Question time: Will new ISA rules ruin my wedding savings? | Martin, you helped me find love! | Can I fix on a prepay meter?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: if I claim Marriage Allowance, will I have to do a tax return? My dad’s on a prepayment meter, is there anything he can do to cut the rate? If you have no National Insurance contributions, do you get a State Pension? Will the Chancellor’s new ISA rules ruin my marriage savings? Plus, we have a great success, where Martin not only helped their finances, but also helped them find love! 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 how many potted plants he has in his house, if his clocks are all precisely synchronised (or not), or have a very complicated question about your finances, email it 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

  This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Welcome to The Haunted Library.

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  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.

• 0:30Speaker 01

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

• 0:38Speaker 02

  We need you, we need you to be part of our team. State I am eligible for child benefit, but I want to be paid nothing because that can help her earn national insurance credits.

• 0:48Speaker 03

  I just wanted to get some clarification, but also some advice.

• 0:51Speaker 04

  Could Martin Lewis please open his brackets if he's going to close them?

• 0:54Speaker 02

  Ben in Barry with a badge at some point in the future.

• 0:57Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to the cunningly named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. I don't really know. This is our question time episode where you are as Squires extremely savvy questioners. Get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, if I claim marriage tax allowance, will I have to do a tax return? Will the Chancellor's new ISA rules ruin my marriage savings? If you don't have any national insurance contribution years, do you still get a state pension? My dad's on a prepayment meter, is there anything he can do to cut the rate? And we finish with a success.

• 1:39Martin Lewis?

  Yes, you help my finances and you help me find love. Worth a listen, that one. Play the theme tune.

• 2:01Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to this episode of the Question Time Podcast. Yes, it's where you get to ask me a question on anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. And joining me for the Question Time Podcast is the one, the only, Professor, Doctor, Sir, Matthew Burnham Esquire, the curator of questions himself. Add a round of applause when you edit it, Matt. Hello, mate.

• 2:29Speaker 04

  Hello.

• 2:30Martin Lewis?

  How are you?

• 2:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm all right.

• 2:32Martin Lewis?

  I got the doctor in the right place this week.

• 2:33Speaker 04

  You got the doctor. You didn't put the Lord in, though.

• 2:36Martin Lewis?

  I think, I think-

• 2:37Speaker 04

  Is that gone?

• 2:38Martin Lewis?

  Lord was a one-off to working you back.

• 2:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 2:40Martin Lewis?

  I don't think you've earned Lord yet.

• 2:42Speaker 04

  Okay, not yet. One day.

• 2:44Martin Lewis?

  And it's interesting, because we have to be, we have to be very on this podcast. I'm delighted to hear that we are becoming the pedants podcast of choice. And I say this in a nice way. The pedantry we get is good, positive, encouraging, joining the club pedantry. But I even got it from my daughter.

• 3:02Speaker 04

  Really?

• 3:03Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, who noted last week that I had apparently gone, the podcast where you can ask me anything and everything, within reason, close brackets.

• 3:17Speaker 04

  You didn't open your brackets.

• 3:18Martin Lewis?

  And I hadn't opened my brackets.

• 3:19Speaker 04

  And she noticed that.

• 3:20Martin Lewis?

  She noticed and she wanted to point out to me that I couldn't close a bracket because I hadn't opened a bracket. And then she did ask, which I thought was very nice, because she's wonderful, she said, "Is it a problem, Daddy?" I was like, "It's not."

• 3:33Speaker 04

  It's not.

• 3:34Martin Lewis?

  People are not going to mind that I didn't open my brackets.

• 3:36Speaker 04

  I haven't seen, actually, I haven't looked in the emails yet, see if anyone's complained.

• 3:41Martin Lewis?

  Anyone else noted, noted my lack of bracket precision.

• 3:43Speaker 04

  Can Martin Lewis please close his, open his brackets if he's going to close them? That's what the email will say.

• 3:48Martin Lewis?

  If not, what is he closing the bracket to? Does the close bracket apply all the way back until the previous opening brackets on two podcasts ago?

• 3:55Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 3:56Martin Lewis?

  So that the entire two podcast content is within a bracket?

• 3:59Speaker 04

  Oh, but it's very nice that she's listened to- To the podcast.

• 4:01Martin Lewis?

  She loves the podcast. She listens to the Question Time podcast every week. It's really great. What I love is it's prompting, because I want, I want her to understand, I don't want her to follow in my footsteps, but I want her to understand how money works, because obviously when people meet her, they say to her, "Oh, you must know everything about ISAs and things like that." You can imagine the pressure.

• 4:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:23Martin Lewis?

  And she's 13, and she does have a pretty good knowledge, but actually, since she started listening to Question Time, I'm getting a lot more money questions about what does this mean and how does this work on the back of her listening to Question Time. So it's absolutely wonderful for me, alongside the other thing that I'm trying to do with at the moment, and which is to explain the difference between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, which I really wanted to understand how separation of powers works. I'm like an old mini Montesquieu for anyone who knows that reference. We should probably move on at that point, although I do need to say something else.

• 4:54Speaker 04

  Oh, go on.

• 4:55Martin Lewis?

  Totally separate point.

• 4:56Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:57Martin Lewis?

  The bastion and authority of fact checking, Rosie, is not here this week.

• 5:02Speaker 04

  No GDPR.

• 5:03Martin Lewis?

  No, no GDPR, but the wonderful Claire is sitting here in Rosie's place. And I'm debating, not made my mind up yet, Rosie never speaks, do we let Claire speak?

• 5:16Speaker 04

  Well.

• 5:17Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's not us stopping Rosie speaking, it's sort of just become a thing.

• 5:20Speaker 04

  It's a thing now, so she doesn't speak, but is it that all of your fact checkers don't speak and they are just the silent wisdom?

• 5:27Martin Lewis?

  I don't know.

• 5:28Speaker 04

  Or?

• 5:28Martin Lewis?

  Shall we play it by ear and see how we feel as we go through the pod?

• 5:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, shall we do a question?

• 5:32Martin Lewis?

  Claire is smiling at that, by the way.

• 5:33Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 5:34Martin Lewis?

  Claire's giving me a smile at that.

• 5:35Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 5:35Martin Lewis?

  Let's start with a question, yes.

• 5:36Speaker 04

  Okay, one from Darren who has emailed in.

• 5:39Martin Lewis?

  In fact, not just start with a question, I think we should do questions throughout this Question Time podcast.

• 5:42Speaker 04

  Okay, maybe we will start a question then.

• 5:45Martin Lewis?

  Okay, yes, good.

• 5:46Speaker 04

  Okay, Darren's emailed this in, [email protected]. He says, "Dear Martin, Simon, Matt, Matt and Rosie."

• 5:54Martin Lewis?

  And Claire.

• 5:55Speaker 04

  And Claire now.

• 5:56Martin Lewis?

  And Claire, but we're adding and Claire. It's the whole family.

• 6:00Speaker 04

  I am a high rate taxpayer. We have two children aged 15 and 13. For the last 13 years, my wife has been the full time carer for our severely disabled youngest son. My wife claims carer's allowance and we claim disability living allowance on behalf of our son. We do not claim child benefit. If we were to claim the married person's tax benefit, would I or my wife be required to complete an annual tax self-assessment? I'm quite worried about having to start doing this as I'm notoriously bad at this type of admin and would be worried that I might fail to submit a return one year and receive a fine, especially as our son's care needs are high and we don't really get much free time to fill out taxing tax returns. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

• 6:43Martin Lewis?

  Thanks so much for your question Darren. Yeah, really interesting. Let me deal with the second issue first, the marriage tax allowance, and then we'll come on to the child benefit. I'm afraid it isn't going to be an issue for you. You cannot claim marriage tax allowance. The marriage tax allowance is for non-taxpayers, which is your wife, married to a basic rate taxpayer, which isn't you. You're a higher rate taxpayer. If you go over the higher rate tax threshold, even by a pound, you can no longer do the marriage tax allowance, which is why it'd be worth increasing your pension by a pound in that situation so that you were no longer a higher rate taxpayer and then you would still be able to claim the marriage tax allowance. What the marriage tax allowance does is it

• 7:28Martin Lewis?

  allows a non-taxpayer to apply, to have 10% of their personal allowance, the amount that they can earn tax-free each year, to be shifted to the basic rate taxpayer. So that basic rate taxpayer then has another 1,250 quid roughly that they can earn tax-free rather than paying 20% tax on it. So the typical saving is around 250 quid a year and you can backclaim it. But you can't do it because you're a higher rate taxpayer. So you were asking about the self-assessment, would it make it more difficult? I'm not sure whether my answer is better or worse for you. You're not going to have a self-assessment problem because you can't claim the marriage tax allowance, I'm afraid, but it may be useful for many other people out there. So if you Are listening and you are in a relationship where one of you is a non taxpayer and it

• 8:13Martin Lewis?

  non taxpayer just means you don't pay income tax, you don't earn enough to earn to pay income tax in the year. I don't care if you're a volunteer, I don't care if you work, I don't care if you don't work, I don't care any of those circumstances. That people always ask me questions, what if, what if? If you don't pay income tax in the tax year, you're a non taxpayer. And if you pay 20% income tax, you're a basic rate taxpayer. And if you two are married or in a civil partnership, not just cohabiting. Then you are entitled to use the marriage tax allowance, go and do a little bit of reading on it. Because if you've been entitled to it for four years previously as well, it can be worth 1,250 quid for you and you get a backdated payant of a thousand pounds as part of that.

• 8:51Martin Lewis?

  Now, the second bit, I'm trying to work out why you don't claim child benefit. Now, my assumption is that it's because you're a higher rate taxpayer. And the way that child benefit works is you've got the high income child benefit charge that starts to effectively take away child benefit once the highest earner is earning 60,000 pounds until the highest earner earns 80,000 pounds where you don't get any child benefit at all. So my assumption is you know that, and I, but I just want to check because it used to be 50,000 pounds where it started to be taken away and 60,000 pounds where you didn't get it. That changed a couple of years ago.

• 9:34Martin Lewis?

  If you earn over 80,000 pounds, then you're right, you don't want the child, you don't want child benefit because you just pay it back in tax and that's a hassle. Although I would still suggest that your wife registers for child benefit at the zero rate. So you say, I am eligible for child benefit, but I don't want, I want to be paid nothing. Because that can help her earn national insurance credits as childcare. And that is the trigger for earning national insurance credits of childcare, claiming child benefit. She may already have that, but that's just worth checking into. If you're earning less than 80,000 pounds. Then you do want to pay, then you do want to get child benefit because there's still

• 10:15Martin Lewis?

  a net benefit for you. And it doesn't always mean you will get the, have to do self-assessment now, because I believe this year they brought in a simplified form. I will double check that, and if I'm wrong, I will add in an edit later in the podcast. And if I don't edit it, you listening will know I'm right, and you don't need to do self-assessment tax on it. So I'm afraid to have given you one answer in the negative, but maybe there's a chance that you're missing out on child benefit because your earnings are under £80,000. And again, it's the highest earner, if you're in a couple, it's the highest earner's earnings. And if you're thinking, isn't that a bit unfair? Yes, it's very unfair. It is the ridiculous

• 10:54Martin Lewis?

  scenario that if you have two neighbours and one of them earns £80,000 and their partner earns £20,000, they don't get it. But if the two people living next door both earn £70,000, so have a much higher total income, they are entitled to some child benefit. It is a ridiculous system that is very unfair for dominant earner, single earner, and single parent households. And it's one I have campaigned on, it works similar for the tax-free childcare allowance too. But you know what? I don't win all the campaigns, I do.

• 11:30Speaker 04

  When does the higher rate kick in?

• 11:32Martin Lewis?

  Higher rate tax kicks in at £50,000. The child benefit cutoff through the high-income child benefit starts at £60,000 and is fully gone by £80,000. So they're all different thresholds. So Matt, I mean, after last week, when I said evens would be a caller and you disappointed me on one of them, we're going into our second question. It's evens. Is it a caller?

• 11:59Speaker 04

  What do you think?

• 12:00Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 12:01Speaker 04

  It's a caller. It's Katie in Peterborough. Hi Katie.

• 12:04Martin Lewis?

  Hi Katie.

• 12:05Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 12:06Martin Lewis?

  Hello. What can we do for you?

• 12:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I'm an avid listener of the podcast.

• 12:17Speaker 03

  And I was recently listening to-

• 12:19Martin Lewis?

  Well, in that case, I'm going to do this now. So you know who Rosie is? If you're a avid listener. So Rosie never speaks, but this week Rosie's away and Claire, wonderfully from my team, is filling in for Rosie. So I've decided to subvert the whole podcast format. Claire, say hello.

• 12:37Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 12:38Martin Lewis?

  There you go. Rosie never speaks, but Claire does. That's so mean.

• 12:44Martin Lewis?

  Poor Rosie. And Rosie doesn't mind. Well, I hope she doesn't mind. I don't think Rosie will mind. Right, sorry Katie. Let's get on with your question.

• 12:53Speaker 03

  No, that's fine. Well, yes, so I was listening to one of your most recent podcasts about the new ICA rules and the changes coming in from April next year. And I just wanted to get some clarification from you, but also some advice about what I'm would like to do when it comes to my ISAs.

• 13:17Speaker 03

  So me and my partner, we've been together for a very long time. We've just had our second baby. Well, say just, he's 10 months old now.

• 13:24Martin Lewis?

  Well, congratulations anyway. It's the first opportunity I've had to say congratulations. So even though it's 10 months, I'm saying it.

• 13:30Speaker 03

  That's fine. And we have a house and a dog. And essentially, the next event on our horizon is a wedding. And we're not engaged yet, but the forever financially savvy bone in my body says to, does it matter? And, you know, I want to prepare myself financially for this. So I'm going to start saving and investing money now for something in the future.

• 13:59Martin Lewis?

  Listen, I think that's great. Whatever the cause, whatever the motivation that you put in, if you want to demarcate this as wedding savings, that's great. It might end up being savings for something else. You never know.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:10Martin Lewis?

  But saving and investing and protect yourself is always a good idea. So, I mean, and hey, sounds like you've got two kids, you've got a dog, you've got a house. Sounds like you're a pretty established couple. This isn't, it's not, it's not, you've been on three dates two weeks ago and you think he's kind of cute. You know, it's, you're a little bit further along the path than that one. I think it sounds good to me.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  So yeah, so I've been investing for a while in my stocks and shares ISA.

• 14:35Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Um, I'm not a beginner investor and the sort of timeline I sort of have in the back of my head is sort of within the next sort of five years or so.

• 14:44Martin Lewis?

  Great.

• 14:44Speaker 03

  So I'm quite comfortable with that sort of level of risk. Um, but my plan was, uh, once I sort of hit the goal that I have in mind uh, in my stocks and shares ISA, I was planning to sell shares and assets and then transfer that money from my stocks and shares ISA into my cash ISA.

• 15:08Martin Lewis?

  Hmm.

• 15:08Speaker 03

  Uh, just to protect the money, um, once I've hit that goal from any sudden drops in value, just as I'm about to spend it.

• 15:17Martin Lewis?

  So the de-risk, the classic, you're moving it into a de-risk point once you want to crystallize the assets and spend the assets, yeah?

• 15:24Speaker 03

  Exactly, yeah. Um, but I'd like your clarification on, you know, with these new ISA rules, are I still able to do that?

• 15:33Martin Lewis?

  No.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  Um, well, yeah, if I can't do that, uh, what do you think I should do once I've hit my goal?

• 15:41Martin Lewis?

  Um, so let's just go into this. So this is about the fact, uh, and this is all on the back of from next year, under sixty fives will have a reduced cash ISA allowance. So currently everybody can put twenty thousand pounds a tax year into an ISA, an individual savings account, uh, and whether it's in stocks and shares or whether it's in cash, and then it's tax free. From next year, the maximum you are able to put in the cash bit is twelve thousand pounds. You could still continue to put another eight thousand pounds into stocks and shares. And what was announced last week is effectively the government's idea at anti-avoidance measures, because what they didn't want people doing is saying, well, I can only put twelve thousand pounds in a cash ISA, but I can put twenty thousand pounds in a shares ISA

• 16:24Martin Lewis?

  and I can hold cash in a shares ISA, in a savings element in a shares ISA, so I could just use my shares ISA as a cash ISA and put all the money in there. But the main anti avoidance measure they've come up with, well, there are two. The first is from next April, you will not be allowed, if you're under 65, to transfer money from a shares ISA to a cash ISA. You will be allowed to transfer from a cash ISA to a shares ISA. The second rule is that if you hold cash in a shares ISA and that cash or that savings earns interest, then that interest will be taxed at 22%.

• 17:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 17:04Martin Lewis?

  So from your perspective, you have one choice. Now, I presume that your de-risk period is potentially, you're talking two, three, four years away, it's not before next April.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah.

• 17:17Martin Lewis?

  So, I mean, obviously, the one route would be if it was before next April, well, you've still got until next April to be able to de-risk, get the money out and move it into a cash ISA. And it's worth you thinking, is there any amount of that money you would want to do this with now? If you're going to be doing it pretty soon afterwards anyway. But if you're going to be doing it another year or two, where you don't want to. Your other option within that, I mean, it is quite simply de-risk. I mean, you could, you could argue you could put it in money management funds, but they are slightly more volatile than put it into cash savings within a shares ISA. Or you simply just say, these are the rules, I'll de-risk, I'll leave it in cash in my shares ISA and I will pay the 22% tax.

• 18:02Martin Lewis?

  Because you don't want to lose the ISA allowance in case you wanted to invest it again. My question, what rate taxpayer are you?

• 18:10Speaker 03

  Well, this also complicates it. At the minute, I'm a 20% taxpayer. But by the time I would sort of start to de-risk myself, I probably will be a higher rate taxpayer just because of the frozen thresholds, basically.

• 18:26Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, you're, you're being fiscally dragged into the higher rate tax threshold. Do you already use your personal savings allowance?

• 18:34Martin Lewis?

  You know, the £1,000 of interest that you can make each year outside of ISAs.

• 18:39Speaker 03

  No, no. So that should be, that should be okay.

• 18:43Martin Lewis?

  It's a shame. I was hoping you'd say yes, because then I could, that could make the answer slightly happier. As you say no and you've got that unused. I mean, look, one thing you could simply do, depending on how much money you're taking out, is you could just take the money out and accept you take it out. And if you're a basic rate taxpayer, you can use the thousand, you can make a thousand pounds of interest a year tax-free anyway outside of an ISA. If you're by then a higher rate taxpayer, it's only £500 of interest a year. But it's worth noting, if you're just above the threshold of higher rate tax, it may be worth, in this circumstance, doing a slight increase in your pension contribution, which would put you below the threshold. So let's say, you know, you were £500 above the threshold in earnings,

• 19:25Martin Lewis?

  then put £500 in your pension, because if you're below the threshold, you can then make a thousand pounds of interest as a basic rate taxpayer, rather than £500 of interest as a higher rate taxpayer. Do you see what I mean?

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Yes, I am, sorry.

• 19:36Martin Lewis?

  Oh, you've got a little one in the background I can hear.

• 19:40Martin Lewis?

  That's okay. Did you get that though, Kate? That's all right.

• 19:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I got it, yeah.

• 19:44Martin Lewis?

  You got it. So it may be worth doing that. So look, one option would be when you get to that point is take, if you're not going to be, if you're going to be spending it, then there's no, there's no problem you taking it out of your ISA. It's slightly frustrating, but there's no problem. And you may as well take it out and utilise both your personal savings allowance and if you have a cash ISA allowance that year that you haven't utilised with the money. For the rest of it, if you are a higher rate taxpayer, then the tax that you would pay if you took it out, outside a personal savings allowance, would be 40%. And it's 22% that you're being charged inside the ISA, so it's still slightly cheaper than taking it out. But the honest thing is, it's just really, it will be really frustrating. I, I understand the government have done this as an anti-avoidance measure.

• 20:27Martin Lewis?

  I think it has some real unintended consequences. You are a classic example of one of them. It is preventing you from de-risking when you want to. I also think it's difficult for people who want to drip-feed money into the market, that it makes it more tough that they can't just put the payment in when they've got it. It has to be a much more complicated way of doing it. And we will wait and see what the, the net impact of that on a population level is, once this comes into place next April.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, because obviously, I mean, I have a specific event in mind, but I also sort of was thinking about early retirement and that, you know, will also sort of, and using my ISAs to sort of bridge that gap before being able to get my personal workplace pension. And I mean, I know that's a long time, that would be a long time in the future, but I mean, if anybody was thinking about it now as well, you know.

• 21:18Martin Lewis?

  In a way, if you're taking money out, it's not as bad because you're taking it out and you're going to spend it. Right. So that's not that. The issue is holding cash in there is the real problem. Now, there are, and it's outside of my expertise, there are money market funds, and there are other much lower risk funds. So there's an argument that says, depending on when you're de-risking, you could still de-risk in a, in a, in a shares, a stocks and shares type environment by using money market funds. Actually, I tell you the one thing, and I should have said it earlier, short dated gilts. Do you know what they are?

• 21:48Speaker 03

  I know what a gilt is, but a short dated one, I'm, I'm not so familiar with.

• 21:52Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So a gilt, for those who don't know, is effectively a loan to the UK government. And it's done that you, you buy a gilt, you're loaning the government money, and it will pay you both income in the forms of a dividend, which is taxable as income, like savings, and it will pay you an amount normally at the end, which should be more than you paid. So you might pay 98p and you get a pound back at maturity. Now, if you buy a long dated gilt, the value of the gilt will go up and down with interest rates. And the same will happen with a short dated gilt, but what short dated means is literally the maturity date is not a long way away. So you could buy a short dated gilt for six months. And in six months'

• 22:36Martin Lewis?

  time, you know exactly what the government will pay you. So if it costs you 98p or 99p, it will pay you a pound and you might get a little bit of interest too. Normally, the reason people choose short dated gilts outside of an ISA is the capital gain you make. So the increase from the 98p to the pound is Tax free. So it can be a very, it doesn't apply to capital gains tax. It's exempt from capital gains tax. So the amount that you can get if the gain is where you're making it most can be very effective for people who are higher or top rate taxpayers and can actually net in at better than a savings account. Now, you're within an ISA, so that wouldn't matter anyway. But you may find, you know, let's say, if you're de-risking from shares eight months before you need the money, you might be able to find a short

• 23:21Martin Lewis?

  dated gilt, which gives you an exact return as long as you hold it for the full eight months until it matures. You may be able to find an eight month gilt that will give you an exact return in eight months' time, as long as you hold it for the eight months' time and pay a little bit of income on top, which might outperform your cash savings. Now, clearly, I've explained that quickly and you need to do some reading on that. But it sounds like you're financially savvy and that is worth looking into for you.

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Yes, that would be great. Yeah.

• 23:49Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. But I mean, they're trying to shut off these routes. That is the overall problem here. It is the overall problem. So the, now just let's go, let's change subjects slightly. The wedding, the marriage. You're obviously, it takes two.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 24:05Martin Lewis?

  Are you both thinking of this? Or are you thinking of this?

• 24:08Speaker 03

  No, no, no. We are both thinking of this.

• 24:12Martin Lewis?

  What will be the trigger for it?

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Um, well, we've got a big family holiday, our first big family holiday, um, coming up this September. So I think maybe a question might be asked.

• 24:25Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 24:25Speaker 03

  Um, but in terms of actually the times, like the timeline of everything, um, I would like to wait for my, uh, youngest to be sort of five years old-ish, just so that they can enjoy it, um, as well and not be, uh, so, um, uh, need so much babysitting on the day.

• 24:45Martin Lewis?

  What is your partner's name?

• 24:47Speaker 03

  Scott.

• 24:49Martin Lewis?

  And will Scott listen to the podcast?

• 24:53Speaker 03

  He may do because I've asked a question, but generally.

• 24:57Martin Lewis?

  I mean, because he's going to hear that you've just said you're expecting a question to be asked. I mean, we need to be, we need to be straight about this, Katie.

• 25:03Speaker 03

  No, no, he's, oh, I've been, this has been a conversation for quite a few.

• 25:08Martin Lewis?

  You've been dropping, shall we say, not so subtle hints?

• 25:11Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah, yeah.

• 25:14Martin Lewis?

  And of course, from my perspective and a financial perspective, the benefits of marriage or civil partnership are absolutely huge financially for inheritance tax and passing assets between spouses and all of that type of thing. So it is, it is absolutely beneficial. If you're in a long-term relationship, it is hugely beneficial financially to be married. Or if you don't like the baggage of marriage, a civil partnership does the same thing compared to cohabiting. So I approve, I approve.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Okay, great.

• 25:43Martin Lewis?

  It sounds good.

• 25:44Speaker 03

  Well, if, if anything happens, I, I can email back in with the, into the pod.

• 25:50Martin Lewis?

  We would love to hear. We will have to do an update on the story. We'd absolutely love to do that. Thank you so much for your question. I hope we managed to help somewhat. I mean, we're still all working our way through this, this new structure that the government has come up with for when it comes in place next April, but those are for my provisional thoughts.

• 26:06Speaker 03

  Yes, no, yeah, I just feel, I mean, I feel like most probably people in sort of this sort of situation is, is you sort of get a bit punished for doing the right thing almost, but never mind.

• 26:17Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. And of course, and I shouldn't, I shouldn't say what I'm going to say, but the plan is it will be happening next April and one suspects there might be different personnel making decisions, so who knows?

• 26:28Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah, yes, that's true.

• 26:30Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Thanks so much. Thanks for your call. Nice to chat to you.

• 26:33Speaker 03

  No, thank you very much. Thank you.

• 26:35Speaker 04

  It's producer Matt here just jumping in to let you know that if you want to hear Martin's full podcast, where he explains everything you need to know about the royal changes with ISAs and lifetime ISAs, you can find that three episodes back from this one on BBC Sounds. Why not go and listen to it after you finish this episode?

• 26:54Martin Lewis?

  That was very interesting. What have you got for me next?

• 26:56Speaker 04

  I've got a read.

• 26:57Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 26:57Speaker 04

  A read from Phil. Phil's emailed in to [email protected] and he says, "Dear Matt, Simon and of course, Martin."

• 27:05Martin Lewis?

  Okay, put me at the end.

• 27:07Speaker 04

  I know, I like it, it's funny. He says, "I have what I thought would be a simple question, but I'm struggling to find an answer. I have a family member who's approaching 40 and has no national insurance contributions as they've never worked, claimed any form of benefit or had children. Assuming this continues and they fail to achieve 10 years' worth of contributions or have bought 10 years' worth, my question is, as they don't qualify for the state pension under current rules, what would they be entitled to, if anything?"

• 27:34Martin Lewis?

  Okay, really interesting question. I'm going to answer "under current rules", obviously this individual won't be reaching their state pension age for another minimum 27 years, so things could have changed in that time. You are quite right, there is a hard bottom and a soft top when it comes to the state pension. What I mean by that is, when I talk about how many years you need to of national insurance contributions, for those who don't know, national insurance contributions are when you work or as rightly pointed out, if you get certain benefits or if you look after children, you get a national insurance credit. Think of it, I almost think of it like a token. For each year that you work, you get a national insurance credit, a token that goes into the piggy bank. And I generally

• 28:18Martin Lewis?

  say you need 35 years' worth-ish of national insurance to get the full state pension, but it really is an ish. For some people, it's more for some people that's less. And just because you've got your full state pension entitlement doesn't mean you stop paying national insurance if you're working and you're under state pension age, which people get frustrated about. But the bottom is a hard bottom, because to get any state pension, you need 10 years of national insurance credits. And I went through this in a lot of detail when I was doing my campaign last year, when you could buy back, I think it was 14 extra years, the window was shutting on that and there was a lot of urgency, and talking about whether it was worth buying extra years. And in fact, we had someone who had nine years' worth and wanted to know if it was worth buying, and buying just one year suddenly was hugely

• 29:02Martin Lewis?

  valuable and had a payback time of, you know, within three months of getting their state pension, they would have got back the money that they paid to buy the extra year, because you go from nothing to effectively a third of a state pension or just under a third of a state pension once you hit 10 years. So you asked me what you would get. Well, you wouldn't get a state pension if you had under 10 years' worth of contributions. If you had no income, and remember, income can be derived from savings. So if this person, I don't know why they're not working, if this person has a lot of assets, then the assets would be converted into a calculation to be income. Then the obvious thing for someone with no or very low income is pension

• 29:40Martin Lewis?

  credit. Pension credit is effectively a top up to any or no state pension that you get to give you a minimum income. So for people who have less than about £240 of income a week, including state pension and any private pension and any income from savings and investments, then they can get the pension credit top up. So pension credit, interestingly, is actually a gateway benefit that opens up access to a whole other load of benefits. So I don't know the reason that this person is never working. If it's because they've got loads of assets and loads of family wealth, then they won't be entitled to pension credit. If they because, well, I doubt it's because of health issues that they'd probably

• 30:25Martin Lewis?

  be entitled to certain benefits. So I have no idea what the issue is here, but my answer would be pension credit. It is, I feel I'm doing it on a slightly theoretical basis there with the information that I have.

• 30:39Martin Lewis?

  Are you sitting there thinking, oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to [email protected] and please do start them, Dear Martin.

• 30:53Speaker 04

  No, Dear Matt.

• 30:55Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 30:55Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 30:58Martin Lewis?

  Who've you got for me now?

• 30:59Speaker 04

  I have got a caller.

• 31:01Martin Lewis?

  Well done.

• 31:01Speaker 04

  I've got Ben in Barry. Hi, Ben. Hi, guys. You all right?

• 31:05Martin Lewis?

  Hi, Ben. Welcome on board. Your badge will be flowing its way. It will be Ben in Barry with a badge at some point in the future.

• 31:12Speaker 04

  Oh, I can't wait. Bit of pride in Barry.

• 31:17Martin Lewis?

  What's your question?

• 31:19Speaker 04

  It's regarding my dad. He's 78. He's on pension credits. He's got a smart prepayment meter. He keeps saying that basically he's putting more and more on the prepayment meter. And with the energy tariff going up, is there anything that he can do? He doesn't use much electricity. It's only about four kilowatts a day.

• 31:42Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So there are limited choices here. The prepayment market is much less competitive than the other market. So funny, we were talking about this in the podcast last week because I've given evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on this exact issue. So just to set the big picture here, prepayment meters used to be more expensive than paying by monthly direct debit, which was always the cheapest. Then I think it was probably about 18 months ish ago that they changed it. So now, if you're on the price cap, you know, the standard rate, if you haven't got a special deal or you haven't got a fix or anything, prepayment is now a couple of percent cheaper than monthly direct debit and is actually the cheapest way to pay, which I think was a good move by the regulator because it is

• 32:24Martin Lewis?

  the one that the most vulnerable people tend to be on. However, it is very uncompetitive. So in most cases, especially if you don't have a smart meter, you are stuck on the price cap. And even though direct debit is more expensive on the price cap, if you pay by direct debit, that's where all the competitive switchers tariffs are. So, you know, the cheapest fixes on the on the direct debit are far cheaper than the prepayment on a price cap. So the first thing we need to look at is, is anything available? Now, you said he's got a smart meter.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:02Martin Lewis?

  That's useful. There are, there's virtually nothing if you're on an old school meter for prepayment. There are occasionally.

• 33:10Martin Lewis?

  Smart prepay fixes available. There is one right now. It's EDF. It's fixed for a year on average, and it depends on the region. So you'll have to forgive me. I'm going to give you an average. On average, it's 5% cheaper than the current price cap. Just to put that in context, the cheapest fix available for someone on direct debit is around 16% cheaper than the price cap. So you can see the 5% cheaper isn't that great. And it actually, whereas fixing that 16% less than the price cap is a no brainer because we think the price cap when it moves in October is going to stay roughly the same. And the price cap when it moves in January is a bit more crystal ball gazing, but it's going to stay roughly

• 33:52Martin Lewis?

  the same as the July price cap. So therefore, the wriggle room, you know, if it's 16% cheaper, I mean, it's, it's pretty unthinkable that you're going to pay more over the year on the fix than you would do on the price cap. A 5%, it's not quite a no, it's not quite a no brainer in the same way. So that is roughly where we are. How does that sound?

• 34:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, to be fair, I'm with EDF myself. So I was sort of thinking of referring him. And then he can, he can get a bonus credit as well, which might sort of see him through a few weeks as well.

• 34:27Martin Lewis?

  Well, that's all right. That's not too bad. How's his health, by the way? Can I ask? I don't mean it in, is he fit and healthy?

• 34:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's healthy. He's got all like, he goes on the, he's got the social tariff for like Virgin and Sky and whatever. So like, we sort of maximise that.

• 34:44Martin Lewis?

  I was just checking whether he should be on the Priority Services Register, which is basically that if there are difficulties being had, it's not about price, it's about difficulties being had, that he should be seen as a priority customer. If you, for example, if you had difficulty reading his meter, or if he would cut off and that type of thing. Sounds like he's, he's all right, though, for that.

• 35:01Speaker 04

  He is, but that's. That's definitely something we'll look at.

• 35:05Martin Lewis?

  It's something worth knowing for maybe, you know, as people age, you know, maybe in 70 or 80 years' time, when he's when he's of a much older age, it might be worth knowing for that point. If you're not, I mean, um, that so, so, yeah, I mean, it is very difficult on prepayment. And again, if I go back to the evidence session I gave this, that which was meant to be how you help vulnerable people with energy. One of the big points I made is most vulnerable people are on the on the form of tariff, the prepayment meter, which is less competitive and therefore can't access the cheaper deals. So we have yet again, the poverty premium and operating within energy on this basis. And and I'm afraid I don't have much of a solution for you apart from that EDF fix, which sounds good with the money that would be coming in.

• 35:44Martin Lewis?

  Um, but at least, well, I I can put, I have been trying to do something about it in the bigger picture, if not in the micro picture.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  No, that's that's brilliant. That's brilliant. We'll look at we'll look at switching them over to that then.

• 35:57Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So make sure you do it for a comparison, but then, yeah, once you know it's the right tariff, get your get the referral fee that you get and hopefully you get paid and he gets paid and then you're both doing well.

• 36:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, hopefully.

• 36:07Martin Lewis?

  All right. Good luck to you. Thank you so much for calling.

• 36:10Speaker 04

  Thank you. Bye.

• 36:11Martin Lewis?

  Just a quick note, energy tariffs do change pretty much daily. So what I was saying in that was at the time of recording, you may be listening later, the same tariffs may not be available. So I would always go for this. I go on to a price comparison site. As I often say, I'd go to one that's whole of market by default. There is only one. I'm not allowed to tell you which one it is.

• 36:35Martin Lewis?

  So if you're not on that one and you're on one of the others, what you must always make sure you do is there'll be a little box at the bottom somewhere that says, as quietly as they possibly can, show all tariffs. So you need to tick the show all tariffs because many of the cheapest tariffs at the moment don't pay comparison sites. So they won't be in their default search. So make sure you do tick that.

• 37:01Martin Lewis?

  Okay, those are our four main questions, Matt. Now, this is normally the time where you give me an askance or a funny question.

• 37:09Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 37:10Martin Lewis?

  Have you got one for me?

• 37:11Speaker 04

  I wish I could sit here. And say yes, but I have to scour in the inbox for hours and hours and hours. I could not find a single one.

• 37:18Martin Lewis?

  The inbox isn't that big, is it?

• 37:20Speaker 04

  The inbox is massive. We get loads of emails.

• 37:22Martin Lewis?

  Good, good. I'm very pleased to hear it. I never see it. Okay, look, listen, people, you're letting young Matt down. The man has spent, I mean, I'm worried he'll lose his hair. I'm worried for his health, the stress. I mean, just imagine the panic he has coming to this podcast, ready to produce it, and he has to say, no, Martin, we don't have an escance. We don't have a funny. And he's worried. He's worried, you know, I might, there might be physical violence. I mean, admittedly, he's not that worried as he records in Manchester and I'm in London, so it would be a little bit different to do. But in a metaphorical sense, there might be physical violence.

• 37:56Speaker 04

  I hope not.

• 37:57Martin Lewis?

  For him, not really.

• 37:58Speaker 04

  Oh, right.

• 37:58Martin Lewis?

  I'm trying to get them to, I'm trying to encourage them.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  Sorry, carry on, carry on.

• 38:01Martin Lewis?

  Sorry. Right. And so, and, but I don't blame Matt, listeners. I don't blame Matt. I'm blaming you. You know, you come each week, you listen to the podcast, you get your answers, you enjoy the banter, you feel you're part of the team. Well, if you're part of the team, where are your escance and funny questions? That's what I have to say to you. So, question time, listeners, my esquires, to all my esquires listening, you've let us down this week. We need your funny. We need your escance questions. We need you. We need you to be part of our team and help feed in to what we can feed back to you. Have I done enough?

• 38:40Speaker 04

  I think so.

• 38:41Martin Lewis?

  All right. How do they, how do they send them in? Just email to [email protected] and address them to Dear Martin.

• 38:48Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 38:49Martin Lewis?

  And put, this is my escance funny because I knew you were short. And hey, you will be an esquire, or maybe you come on to ask it in person and then you get a badge, even though it's not a money question.

• 38:59Speaker 04

  Imagine that.

• 38:59Martin Lewis?

  So not only am I uplifting you, I'm bribing you at the same time. So what we're going to finish with then?

• 39:06Speaker 04

  Well, I have a nice success that I thought we could do.

• 39:09Martin Lewis?

  Okay, good. I like, I love a success. Love a success.

• 39:12Speaker 04

  This one's been sent in by Flaviu, I think is how you pronounce their name.

• 39:17Martin Lewis?

  How to spell it?

• 39:17Speaker 04

  F L A V I U.

• 39:20Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I'm leaving that one to you.

• 39:21Speaker 04

  Flaviu Esquire.

• 39:23Martin Lewis?

  Nice. We know how to pronounce Esquire.

• 39:26Speaker 04

  We do know how to pronounce Esquire. They say, Dear Professor Lord Dr. Matt Esquire. Missing a few there, but I'll take it. And Martin OBE. You're not an OBE, are you?

• 39:36Martin Lewis?

  CBE. But I mean, and now I know why you like the success because it starts with Professor Lord Dr. Matt Esquire.

• 39:43Speaker 04

  Exactly. It's how to get my attention.

• 39:46Speaker 04

  They go on to say, you asked for more personal experiences in the pod, so I find...

• 39:50Martin Lewis?

  We did actually, just a reminder on that. This is about personal experiences and also responses. If you have something that helps one of our questions and you've heard a question and you've had a similar experience, then get in touch on the back of those. We'd love to hear that as well as your questions, please.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Yes, we would. They say, so I finally thought it was time to write in with my repeat successes as a long time listener. Your embrace of the nerdy side with your wife helped me lean into mine when dating.

• 40:15Martin Lewis?

  I know. I can't wait to tell Laura that. That's amazing.

• 40:18Speaker 04

  Wasn't a success with everyone, but my partner responded to it instantly and now it's all over our joint life. She's a better listener, but doesn't know I'm sending this in. We're all in with time of use tariffs, running around using maximum electricity in cheap times. Our typical usage is five to seven kilowatt hours a day, but our record is 25 kilowatt hours on a windy Saturday in April for which Octopus paid us 91p.

• 40:43Martin Lewis?

  So for those who don't know, if you're on the Octopus Agile tariff and it's only for sophisticated users like Flaviu who understand what they're doing, I mean, last week during peak times, it was four times more expensive than the price cap. So you really have to understand it. But during some other times, they can pay you to generate electricity. I've seen it up to nine pence a kilowatt hour, in which case everything you've been waiting to do, you turn on. I mean, if you've got an electric vehicle charger, it's time and your car's time. It's like, call up one of your friends, hi, do you want to bring your car around to my house and charge it? Because you're being paid to use energy because it's, it's instead of shutting the net off and the surplus times that they do it that way. So carry on. I'm loving this. Carry on.

• 41:24Speaker 04

  During expensive times, we just go on impromptu dates instead of cooking. Nominally, we're 19% down on the best one year fix when we started a year ago.

• 41:33Martin Lewis?

  Brilliant. Yeah, you could get batteries too and really ramp it up as well if you've been saving, yeah.

• 41:37Speaker 04

  You'd really have to think about it though, wouldn't you?

• 41:38Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 41:39Speaker 04

  Additionally, between us, we've stacked up roughly £2,800 in switching bonuses over the past year, all going into our honeymoon pot.

• 41:46Martin Lewis?

  So that's bank account switching and there are loads of bank account switching bonuses and deals available at the moment. That's really cool.

• 41:53Speaker 04

  They then say, which brings me to, we're getting married in August, MSE, Marital Success Expert.

• 41:58Martin Lewis?

  Love it, love it. And huge congratulations and Mazel Tov from me.

• 42:02Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm. A bonus, they say, last year I managed to buy my mum seven extra state pension qualifying years for about £600, taking her from nine to 16, enough to actually qualify for state pension. That one felt good.

• 42:14Martin Lewis?

  And how much does that fit in? That was not planned, but that fits in with what we've already been talking about this programme. This is the best email ever.

• 42:21Speaker 04

  Thank you very much. They finish with, thanks for everything. Your show has touched more aspects of my life than I ever expected.

• 42:27Martin Lewis?

  Lovely to hear that. I found that quite moving, actually. Thank you so much. We get so many, I was joking before about telling everybody off for not sending in the funny questions. We get so many lovely emails and questions and it is joyous to feel a part of people's lives and to be able to do something that helps people in this way. It is a wonderful thing. I am very, very lucky to have my job and I am also lucky to have Matt alongside me and Claire here in the studio, fact checking me live as we go. And I think that is a really good way to end.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  Ooh, it was.

• 43:00Martin Lewis?

  It was. Did you hear my peroration? I'd finished and I was all ready to go. Badge update.

• 43:06Speaker 04

  Badge update, yes. Badges. So if you come on the podcast, you get a badge. You can call yourself an Esquire if we read out your question. But if you come on the podcast, you can also call yourself an Esquire, but you will get sent a badge. And these badges are badges that I designed and I think they're fantastic.

• 43:23Martin Lewis?

  I still haven't seen it yet because as you will have heard, Rosie's away, Claire is sitting in for her, Rosie went to Manchester, she's got a bag of badges, but I haven't seen Rosie since she got back from Manchester so that she can give me my badge. Rosie is badge hoarding. I have to be very careful how I say that. Rosie is a badge hoarder.

• 43:43Speaker 04

  Hoarder, yes.

• 43:44Martin Lewis?

  Hoarder.

• 43:45Speaker 04

  Yes. So I had an email from someone who came on the podcast, Joe. They say, hello Matt, so it was just sent to me. I just wanted to let you and Martin know that I just returned home today after a lovely week in Portugal with the family. What would normally be a depressing return has turned around by the arrival of my squire badge, which has really made me smile. Thank you so much. I enjoyed listening to the latest episodes by the pool.

• 44:09Martin Lewis?

  Our first badge recipient, how lovely. Love it. And I'm glad you had a good holiday too.

• 44:13Speaker 04

  She sent a picture with her thumb and then the badge in the picture.

• 44:19Martin Lewis?

  What a lovely uplifting way to end. Let's stop it there.

• 44:24Martin Lewis?

  And that's it for this week's question time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new question time episode each Monday alongside the big topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money saving tips and tricks a week. Do please send in your questions. Just email [email protected] and address them to Dear Martin.

• 44:45Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 44:46Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 44:47Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 44:49Martin Lewis?

  We do like doing that. And don't forget, if you come on the show, you'll get an exclusive money can't buy Martin Lewis podcast question time badge. Who wouldn't want that?

• 44:59Speaker 04

  That's a rhetorical question, by the way.

• 45:01Martin Lewis?

  Bye.

• 45:16Speaker 04

  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.

• 45:57Speaker 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.

• 46:16Speaker 01

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