Money Box

Six million people who expect to be paying housing costs once they've stopped working say they don't know how they'll be able to afford it. That's according to new research from pensions and investment firm Royal London. It surveyed 4,000 people and says the findings suggest around 1 in 3 UK adults are already paying, or expect to pay, rent or a mortgage once they've retired. What can be done to h...

Scammers are using increasingly convincing AI generated videos to steal people's money. We hear from a victim who had £165,000 stolen and ask an expert how to spot the warning signs before it's too late. The government has promised new financial rights for cohabiting couples. We examine what the plans could mean for the three and a half million couples in the UK who live together without being mar...

The PCS union is calling for Capita to lose its contract to administer the Civil Service Pensions scheme six months after it took over. It follows problems which have seen thousands of retired civil servants waiting months for pension payments. The Union says it would like the contract to be managed by the government instead. Capita says it is making progress on getting things 'back to normal leve...

Newly released research seen exclusively by this programme suggests a quarter of the UK's nearly 6 million carers have paused or stopped paying into their pension because of the financial pressures of caring for a loved one. Most often, that loved one has complex needs and the costs of caring for them can be high. In the same research, from Carers UK, three quarters of carers said they're worried...

If you’re fortunate enough to have set some money aside for a rainy day the Government wants you to invest more rather than keep it all in cash savings accounts. The Treasury, has appointed the Investment Association, alongside 19 financial services firms, to lead an industry initiative to persuade people with savings to move at least some of that money into shares. As a nation, we invest much les...

Millions of adults across the UK, have not told their families what they want to happen to their money and property when they die. STEP, the Society for Trust and Estate Planners, reported this week on a survey which found 8 out of 10 adults had kept their loved ones in ignorance of their wishes. A third of them did not even have a will, leaving its distribution to complex legal rules rather than...

We may be living longer, but are our finances in the best of health? On today’s Money Box Live we take a stroll through the decades and examine the kind of financial challenges that living longer might throw at us. A growing number of people in the UK are reaching 100 – Sir David Attenborough among them - and there are now more than 600,000 people in their nineties, but are we sufficiently prepare...

Since lenders were ordered to repay billions to consumers who signed up to unfair car finance deals, millions of people have been sent adverts exhorting them to claim compensation through claims managers or law firms. But now the Financial Conduct Authority is to investigate the industry amid concerns of sharp practice and misleading marketing. Paul Lewis asks if the regulator has acted quickly en...

Teenage years are formative in many different ways – and being able to handle finances is one of them. In this programme - one of our special Money Box Life episodes – presenter Felicity Hannah talks to teenagers from varied backgrounds about their early experiences of handling money. We get their views on the guiding role of parents. We hear how making mistakes can prove helpful – if you learn fr...