shown in a written question raised in parliament, where the government revealed that 63% of payments were wrongly suspended. HMRC has apologised to customers who had their Child Benefit suspended incorrectly. It also told us that it estimates that £270 million of Child Benefit payments were incorrectly claimed in 2024-25 – with unreported residency changes a leading cause.
Credit card borrowing rose at the fastest annual rate for almost two years in November. The new data from the Bank of England shows that outstanding credit card balances rose to nearly 78 billion pounds, which is up almost 12 per cent on November the year before. What might be behind that rise?
And the pension ruling which could help boost your pension by 720 pounds every year.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Eimear Devlin
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 10th January 2026)

It's 50 years since the Sex Discrimination Act meant all women could take out mortgages and loans without needing a man to approve it.
In this programme we'll take a look at how things have changed for women's finances since then and what challenges they still face. From the cost of childcare to lower wages and pension pots.
Felicity Hannah is joined by Penny East, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, which is a gender equality and women's rights charity, and Louise Claro, Managing Director of Circle Financial Services and an independent financial adviser.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: Sarah Rogers and Catherine Lund
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(First broadcast at 3pm Wednesday 7th January 2026)

"A big change" - that's how HMRC has described a major transformation starting in April, which affects the way sole traders and landlords report their income and expenses. The tax office has told Money Box that self assessment has to be modernised to reduce errors and allow them to collect more of what's owed to the Treasury.
It's called Making Tax Digital and this first wave is going to affect about a million people who have a turnover above £50,000 a year. At the moment, self-employed people put the details of their business accounts into their tax return once a year on the Government's own website or on paper. But from April the new system will force them to use commercial software which sends quarterly summaries to HMRC and then repeats all that information in their end of year tax return to which they must add any other taxable income details. We'll speak to HMRC about that.
According to the financial data firm Moneyfacts, since the Bank of England cut the interest rate to 3.75% in December around a third of providers have dropped their rates on their savings products. Where are the best deals?
As energy prices rise, there's a warning about the scammers trying to trick you into giving away your data.
And new research suggests only 1 in 4 people know about a big change coming for pensions and inheritance tax. We'll answer listener questions.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporter: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Eimear Devlin
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 3rd January 2026)