Pod Insights The Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time: Council Tax £6,000 refund! £700 saved ditching O2! And a warranty schmarranty winner About this episode In this special ‘Success Time’ edition of our Question Time podcast, this week is all about listeners who’ve saved. They tell us what they’ve done to save, and Martin explains how you can do the same! The successes this week include: a multi-bank switching success, getting a phone retailer to overturn its decision not to replace a faulty handset, and a success worth £100,000.
If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!) – so if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite film, what he carries with him wherever he goes, or have a very complicated question about your personal finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected] .
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Martin Lewis? This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
0:06 Speaker 01 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.
0:38 Speaker 02 Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human.
0:57 Speaker 02 Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.
1:08 Speaker 03 Haunted hair, a big bouffant hair, a lovely big moustache. Well, I listened to your podcast, Martin. Oh, you've married well, sir. How do we say, loyal about nine hundred quid a year? Hello, Ditchbury.
1:18 Martin Lewis? He's got a Hawaiian shirt and flares on. There's a lot of chest hair. I mean, that's a huge success. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time edition, although this week, maybe we should call it Success Time, as it's our last podcast of the year. So we're celebrating the many and varied successes that you, our podcast listeners, have had. The successes you've told me about this week include: A seven hundred pounds saving from ditching O2; A council tax refund of over six thousand pounds; An iPhone warranty schmorranty success, how knowing your consumer rights can really pay off; Two bank switching successes, a first timer and a multi-mule account switcher
2:03 Martin Lewis? who really raked it in. And we finish with the biggest one, worth over a hundred thousand pounds. But I'm going to leave it as a Christmas teaser, so you have to listen all the way through to find out what it was about. Play the theme tune.
2:31 Martin Lewis? So hello everybody and welcome to this episode of Question Time, our final Question Time of the year and something very, very exciting has happened because podcast producer Matt is here with me in the studio in London. Normally he's in Manchester and I'm in London. Welcome to the studio, curator of questions himself, podcast producer Matt. Thank you very much. It's nice to be here and actually be able to see your face. Well, yes, this is the first time that we've met. Now, many of you will know what I look like because I'm relatively ubiquitous on the television, but I think it's important you understand what Matt looks like. I think I need to take you back to the 1980s now. I want you all to think of Burt Reynolds. I think he had nice, nice big parted hair, a big bouffant hair, a lovely big moustache. He's got a Hawaiian shirt and flares on. There's a lot of chest hair,
3:16 Martin Lewis? a lot of chest hair poking out of the middle of that, Matt. Cowboy boots on the bottom. Funny because your voice, I always pictured you as sort of being, you know, mid, late 20s, but he's actually sort of that rugged 40s type look that you've got. You're a big man. You tend to fill the room, Matt. It's not what any of us were expecting. Got it spot on there. Well done. Thank you very much. Exactly what I look like. Yeah, big moustache. The hair. That must take you a long time to do your hair in that bouffant style. It's actually stuck on. Is it really? Oh, good. So there you go. So hopefully now in future, while Matt has his soft tones, you can picture him, picture him as a younger, more modern, more chesthead version of Burt Reynolds for me, everybody.
3:58 Martin Lewis? I don't want people actually thinking that's what I look like though, because I really don't. He does. I really don't. Oh, okay, he doesn't. But you know what? He might not look like that, but you should still picture him like that anyway. Yes, yeah. Okay. Now, we're doing a different podcast today because normally this is called Question Time, but today it is Success Time. Because what we wanted to do at the end of the year is celebrate some of the actions that you have taken after listening to the podcast and also we'll be talking about them. So how those of you listening who've not done that type of stuff can follow in the footsteps of those who have saved. So Matt, as it's a different type of podcast, are you following our normal structure and formula? Are you, I don't know, going wild? I've decided to throw the structure out the window and just go for a caller first.
4:44 Martin Lewis? Who've you got?
4:44 Speaker 04 I've got Jeremy, he's in Leicester and he's on the line.
4:47 Martin Lewis? Hello Jeremy.
4:49 Speaker 05 Hello Martin, how are you?
4:50 Martin Lewis? Very good, thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing your success and what it is about. What have you done, sir?
4:55 Speaker 05 Well, for some time, all four members of our household, me, my wife and my two kids, we've had a mobile phone contract with O2, ticking on for a long time. And we're paying about 17, 18 pounds a month each. It was initially convenient because I could keep an eye on what the kids were doing and it just sort of rolled and rolled. And then we were listening to you and we thought, hmm, you know, you let us know a little bit about the price hikes that were coming next April. We went, hmm, we should take some action here because we're really not very good. So we found a particularly good deal through Labara. And it turns out that, you know, two of us have changed from paying 17, 18 quid a month to paying about 1 pound 65 a month. And they're both getting 35 gigs of data. And as teenagers, they get through quite a lot.
5:38 Martin Lewis? Yeah, I can imagine. So what's the total saving then?
5:42 Speaker 05 Well, my wife Abby, she's the one that keeps a spreadsheet of all our direct debits.
5:46 Martin Lewis? Oh, you've married well, sir.
5:48 Speaker 05 Yes, thank you.
5:48 Martin Lewis? You've married well. I mean, there we go. I would have liked that.
5:52 Speaker 05 So I looked at it on the sofa and we said, well, with the price hikes, what would it be? We reckon it'd be about, how do we say, loyal, about 900 quid a year? And then we sort of broke it down and went, well, it's going to be about 218 quid for a year, projecting what it's going to sort of going to be in the future. So we thought, well, that's definitely worthwhile.
6:09 Martin Lewis? So it's a huge saving?
6:10 Speaker 05 Yeah, enormous, enormous.
6:12 Martin Lewis? Yeah, 700.
6:13 Speaker 05 Over a whole, yeah, over a whole, yeah, yeah, indeed.
6:15 Martin Lewis? Oh, well, that's absolutely fantastic. I mean, I should do the background for people who are listening. So what we had with O2, O2 broke the mould here. Regulations came in last January that said that when you sign up to a mobile or broadband deal, they need to tell you in advance of any price hikes and that needs to be done in pound or pence. The only firm that didn't agree to do that is Sky. So Sky instantly says, we can hike prices, but we will have to let you leave with 30 days' notice. O2 broke the mould and announced that it was going to hike its price hike. In other words, it told people what increase they would have next April when they signed up for contracts, but then announced, no, we're actually going to increase prices by more than that. I went ballistic, I think you probably remember that, Jeremy.
6:57 Speaker 05 Indeed.
6:57 Martin Lewis? And I went ballistic with Ofcom because I thought its rules weren't strong enough. I wrote to the Chancellor and I went loud and large on every one of my outlets, saying that people who are with O2, you have to do within 30 days of notification of this. You can leave penalty free, which is what you did, didn't you? You took advantage of being able to leave penalty free. You didn't have to wait to the end of your contract and you got out of there.
7:17 Speaker 05 Absolutely right, yes. Sometime in November and it worked out over a couple of weeks, no problem at all.
7:21 Martin Lewis? Now, what's interesting is some O2 customers might be listening to this who've missed that. And my frustration with the regulations is you will notice the price hike next April, but you could only leave within 30 days of notification. I think the rules should also allow you to leave within 30 days of the price hike as well, in case you missed it. Because actually, many people don't listen and get their letters. I think it's probably because I was really gobbing off about this pretty much everywhere that some people have heard it. But it also shows you, I mean, that was the saving that you would have made, just how important it is for people. If you're on a mobile bill, once you're at the end of your contract, don't automatically assume that you should just be renewing. And remember too, that there are only four networks in the UK. All the other networks are piggybacking off their signal.
8:06 Martin Lewis? So you can find always three or four different providers that are offering you roughly the same signal that you currently have. So if the reason that you don't switch and the reason you're not a Jeremy, which is a good thing, being a Jeremy, that's good, then is because you want to keep your signal, then actually many comparison sites will show you which providers keep the same signals that I've currently got, even though you might move to a different network, it would be the same main underlying signal, piggybacked, and the new network would be piggybacking off the top of it. Jeremy, thank you so much for inspiring everyone. Lovely to speak to you.
8:40 Speaker 05 Thanks for your help, Martin. Thanks very much indeed.
8:41 Martin Lewis? Cheers, buddy. Jeremy, you're not originally from Leicester, are you? From North Manchester?
8:45 Speaker 05 Sheffield originally.
8:47 Martin Lewis? Sheffield originally, okay.
8:48 Speaker 05 A northern twang.
8:49 Martin Lewis? That's what I thought. All right, lovely to speak to you, mate.
8:51 Speaker 05 You too, thanks very much.
8:54 Martin Lewis? Thank you, Jeremy, for that call. And I just need, for older listeners here, I'm feeling, I'm feeling a little bit, I just need to tell you this. Matt has sent me a note during that to say that he doesn't know who Burt Reynolds is.
9:15 Martin Lewis? Anyway, moving on from that, Matt, what we doing next? Have you got a... it's a read, I presume?
9:20 Speaker 04 It's a read, it's a success. I keep thinking question, it's not question, it's a success. So this one's from Mike. He says, "Hi, Martin, just wanted to say thanks. I listen regularly to your podcast and my ears pricked up some months ago when you talked about potential discounts for mental incapacity on council tax bills. My elderly father has vascular dementia and thanks to your programme, I've been able to obtain 100% discount on his council tax bill, some £2,000 plus a year, albeit he already received a 25% single occupancy discount. Additionally, the council have refunded some nearly five years of charges resulting in a refund to his bank account of £5,989.30.
10:00 Speaker 04 Amazing, things are tight with carer costs and increasing tax bills, so this is a lifesaver. Thanks again."
10:08 Martin Lewis? Oh, Mike, thank you so much for getting in touch. That's quite moving, actually. I have long been campaigning about the horribly named severe mental impairment discount for council tax bills. What it effectively means is someone who has a severe loss of social functioning, now it is common with Alzheimer's, dementia, people who've had severe strokes, some people with severe Parkinson's, and who are eligible for certain benefits, many of the standard sort of disability benefits out there, can get the SMI, as I'm going to call it, because I don't like the name, the SMI discount on council tax.
10:50 Martin Lewis? And it is hideously under-publicised, and I do hear of some council officers who, their frontline staff, don't even know in full detail how it works. I've campaigned on it for a long time, Wales has actually improved its system hugely, and we need England and Scotland to follow on the same. So what happens, just so everybody listening understands, in case this is ringing a bell for you in the same way that it did for Mike, what happens is if you get the SMI discount, then you are effectively disregarded for council tax purposes. What do I mean by that? So you will know that if there are two or more people living in a household, you pay full council tax.
11:29 Martin Lewis? But if there are only two people and one of them has an SMI, then it counts like there's only one person living in the household. And therefore you would get the equivalent of the 25% off single person's discount. So if you're living with your partner and your partner unfortunately qualifies for an SMI, then you should only be paying, as long as there are no other adults in the house, you should only be paying 75% of the council tax. If somebody lives alone and qualifies for an SMI, then they are disregarded for council tax purposes. And just like an all student household doesn't pay council tax, then an all SMI household doesn't pay council tax either. Now, what Mike also mentioned was this backdating of nearly £6,000.
12:13 Martin Lewis? One of my frustrations here is backdating is council by council, though in Wales they have standardised rules. So whether you would get a backdated payout or not depends on your individual council's particular policy. In the campaign that I've been running and the government is doing a consultation on, and this is something I met Angela Rayner on when she was Deputy Prime Minister and in charge of local government. They are looking at consulting and what we've asked them to do, what standardising the application form for SMI because it's different all over the country, standardising the literature for SMI because it's different all over the country and sometimes confusing, and standardising the back payment for SMI. And that way it should be easier for councils and individuals and people like me to communicate the SMI discount.
12:58 Martin Lewis? And people should be told about it in an event that they may qualify and more people will get it. Mike, thank you so much, both for telling us of your saving and letting me use it as a way to hopefully inspire other people who might know someone who's eligible and helping them get the discount too. And what I would suggest is if this rings a bell, there are some great guides online to the SMI council tax discount, which you should read in detail to see whether, I mean, it will generally be you're doing it for someone because someone with an SMI, this can obviously be quite a complicated process to do, which is another reason it's really outrageous that it's under-publicised, to see whether it is likely they qualify or not. It isn't that simple, it's relatively easy to do, but it's worth sitting down and doing some reading.
13:43 Speaker 04 Right, we've got another success, Martin.
13:44 Martin Lewis? Good. Well, that's what the whole programme's about. I'd be quite surprised if you didn't.
13:48 Speaker 04 It's on sad fart.
13:49 Martin Lewis? Okay, yay. We love a sad fart.
13:51 Speaker 04 I keep shouting sad fart.
13:52 Martin Lewis? Okay. If you shout it, can you do it?
13:55 Speaker 04 Right, okay. Satisfactory.
13:58 Martin Lewis? Quality.
13:59 Speaker 04 Quality, as described.
14:00 Martin Lewis? That's your sad?
14:01 Speaker 04 Um, fit. Fit for purpose?
14:05 Martin Lewis? Correct.
14:05 Speaker 04 Yep. Um, I can't remember the art.
14:07 Martin Lewis? And?
14:08 Speaker 04 And, go on.
14:09 Martin Lewis? Last a reasonable length of time. Satisfactory quality as described, fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time. Not bad.
14:15 Speaker 04 I got the start.
14:15 Martin Lewis? Not bad.
14:16 Speaker 04 I'm proud of myself.
14:17 Martin Lewis? And that's the whole point of sad fart is to remember what it is. You got quite close, that's good. We'll get you there. I'll test you at some random point in the middle of next year. I'll just go bang. What's a sad fart, Matt?
14:27 Speaker 04 I'm gonna keep practising.
14:28 Martin Lewis? Okay, good.
14:28 Speaker 04 Okay, should we go into this? This success. It's from Fiona. It's quite a long one.
14:33 Martin Lewis? Okay.
14:33 Speaker 04 I'm gonna read it to you. Dear Martin, I wanted to share with you a success I had using your sad fart. My 19-year-old daughter bought a new iPhone after just two weeks a hairline crack appeared on the screen. She hadn't dropped it, so she booked it into the Apple Store for a genius appointment and I went with her. When we first arrived, the genius guy looked at the phone and examined it. He said he couldn't see any other signs of damage and therefore thought it would be repaired under the warranty. He took the phone and then quickly returned. He'd been made aware that there were problems with the screen and they weren't covered under the warranty. At this point, I channeled my inner Martin.
15:05 Martin Lewis? Hurrah.
15:06 Speaker 04 I uttered the classic words, warranty schmorenty.
15:09 Martin Lewis? Warranty schmorenty!
15:11 Speaker 04 I explained that I considered that under the Sales of Goods Act, it needed to be either repaired or replaced. He looked at me blankly, so asked to see the manager.
15:19 Martin Lewis? Quite right.
15:20 Speaker 04 Much to my daughter's embarrassment.
15:22 Martin Lewis? No, not embarrassing. You've got a campaigner of a mum. I'm sure she did it politely. I'm sure she did it firmly but with plight and with charm. Well done. Carry on, sorry.
15:31 Speaker 04 The manager wanted me to explain why I considered I was covered under the Sales of Goods Act and tried to convince me I was not covered under warranty. I suggested that it wasn't fit for purpose and hadn't lasted a reasonable length of time.
15:43 Martin Lewis? Sad fart!
15:44 Speaker 04 He said he needed to take the phone and look at it under a microscope to check if there were signs of impact or damage that might have caused the crack. Returned a few minutes later, said he replaced the screen and I thanked him for resolving the issue. Warranty schmoranty, the best phrase in the world.
15:59 Martin Lewis? I love that Fiona, I absolutely love that, that is brilliant. So, just for me to back explain to those of you who might not know, this is what happens and it's very common with mobile phone stores, especially with your Apple and your Samsungs, where the store is also the manufacturer brand. So when you have rights under our law, the Consumer Rights Act, those sad fart rules, they are with the retailer that you bought the item from. But what happens, especially in those stores where the firm is the retailer and the manufacturer, is they talk about the warranty and they make it all about the warranty.
16:39 Martin Lewis? Now, the warranty is a voluntary contractual arrangement given to you by the manufacturer on its terms of how it will look after the product that you've bought. And it is valuable extra cover. But where I say warranty schmoranty is because the warranty is secondary to your statutory consumer rights, those rights that are embedded in UK consumer law that have been voted through Parliament and they are your primary rights. Now, they are with the retailer, that's what the whole sad fart thing is all about. So if you have bought an item and it is not of satisfactory quality as described, fit for purpose and didn't last a reasonable length of time,
17:22 Martin Lewis? then you go back to the retailer and you ask it to fix it. Now, in this case, that's exactly what happened. You pushed the retailer, you said it was wrong under the Consumer Rights Act, which used to be the Sales of Goods Act. Now, what's really interesting here and the reason why I do warranty schmoranty, to put it in all your heads, is what you'll often find on mobile phones is you get a one or two year warranty, you take it back two days after that and they go, "I'm terribly sorry, sir or madam, but unfortunately you're out of warranty, so there's nothing we can do."
17:54 Martin Lewis? But... That isn't right, because that's your contractual right. Now, when it comes, if I'd bought a thousand pound phone, which is what a big iPhone or a Samsung were to cost, I would argue that as long as I haven't damaged it and I've used it right, if after, you know, 25 months, it stops working through no fault of mine, then I don't believe it has lasted a reasonable length of time. And while I'm taking it back after 30 days, so I don't have a right to a refund, I do have a right to either a partial refund, replacement or repair. And I would push that right. And that's why I tell you warranty schmarten, because the fact it's out of warranty does not have any impact on whether you still have your statutory consumer rights or not.
18:37 Martin Lewis? Fiona, you listened and it paid off. And that for me is joyous. Thank you so much.
18:45 Martin Lewis? At this point in the programme, Matt, it has to be a caller.
18:48 Speaker 04 Yes, there is. We've got Vish, he's in Broadstairs. Hi Vish.
18:52 Speaker 03 Hi, Martin. Hi, Matt. How are you?
18:54 Martin Lewis? Hi, Vish. And you've got a success, not a question. How lovely.
18:58 Speaker 03 Yeah, that is great.
18:59 Martin Lewis? What have you done?
19:00 Speaker 03 Well, I listened to your podcast, Martin, a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago. But I'm a regular listener as well. So you told me about bank account switch.
19:11 Martin Lewis? Yep.
19:12 Speaker 03 And then, you know, I did the switch. I was with, you know, my regular bank and I then switched to Barclays Premier.
19:21 Martin Lewis? Nice. Four hundred quid.
19:23 Speaker 03 Indeed, yes. It was quite nice.
19:26 Martin Lewis? So interesting. How long had you been with your previous bank account before then?
19:30 Speaker 03 Oh, for a long, long time. I mean, in my email, I mentioned I have the same phone number since 2008. So, you know, I'm a very loyal person, but, you know, loyalty doesn't pay, it seems, yeah.
19:42 Martin Lewis? No, it doesn't. And it pays to switch. And this is, you know, one of the strange models that we have in this country. Now, there are about three bank accounts who are still unwilling to pay people at the moment. Many of them disappeared. Santander's got one. Nationwide has got one and First Direct has got one. They're all paying at least a hundred and seventy five pounds. If you're listening at the moment and Vish has inspired you to do a bank account switch to get rid of that loyalty. The Barclays Premier, four hundred quid, which is a high earners one. Well done, Vish. That one's gone at the moment, but you never know, they might bring it back. Now, you say you've been with the same phone company. How much are you paying for your mobile phone bill? Let's just go into this while you're on.
20:18 Speaker 03 Oh, it's not, it's probably about seventeen quid.
20:22 Martin Lewis? And what are you getting for that?
20:25 Speaker 03 Unlimited data and unlimited calls, so it's quite a good deal.
20:28 Martin Lewis? Okay, it's not too bad. You could probably cut that down to £10, but if it's unlimited data and unlimited calls and you lose a lot of data, do you?
20:36 Speaker 03 Yes, I do, yes.
20:37 Martin Lewis? Okay, then I won't be telling you what. I was just wondering if we get a little extra saving in. Fish, thank you so much for getting in touch. Really lovely to hear from you.
20:44 Speaker 03 Thank you, actually. Thank you for encouraging it. Switch is actually a piece of cake. It's just instantaneous and they switch everything. You don't have to be worried about anything.
20:55 Martin Lewis? That's right. When you do a bank switch, they switch over your old account, closes, all money is paid into new account, direct debits are switched automatically for you, standing orders are switched automatically for you.
21:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, correct.
21:06 Martin Lewis? It is very, very easy. Well done, mate. Thank you for calling.
21:09 Speaker 03 Thank you. Thank you for having me.
21:10 Martin Lewis? Thanks, Fish.
21:14 Speaker 04 And on the back of that, Martin, we've got another success. It's from Will in Didsbury.
21:18 Martin Lewis? We like Didsbury. I was born, I grew up, my first house I was ever in was in Didsbury. I was born in Withington Hospital and we lived on Redcourt Avenue, I believe, in Didsbury for the first year of my life before we moved into the Delamere Forest area of Cheshire. So hello, Didsbury.
21:35 Speaker 04 Anyway, he's made over £750.
21:38 Martin Lewis? I thought it was quite nice of me giving a bit of my background. There'll be someone out there listening to this who knows someone who lives in Redcourt Avenue and will say to them at some point in the next six months, "Did you know Martin Lewis spent the first year of his life in Didsbury? So I don't think you should put down my little fact there, Matt."
21:54 Speaker 04 It's lovely. Shall we get on with the success, though?
21:56 Martin Lewis? Please.
21:57 Speaker 04 I have made, this is from Will, "I've made over £750 over the past three months from bank switching alone. I set up a mule account with Starling Bank with no offers, then switched to first Direct, £175, then to Lloyds and got £200, then to Barclays for another £200, then to NatWest for £175, also picked up six free cinema tickets, two months' subscription to Apple TV along the way to..."
22:25 Martin Lewis? Where there's a will, there's a way and Will certainly found it marvellous. Listen, so just to explain, the one term in there I think I'll do my post explainer on is a mule account for people who don't know. So if you wanted to actually play the bank switching game, and the one warning about that is don't do it if you're about to make any significant debt applications because regularly switching current accounts can diminish your credit score. So if you've got a mortgage you need to do, you don't be doing this in the three to six months before that. A mule account is where you actually have a bank account you're quite happy with that you're using for your day to day banking, but you want to do regular switching in order to get the free bonuses. So you set up like a spare account, an account that you're not really intending to use that much. You have a couple of direct debits going out from
23:05 Martin Lewis? it because you normally need those to qualify and you pay money into it once you're switching because they have minimum payment requirements. So you pay that money in, but then you just take it out the next day. And then you use that account just as a mule, if you like, to move from one place to another so that you can switch and get the benefits exactly as Will did perfectly. I mean, 750, that's a good haul. It's not the record haul. I know people who've done it for themselves and their partner and in the over two grand type level, but it's absolutely brilliant and inspiring and shows you where Vish started with his £400 for his first try, Will has taken it up a notch. Love it.
23:45 Martin Lewis? And Matt, I'm guessing this is our final one.
23:47 Speaker 04 A final success for you from Geoffrey.
23:49 Martin Lewis? Okay.
23:50 Speaker 04 Dear Martin, just wanted to say a huge thank you for opening my eyes to getting my UK pension and the April 2025 deadline. I had only nine years of contributions and was therefore one year short of getting any pension. But after hearing your podcast, I managed to submit 18 years of voluntary contributions, which is the maximum for him. Now he has a regular monthly income and indeed it is a multiplier. As a way to say thanks, I will donate one month's pension to a charity. Still need to decide which one.
24:18 Martin Lewis? Oh, how wonderful. And may I suggest as we're doing that, as the theme we're talking about, Citizens Advice would be a wonderful charity that you could donate to. But of course, it is your choice. Well, that's one, listen, that was one of my big themes of the year earlier in the year, that you had the ability to buy back pensions going back to 2006. And this is voluntary years of your pension. Now, what's fascinating in your accounts, Geoffrey, is you're quite right. You had only nine years of contributions and you need a minimum 10 years of contributions to get any pension. So even if you had just bought one year, that would have had a massive impact. That would have been incredibly lucrative. But you bought 18 years, probably cost you, I don't know, depending on whether you were self-employed or not, probably cost you somewhere in the region of £10,000 to £15,000. So
25:02 Martin Lewis? it's quite a lot of money. But on the back of that. Just so everybody understands the context here, on the back of that, you would have got, what, 18 years, I would estimate about £120 a week of state pension, which is what, about £6,000 a year of state pension. Let's say you live 20 years in your pension age, which would be a typical life expectancy, £120,000. And that is inflation-proofed because of the triple lock that it will go up each year. So £120,000 in today's money, but it will stay that in real terms in the future. I mean, that's a huge success to finish with. Thank you for doing that one last, Matt. Now, just to say to people who might be thinking about this,
25:46 Martin Lewis? the whole issue about April 2025 is that was the deadline for going back to 2006. The rules now are that you can only go back six years. And it was a special, it was about the transition from the old state pension to the new state pension. I'm not going to bore you with that. But if you are missing years in the last six years, it is worth checking and doing the maths, and there are some guides online that will help you, deciding whether it is worth you buying those extra years to make sure that you're getting the full state pension. If you are missing years, it can be very lucrative, but it isn't right for everyone, and it's a bit of a process. But wow, what a success to finish with. If you have Jeff's, well, we say £120,000 minus World's, let's call him £100,000, and we've got about nine other thousand, about £109,000 of successes in here. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas.
26:33 Martin Lewis? So that is it. And this is our last podcast of 2025, although podcast producer Matt is going to be putting out some special best of podcasts, but it is the last one I'm actually recording for you. So I would like to wish everybody who is celebrating a very Merry Christmas, and all of you a Happy New Year. But I do think it's always worth saying, and I like to do this, I know that this time of year for some is lonely or grief-filled and can be dreaded. If that's you, then I wish you ease through the festive period with more smiles than you were expecting.
27:13 Martin Lewis? That's it for this episode of Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We, in normal times, put out a new Question Time episode each Monday alongside a regular podcast on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do ensure you send in your questions, if you have them, to [email protected] .
27:49 Speaker 06 Martin Lewis is the founder of moneysavingexpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected] . The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double-checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.
28:30 Speaker 02 Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human.
28:49 Speaker 02 Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.
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