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Money Box Live: Why Are Women Retiring with Less?
For every £1 a man has in his private pension pot a woman has just 42p according to research from pension company Royal London.When it comes to the State Pension, the gap has closed considerably for people retiring today. But women in their 80s are still getting up to 25% less than men.This week on Money Box Live, we're looking at the reasons behind is as well as what can be done to boost savings.Find out more about a little known pot of money the government has set aside mainly for women, who didn't work because they were looking after children, between 1978 and 2010 - which is largely going unclaimed. We also hear the struggle of a woman who struggled after the state pension age for women was raised from 60 to 66 and what might happen next with the campaign against it.With Felicity Hannah is Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and and now partner at pensions consultancy Lane Clark and Peacock and Daniela Silcock who has her own pensions research company.Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Sarah Rogers and Helen Ledwick Editor: Jess Quayle(This episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 16th of July 2025)
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Water Meters and Cash ISAs
Money Box can exclusively reveal there has been a sharp rise in the number of people applying to have water meters fitted to try to bring their bills down. The data has been shared with this programme by the Consumer Council for Water, the CCW, the which speaks for water consumers in England and Wales. It comes after record April price rises for water with average bills rising more than £120 to over £600 per year. Cash ISAs appear to have been reprieved - at least for now. Until Friday morning there was widespread speculation that the Chancellor might announce on Tuesday that the amount you could put into a cash ISA would be slashed from £20,000, perhaps to as little as £4000. The idea was that would fit in with government plans to encourage investment by nudging people with £20,000 to spare to use the rest of their tax free ISA allowance to invest in shares instead. However, Money Box understands that won't happen - certainly not on Tuesday when Rachel Reeves gives her annual Mansion House speech to the City of London. We'll look at what that might mean.And what does a major ruling on a divorce case in the Supreme Court mean for how wealth is split between couples in the future?Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researchers: Eimear Devlin and Jo Krasner Editor: Jess Quayle(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 12th July 2025)
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Mansion House and Council Tax for Terminally Ill
It was a momentous day on Tuesday as the government and regulators announced major changes in the way investments will be sold. What's been proposed and what's the role of the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in that?Inflation rose to 3.6%, this week the highest it has been since January 2024 - what's behind that?And two of the UK's leading end of life charities have told Money Box people given less than 12 months to live should not have to pay Council Tax before they die. The call from Marie Curie and Hospice UK comes just a few weeks after Manchester City Council became what's believed to be the first local authority in the UK to introduce such a scheme. Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner Researcher: Eimear Devlin Editor: Jess Quayle(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 19th July 2025)
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Money Box Live: Losing Your Job
Unemployment recently rose to its highest level in almost four years. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate went up to 4.6 per cent in the three months to April, up from 4.5 per cent in the three months to March. That's the highest since the Summer of 2021 in which the country was in the depths of the Covid pandemic.So today on Money Box Live we're asking what happens when you lose your job? What are your rights, what kind of payout might you get and how do you manage the money during a job hunt?Felicity Hannah is joined by employment lawyer Rupa Mooker, Mike Fenn who's Head of Employee Relations at ACAS, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and Sarah Coles who is the Head of Personal Finance at Hargreaves Lansdown.Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producers: Sarah Rogers and Helen Ledwick Editor: Jess Quayle(This programme was first aired on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 9th of July 2025)
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Future of Pensions and Heat Networks
Reform of the state pension, auto-enrolment into company pensions and consolidation of small pensions spread across several providers are proposed this week in a major report on the future of pensions. It says major changes are are necessary to ensure today's workers have an adequate income in retirement. The conclusions come at the end of a two year study by the independent research organisation the Institute for Fiscal Studies, we'll speak to them about the report.Hundreds of thousands of people whose homes are heated using communal heat networks are less than 6 months away from greater protection as the industry gets ready to come under Ofgem regulation for the first time. Up until now people in homes that are on heat networks, which use a single heat source to pipe hot water to multiple households, have not had the same rights as those on mains gas or electricity, but that is about it change. What difference could the new regulations make?How could the way you get financial advice change in the future? We'll discuss new proposals by the regulator the Financial Conduct Authority aimed at helping more people get financial advice.And, what would you like to see on a new bank note from the Bank of England? Email us now [email protected] Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner Researcher: Eimear Devlin Editor: Jess Quayle(audio credit British Pathé)(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 5th July 2025)
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