Question Time: Will ISA changes hit what I’ve saved? Safer to stick cash under the bed? A credit card for my eight-year-old?

In this week’s Question Time, Martin answers your questions about absolutely anything and everything – including: Will the predicted budget ISA changes affect me? Should I give my eight-year-old a credit card? Should I keep cash under my mattress? Can a car finance claim jeopardise my current car finance agreement? How does the marriage tax allowance work? Plus, what did Martin have for his tea last night? If you’ve got a question for Martin on absolutely anything and everything, you can ask him in his Question Time podcast! Email your question to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:38Martin Lewis?

  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 pod, in which I answer your questions about absolutely anything and everything within reason. And the questions you ask me this week are: Martin, is it time to stick my cash under the mattress to stop it being taxed? Or is that just too cynical? Should I give my eight-year-old a credit card? Car finance: I'm thinking of complaining, but if a complaint, can that jeopardise my current car finance agreement? How exactly does the marriage tax allowance work? And will the changes in the ISA that are predicted for the budget affect the money I've already got in one?

• 1:24Martin Lewis?

  Plus, you also asked me, what did I have for tea last night? Well, I did say you could ask absolutely anything and everything. Play the theme tune.

• 1:45Martin Lewis?

  So, welcome to this episode of Martin's Money Question Time, where you get to ask me questions on anything and everything within reason. And the curator and decider and grand poobah of what questions I am going to be asked is with me now. I'm building his role, I'm not quite sure why. Welcome, podcast producer Matt. It's funny, isn't it? I welcome you, podcast producer Matt, but you're at The producer of the podcast, arguably you should be welcoming me. How does it work? What's the etiquette?

• 2:14Speaker 03

  I think, I think, well, it's your podcast, isn't it? So you welcome me onto your podcast. However, what I will say is a lot of emails are coming through. Hello, Matt.

• 2:24Martin Lewis?

  I know. It's just, it's, it's getting, I'm going to have to have words with the buzz at me. We had a wonderful podcast when Michael was doing it last time, I have to say. And Michael was, Michael was self-effacingly asking for help in broadcasting and what the tips of broadcasting were. But you, Matt, you're already overconfident, but you are rather good at it. So, and I like working with you. So let's, shall we just get on and do some questions?

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Thank you very much. Yes, let's start with a question from Lou.

• 2:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  Hi, Martin. I'm seriously thinking about putting-

• 2:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, hi, Martin. Note, hi, Martin, cap.

• 2:52Speaker 03

  This one was tweeted, so it wasn't actually emailed. So my point still stands. Hi, Martin. I'm seriously thinking about putting any extra cash under my mattress because I feel it will be taken or taxed if I do anything else. Do you think I'm being too cynical?

• 3:05Martin Lewis?

  I never think anyone is being too cynical, but I think we have to temper our cynicism with practicality. So let's just look at exactly what the situation here is. I presume you're not talking about money that you've earned and you have to pay income tax on. This is money that you already have. Well, look, I mean, if you put money in savings, for example, your savings are not taxed. It is the interest you earn, the extra money that savings generates you that are taxed. So you're not going to lose money from tax on savings. You will just lose some of the interest. The same is true if you invest it. It's the capital gains tax, the amount that you pay on the profits. Or you might also pay income tax on the dividends as well. But it's on what you make. It's not on the amount that you have.

• 3:49Martin Lewis?

  Now, you might be saying, are they going to change that? Well, I think that would be absolutely radical, virtually unthinkable, and probably getting close to riot in the streets territory. So I think probably not in terms of money that you've actually got. So now let's just do a practical comparison. If you put money in a UK regulated savings institute, so pretty much all the bank accounts and anything I ever talk about, then you are protected up to £85,000 per person, per financial institution. And so if you had £850,000 and you put it in 10 different institutions, each one of them would be protected because you spread it across. If you put money under your mattress and someone breaks in and steals the money,

• 4:32Martin Lewis?

  even the best home insurance policy normally only covers you for up to £1,000 worth of cash. And also, you're having to pay for the insurance policy to cover you for up to a £1,000 worth of cash. Whereas money in a bank or financial institution that is paying you interest, you are being paid effectively to put your money there and you get the protection on top. So if we're just talking really sensibly on a like-for-like comparison between keeping money under your mattress and putting it in a savings account, it is an absolute no-brainer. Put it in a savings account.

• 5:09Martin Lewis?

  Okay, what's next? It's second question. Normally you put a caller here. Is it a caller?

• 5:13Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 5:14Martin Lewis?

  I'm getting used to the way you work.

• 5:15Speaker 03

  Nothing if not predictable. Right, we've got Matt, great name, in Liverpool. Hi, Matt, can you hear us?

• 5:23Speaker 04

  I can, yeah.

• 5:24Martin Lewis?

  Two Matts, so it's a brace of Matts. What can I do?

• 5:27Speaker 04

  It's a good name.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  It is a good name. I'd say it's the best name.

• 5:30Martin Lewis?

  It's got three decent letters in, I'll give you that. Right, what's your question, Matt?

• 5:36Speaker 04

  So my question is, I can't claim glory for this idea, but I heard from another dad on our school run about maybe being able to add my daughter, she's eight years old, she's just nearly eight years old, potentially being able to add her on to my credit card.

• 5:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, you know, which is very healthy and gets paid off in full, obviously, every month.

• 6:05Martin Lewis?

  Good.

• 6:05Speaker 04

  On a direct debit.

• 6:08Speaker 04

  And, you know, by doing that, she would therefore accumulate some credit history, positive credit history, you know, and by the time she's sort of 16, 17, 18, you know, that would suddenly kind of pop out as if by magic. So that was my, that was, my question was, does that work? Can I do that? I've never heard of it before.

• 6:31Martin Lewis?

  Do you want the short answer? I'll give you the short answer first. No, it does not work. And now I'll give you the long answer, but I tell you what, it does give me an idea for a money mastermind for Adrian in the normal podcast, because I think it's a good question for him. So here's, here's the point. First of all, there's no such thing as a joint credit card, right?

• 6:50Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 6:50Martin Lewis?

  You can have a joint bank account, you can have a joint mortgage, you can have joint savings, you can't have a joint credit card. What a credit card is, is you have a credit card and there's a second cardholder on your account. It's still your account, it's your liability, whatever, somebody else. So even if we were in a position where you could give your daughter a card, it's still your account and your credit score. It's nothing to do with her. It is just you.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  It's just a card.

• 7:14Martin Lewis?

  It's just you giving her access to your account to spend. I mean, and equally, you can't get credit until you're 18 anyway. So they're not putting you on credit files until you're 18 in that, in that age, in any sense. So I'm afraid, while I understand the concept, I wouldn't do it. I also think, while if you're just giving your daughter a spending card, giving her access to a credit card wouldn't be so bad. But I generally think while I'm, you know, I'm pro credit cards used in the right way, you'd probably be a lot better to financially educate your daughter with something like one of the prepaid cards that are out there, like the Hyperjar card, which is mostly free, that she could spend on and you could have some spending controls and you could start to do some financial education with her. You're not going to be able to boost a credit score, but it's a

• 7:56Martin Lewis?

  great time, you know, it's, it's the classic issue of the age. And funny, because, you know, I'm a big proponent of financial education, I've done a lot of work on it. But when, when you, I don't know, how old are you, Matt?

• 8:06Speaker 04

  Uh, fifty three.

• 8:08Martin Lewis?

  We're exactly the same age. Yeah, there we go. So when we were at school, we, when we had exposure to money, it was, it was notes and coins that we would talk about. Now, the truth is, your daughters eight, my daughter's thirteen, they are very rarely going to use physical money. Most of their life will be digital money. So actually, while it is important to educate them about how notes and coins work, I also think that we have to start to educate them about how digital transactions work from an early age as possible. So having her own account, something like a prepaid card, that you can say you've got this much money and she can see when she spends it, that that amount reduces and you start to get familiar with a digital operating account system, I actually think is really useful as well.

• 8:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're, we're with Starling, so I was, I think they have one, don't they?

• 8:54Martin Lewis?

  They do. If you're with-

• 8:55Speaker 04

  A Starling Kite.

• 8:56Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. If you're a Starling existing customer, then your daughter can have a Starling Kite prepaid card for free, I believe. So yeah, perfect.

• 9:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:04Martin Lewis?

  And, and I would, so you can't do the credit card stuff, but I think the earlier you started with that, and you know, you control the amount of money on it, so there's no risk, and that she starts to get that, then I think the, the better the financial education. And I would, I would torture about it. I don't know if you have savings for her. I don't need to, I don't need to know that particularly. But again, I think of the age and I do with my daughter, I talk about what an interest rate is, and I'm sure you don't need an explanation of that, and a better interest rate is better. So I do some of the research with her, just to give an exposure to some of the decisions. And it can actually, it's still a lot of fun at eight. It doesn't sound it, but you know, we can, you sound like a good dad. I'm sure you can make it fun.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I agree. I mean, I, you know, my mum and dad were always very, uh, they were very transparent about how much they earned and, and how much we had for, you know, for holidays. And so I've always had that mindset. And we do have savings. We've got various savings for her in a junior ISA and so on. I haven't really talked to her about those much yet, but um, I certainly

• 10:06Martin Lewis?

  Well, I think that transparency is really interesting, really important, because I, I remember once I had someone on my old TV roadshow who came up and she'd been saving money for her three children who were teenagers and she had- Told them about it and wanted to know when does she tell them and how can she, once they're over 18, how can she hide the money from them? And my answer was, why are you doing that? You know, she says, because I'm worried they're going to spend it and I'm a single mum. And I was like, look, you've done a great job in saving for them. I suspect you've done a great job as a parent. Unless you have a specific reason that you think they may be irresponsible, then actually being open, doing the decisions with them, saying, I've put this money aside, but I don't want you to spend it until I put it aside for something important. Trusting them builds the skills that they need.

• 10:47Martin Lewis?

  Hiding it from them doesn't give them the access to the skills that they need and makes them more likely to be flippant. And we had this big scene, it was television, and she went in and she did it and she told them and she was petrified. And her oldest, who she was most worried about, said, he said, well, what did she said, I put it, I thought when you might need a car or a house deposit later. And she had given him, it was a passbook at the time, I wanted her to change the account, but we won't talk about that. And he said, well, here, thanks for telling me, mum. Here, you have the passbook back. You look after it. And all the big drama was like, actually, we, unless there's a reason that you don't, we need to trust our kids. And the sooner we trust them and educate them about financial responsibility, the more chance we have them of actually being financially responsible when they're older. We weren't expecting to go there, but it's quite interesting.

• 11:31Martin Lewis?

  But yeah, as soon as she's 18, you'll have taught her those habits and then you get her a credit card that she pays off in full and she puts £50 a month on, and that will start to build her credit file as long as she's trustworthy with it. Thank you for your call, Matt.

• 11:42Speaker 04

  You're welcome. Yeah, and thanks for having me on.

• 11:48Martin Lewis?

  If you've got a question on anything and everything within reason, all you need to do is email martinlewis podcast at bbc.co.uk. Right, where are we going next, Matt? We've just done a caller, so now you're going to do a non-caller.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 12:08Martin Lewis?

  A read.

• 12:09Speaker 03

  A read. I need to get my voice on it, don't I? Susie has replied to your post on Facebook.

• 12:16Martin Lewis?

  Can I just ask, before we do that, are you any good at accents, Matt?

• 12:19Speaker 03

  I'm not bad.

• 12:21Martin Lewis?

  I think, just any, any listeners who want to put a question in, if you want to say where you are in the country and ask Matt to do the accent, I think we might start punishing him with his, building his role by forcing that in future. Carry on, let's do this one. So feel free to do that, listeners.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  Susie from No Current Place, apparently. She has said, "I had car finance on several cars with the same finance company. The current car is financed by them again. Could putting in a claim jeopardise the current agreement?"

• 12:52Martin Lewis?

  No, absolutely not. That would be a breach of FCA regulations. You are absolutely free to make the claim. The FCA redress scheme is out for consultation at the moment. It should be launching sometime in early 2026. And as a part of that, you cannot be penalised for, you can't be penalised for complaining about their bad behaviour. You are, you cannot do that. It was, now this principle first came out, I'm, I've been doing this a long time now. I was known as the big gob in chief of the campaign to reclaim bank charges in about 2005, 2006. And at the time, we were starting to see some firms penalising customers who complained, saying, "Okay, we'll sort your complaint about, but we don't want your customer in future."

• 13:32Martin Lewis?

  Because that was the first of the sort of big mass complaint type systems that was coming from customer generated as opposed to, you know, overarching, bigger regulator type generated. And then one of the things I campaigned on at that is to make sure that that was banned and they weren't allowed to do that. And, and rules have changed for a very long time now. You can't be penalised for complaining about their bad behaviour. So no, don't let it put you off at all, Susie.

• 13:56Martin Lewis?

  What next?

• 13:57Speaker 03

  Let's do a caller. Let's speak to Andy. He is in Telford. Hi, Andy.

• 14:03Speaker 05

  Hi, very happy doing.

• 14:04Martin Lewis?

  Hello, mate. We're good, thank, I'm, I'm good. I think Matt's good as well.

• 14:08Speaker 03

  I'm good.

• 14:09Martin Lewis?

  Okay, what can we do for you?

• 14:11Speaker 05

  Excellent. Well, my wife and I both, well, we made use of marriage allowance. So she transfers part of her personal tax allowance to me. Now, my salary is almost at the threshold of the higher rate of tax. And I know at that point, we won't be sort of able to claim marriage allowance anymore.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  Correct, it's a cliff edge, yes.

• 14:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, so my question is, when do we stop claiming this? Is it, is eligibility based on my gross salary? Or is it going to be my net salary after I paid my pension contributions?

• 14:40Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, very good question. Just for those listening who don't know what the marriage tax allowance is. This is a special allowance for married couples or those in civil partnerships. Just living together doesn't count. You need to be either one of those sort of contractual, if you like, arrangements, marriage tax, married or civil partnerships. Where if one of you is a non taxpayer, so earns typically under 12 and a half grand and the other is a basic 20% rate taxpayer. The non taxpayer can give 10% of their personal allowance to the taxpayer. So that is currently a gain. So you're giving about 1,250 quid of your tax free allowance to your partner that then they don't pay 20% tax on it. It's a gain of about 250 quid a year. You can backdate it four years as well, so up to four years. So it can be a gain of over a thousand pounds.

• 15:23Martin Lewis?

  Once you get the backdated payout, it's really lucrative and anyone in that situation should do it. I know you know all that, Andy, I was just catching other people up. So the marriage tax allowance is based on your net adjusted salary. So that is your gross salary after pension contributions and also after any gift aid. So if you're going to creep just above the higher rate tax threshold, which suddenly bang, you lose that ability for the marriage tax allowance. So it's a 250 quid cost a year for you. You, the easy tactics are, I mean, I don't want to get too personal, but do you know roughly how much you'd be above it?

• 16:02Speaker 05

  I don't know at this age. It all depends on what happens next year with like pay rises and stuff. So I don't know at this stage, but I mean, I'm aware it could be that I get a small pay rise and I'm, you know, if you could work off a month potentially, as you say, it's that cliff edge.

• 16:15Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's exactly that and it does happen. And the other thing that it's worth remembering that you would also lose, and I don't know if you've got savings, you don't want to, I don't give your personals away when you don't need to on the, in the podcast. But if you've got savings, your personal savings allowance, the amount that you can save without paying tax on it drops from a thousand pounds to 500 pounds a year. So there are two cliff edges there, if you like. So the way to get around that is you could increase your pension. Pension contributions through your employer that brings your salary down. So you're just putting the money into your pension so that you're still a basic rate taxpayer. Or alternatively, you could make a charity donation, you know, and it could be worth it. If we take an absurd situation that you're five pounds above the threshold.

• 16:57Martin Lewis?

  Then by making a six pound donation to charity, just so that we're clearly under it. You know, you could suddenly find yourself gaining a five hundred pounds of extra savings interest. That's tax free and two hundred and fifty pound marriage tax allowance. It'd be the most lucrative charity donation that you've ever made. So yeah, that it's when this happens and you know, the numbers. It is absolutely worth you considering doing one of those two options. An increased pension contribution or a donation. I mean, you'll have to do some sums on it, but it sounds to me like you understand the sum. So that's quite easy.

• 17:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, and would it be, would I, or we rather sort of inform HMRC? Or would they see my salary go up to that level and sort of automatically remove it? Or I want to avoid HMRC sort of, there's enough life admin as there is, let's face it. Sort of coming after me with a, with a.

• 17:45Martin Lewis?

  No, no, because you, that would be your gross income for these purposes. I mean, it just, that's what it would be. You're not a higher rate taxpayer. If your pension in this circumstance, right? So let's, for everybody to understand, I mean, let's make it simple and say the higher rate threshold is fifty thousand pounds. It's a little above that, but we'll just make the numbers simple. If you're, if you earn fifty two thousand pounds a year. And you, but you contribute two and a half thousand pounds a year to your pension via your employer. Then your salary for these purposes is forty nine thousand five hundred pounds a year. You are a basic rate taxpayer for these purposes. There is no involving anybody. That's just what the situation is, if you see what I mean.

• 18:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:28Martin Lewis?

  It's just a fact.

• 18:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm just trying to work out like when, when the time just gone. What is the kind of the process for stopping this? So that I don't say I don't end up having to.

• 18:40Martin Lewis?

  Make sure the pension contribution is coming out straight away. So that you're not going to go above that threshold of earning. That's the key. So you need to, when you get your notification of your pay rise and well done for you to you. And that's all going, you need to then sit there and talk to you, someone in your payroll department should be able to help you do this. And just make sure that your pension contribution is going up. I mean, clearly the debate, if you were to go up to sixty five thousand pounds, for example. Then you might be thinking, I don't particularly want to put that much in my pension just for this small gain. But if you're, if you're on the cusp level where you're maybe five hundred a thousand pounds above the higher rate threshold. Then it's probably well worth just having that money invested in your pension in order to keep the benefits that you want.

• 19:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, definitely. Brilliant.

• 19:19Martin Lewis?

  All right, mate. Best of luck to you. Thanks for calling.

• 19:21Speaker 05

  Could I just say, Martin, I wish I'd, I wish I kept a tally, but you've, you've probably saved my family sort of thousands of pounds over the years with all of your advice about haggling and energy bills and everything else. So I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to you.

• 19:33Martin Lewis?

  But how very kind of you. I'm British, so I have no way to know how to respond to that. But I am smiling, so thank you.

• 19:39Speaker 05

  People are going to work, Martin. Cheers.

• 19:41Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, mate.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  Cheers, Andy.

• 19:42Martin Lewis?

  Amidst all that flattery, I just realised I forgot to say, if you, that's the first time you've heard about marriage tax allowance and you're thinking, hold on. We're married and I'm a non taxpayer and my partner is a taxpayer, my spouse is a taxpayer, we could claim that, that sounds good. Well, then the way that you claim it is you go to gov.uk and the non taxpayer makes an application to transfer their allowance to the taxpayer. It is the non taxpayer who must apply. The taxpayer can't apply to steal their partner's tax free allowance. And it is almost always a winner. The only slight time it can't be a winner, it's going to get really complicated.

• 20:22Martin Lewis?

  Is if the non taxpayer is only just a couple of hundred pounds below the threshold where they'd pay tax, which is twelve thousand five hundred and seventy pounds. And the taxpayer is only just above it and above it by less than the non taxpayer is below it. Then it may not make you money. But for most normal circumstances, you know, one of you doesn't work, only earns a few thousand pounds a year. The other one of you works earns twenty, thirty thousand pounds a year. It's an absolute winner.

• 20:51Martin Lewis?

  Right, what have you got for me next?

• 20:53Speaker 03

  As you know, I like to put a fun one in.

• 20:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 20:55Speaker 03

  And this-

• 20:55Martin Lewis?

  Well, it depends on your definition of fun, but go on.

• 20:57Speaker 03

  This one is quite fun, and it's something that I think a lot of people probably do want to know. Craig has asked, "What did you have for your tea last night?"

• 21:05Martin Lewis?

  Well, I'm northern, so I'm counting tea as dinner, right? The evening meal. I think that's what's meant by it.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:12Martin Lewis?

  What did- okay, so Mrs. Money Saving Expert was out, and I was in with Mini Money Saving Expert, my daughter, last night, and we were debating what we'd have. It's actually a great time to ask because it was a good virtuous- I made, I had a jacket potato, done in the microwave, finished off in the oven. My daughter had a sweet potato, done in the microwave, finished off in the oven, with some tuna mayonnaise and grated cheese on top, and some peas and sweet corn on the side. And you know, it was really rather good. You know, you can go for all the high fancy food, but I actually- quite good for you, and good for my brand because it was actually, you know, quite a money-saving dinner, on the intention of it, thank heavens I wasn't out for a posh one, darling, at the Michelin star.

• 21:57Martin Lewis?

  And that is what I had for my tea last night, and I was in, I was on daddy duty, so I was making tea. And we sat there, and then we watched a bit of Modern Family.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  Oh, very nice. My question is-

• 22:07Martin Lewis?

  Uh-uh, it's a follow-up. I'm not sure you're allowed follow-ups.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  Well, this isn't what I'm going to ask, because does a baked potato constitute as dinner or tea? Like, or is it more of a lunch thing?

• 22:16Martin Lewis?

  It was a very- well, you can have it whenever you like.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Well, you can, yeah.

• 22:19Martin Lewis?

  It was a very big baked potato, I need to say. It was a proper, you know, it was a proper, serious size, and the peas and sweet corn were with it.

• 22:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:26Martin Lewis?

  But we were talking about it, and often when it is daddy-daughter dinner, there are treats that are involved, and I may well be more tempted, you know, to order something in or nip out and go and get something out. And we were talking about all these options, then we both looked and went, "I just want something simple", and that's what we, that's what we came down on. And if we want it, and if it's nutritional, and we happen to eat it at tea time, then it's tea.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  Fair enough. And you did hit all the food groups as well, so-

• 22:52Martin Lewis?

  Yes, I did. We did well. Thank you.

• 22:56Martin Lewis?

  I think this is probably the last one, isn't it?

• 22:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, last one and a good one as well, from Frank. Will any changes to ISAs in the forthcoming budget be solely on new ISAs or rolled out over existing ones as well?

• 23:10Martin Lewis?

  Very good question, very important question, and I know many people are worried about it. Now, clearly, I do not know what is in the budget. I haven't been told, and I suspect even the Chancellor herself doesn't know exactly what will be in the budget when it comes on the, what is it, the 26th of November. But there are certainly rumours about a potential cut to the cash ISA allowance.

• 23:37Martin Lewis?

  Now, it's very important, it's the cash ISA, not the shares ISA allowance. The reason it is being done, the reason it's being rumoured, and I say rumours, listen, I have had meetings myself where I've been asked about this by senior members of the government. So it's far more than a rumour, this is a policy actively being under consideration. That doesn't mean it will happen, but it's certainly something that is a realistic possibility. And the idea that they want to do is they want to cut the cash ISA limit, the amount that you can save tax-free, in order to encourage people to invest and put more money in stocks and shares. Now, I've spoken before on the podcast about how I think that is absolutely the wrong way to do it, I think it won't work, I think it's a perverse system, that if that is your aim, you will simply end up making more savers pay more tax. And they tell me it isn't to raise revenue, if it were to raise revenue, I could understand

• 24:22Martin Lewis?

  it, but it's to get people to invest, that doesn't work. And I think what we need to do is change culture and education and incentivise young people to invest would be far better. And I should note that there was a Treasury Select Committee report that came out this week, saying exactly the same thing, although, to be fair, one of the main quotes on it was quoting me, saying it shouldn't happen. And they are also saying that they shouldn't drop the cash ISA allowance, that isn't the right way to encourage stocks and shares investments. Having done my little bit of caveats there about what's going on, let me answer your question. Everything I have heard is about potentially cutting the amount you are able to put into ISAs in future.

• 24:59Martin Lewis?

  I have not heard anyone saying there would be retrospective cuts to the amount that you can have in. The only caveat is I have heard some mild suggestions to an overall lifetime cap on the amount that you could have into ISAs. So they, you know, the idea that you couldn't have more than £300,000 in a cash ISA. I think that's unlikely to happen, but for those with very, very large amounts, that is the only potential that could change things. And I suspect that might only come in with new money and it would be a cap and anyone who's already hit it, the way it worked in the past on pensions, it would just be frozen. So if you had, if you had more than that when it came in, they'd simply say, right, you can't put any more in, but it wouldn't stop what you already had in there. So I think it is very, very, very unlikely for the, for any policy change

• 25:44Martin Lewis?

  on ISAs to affect money you already have in ISAs in a negative way. It will simply reduce what you could put into a cash ISA in the future. What I don't know is if this were to happen, would it start immediately? Would it start next April? Or could it start in January? There was a previous change to an ISA allowance limit that started in the January, but it was a positive change. My suspicion is, the only way to do this fairly, if you wanted to cut the cash ISA limit, is you would cut it from the 2026, 27 tax year that started next April. So all of that is a very long-winded way of me saying, no,

• 26:25Martin Lewis?

  I don't think there is any change to any money you already have in ISAs. But there might be changes to money and how much you could put in in future.

• 26:37Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We're going to be putting out a new Question Time episode every Monday alongside the regular pod, which will stay on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in your questions. Just email martinlewis podcast at bbc.co.uk.

• 27:13Speaker 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 martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. 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.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  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. Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.