Are you missing out on £1,000s? If you’re married OR got kids OR low income OR pensioner you may well be!

Martin tells you all about the money you might not know you’re entitled to Plus, is it worth looking at Black Friday deals on broadband? Listeners ‘Tell Us’ about when their children have impressed them with their financial know how And Mastermind tackles the thorny subject of which debt is the most expensive. Get in touch: email [email protected] mailto:[email protected]

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

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• 1:12Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to all be about. Now, usually, much of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 Live show with Adrian Charles, but there's also lots of extras just for you lucky, lucky podcast listeners. In this week's podcast, are you missing out on thousands of pounds? If you're married, or you have children, or you're on a low income, or you're a state pensioner, you may well be. I've four big categories where those in the know can claim huge money. I'll run you through whether Black Friday broadband offers are deals or duds this year. Spoiler alert: they're deals. In today's mastermind, you'll learn why thinking debit cards good, credit cards bad, is a

• 1:56Martin Lewis?

  dangerous assumption. And this week's tellers is all about when children take over the family finances. That and lots more, but for now, play the theme tune.

• 2:25Speaker 07

  Yes, Martin Lewis is on an hour earlier today. Just before we go through what we're going to talk about, I saw a tweet, it said busy eclectic electric day today, and I thought he was talking about me again. The electricity between us, but no. It said during Five Live, doing my Five Live podcast earlier at 12, that's me. Name check might have been nice, but there you go, since you didn't wish to do it.

• 2:50Martin Lewis?

  I couldn't remember your name.

• 2:51Speaker 07

  No, okay. It's Adrian, by the way.

• 2:53Martin Lewis?

  Adrian, by the way.

• 2:55Speaker 07

  Then it's off to at energygov.uk to do a, quote, fireside chat with at Ed Milliband in front of staff there to discuss how to improve consumer energy issues. Then after that, off to do some tasks, but tasks with a capital T. Is that but a typo?

• 3:09Martin Lewis?

  No, and very well done, Adrian, because I was expecting the social media literati to have picked up on my capital T, but nobody has. Yes, it is tasks which involve a master. Tasks which involve a master.

• 3:22Speaker 07

  Ah, I see.

• 3:24Martin Lewis?

  Yes, for the New Year's special. Absolutely pooing my pants about that one. But luckily I've got the Ed Milliband chat first, which is quite interesting. They've asked me to go into the Department for Energy to do a chat with him in front of the Department for Energy staff. And I've got free rein to talk about what I want, while they're going to ask me questions. So I've got a very long list, but I want to be talking about the problem with smart meters, the problem, the issues over standing charges. I want to be talking about the fact that heating oil isn't regulated and all those people in rural communities, the lack of competition in the market. I've got half an hour and I've got a list which is just to write to go for half an hour. So be interested to see what I can get out. But it's an interesting form of government chatting with the Secretary of State in front of the department about what you think should be done for consumers in their department.

• 4:06Speaker 07

  You're the man.

• 4:15Speaker 07

  By the way, Taskmaster, no pressure, but when I was on that show, I ended up winning.

• 4:21Martin Lewis?

  I don't think that's going to happen. I just, I'm, I think my brain, I'm way too competitive and not funny enough. I'm going to handle it really, really badly. I'm just going to care about winning.

• 4:32Speaker 07

  So broadband deals, so fire away then. Anything with Black Friday in front of it, I think, hmm, that's probably a bit of a con. But Black Friday broadband deals, are they worth going for?

• 4:45Martin Lewis?

  So in previous years, my answer's been no, and I certainly would not say there is a rule that Black Friday is the time to get your broadband deals. However, this year specifically, we've seen a range of deals that are the best deals I've seen in 2024. So for those 7 million people who are out of contact on their broadband, which is basically anyone who's had it for more than 18 months or two years and hasn't done anything and re-signed up. You are almost invariably paying over the odds. You're paying 40 to 60 quid a month. So let's just translate that because it's always better to think by the year. 480 to 720 pounds a year. You're invariably getting relatively slow speeds compared to what's available on the market at the moment.

• 5:25Martin Lewis?

  Now, if I put it in context, and I need to start by saying, getting broadband deals, they're always short-lived. So it's always about what's available at the time. And the best deals are always via comparison sites. You may need to go to a few comparison sites because it's their bespoke deals. Now, the reason it works like that.

• 5:41Speaker 07

  Are they fixed deals then?

• 5:43Martin Lewis?

  No, so these are all about incentives. So the tariffs tend to be similar and you'll find the same tariffs, the same overall price that you pay if you go direct for what they're offering and trying to bring in new customers. But if they do it, what they offer on comparison sites is they'll offer you from their marketing budget, rather than the tariff, 150 pounds cashback credit or cashback, 150 pound Amazon voucher. And they do that because if they do it on their own sites, the firms themselves do it on their own sites, they have to offer it to existing customers. But if they do it via comparison sites where people who are price competitive go, they don't. So the new tariffs you tend to be able to find, they're not, that you can get there. So for example, and it depends which comparison site you go.

• 6:26Martin Lewis?

  There's Virgin deals between seventeen and nineteen pounds a month for 264 meg broadband. That's pretty fast. And that's seventeen or nineteen pounds a month. And what I do is me calculating, I've taken off, it's an Amazon voucher, or it's automatic bill credit, say, and I've factored that into the price over the contract. So the price I'm giving you is not what you pay, it's with the discount coming off, yeah.

• 6:47Speaker 07

  Something I don't understand. Does it mean, this is an embarrassingly basic question, but say, say you've got BT broadband, say, and it's working.

• 6:56Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 07

  Been a bit flaky in the, I'm asking this for a friend, been a bit flaky in the past, but it's working. Fingers crossed, because I'm, I'm knackered basically when it doesn't. Okay, but then, if I say, say Virgin has got a better deal, does that mean I've got a new router, I've got to get a new router and new everything?

• 7:12Martin Lewis?

  I wouldn't worry about the router, I mean, they, they tend to supply the router if you're doing a switch. Virgin, Virgin is a specific case, because Virgin is not on the Openreach network. So you've got BT, the Openreach network provided by BT, that is the underlying service that provides most forms of broadband. But we're starting to see fibre to the home being brought in now, which is what the new faster deals are. Now, most, when you have fibre, what that means normally is there's a fibre cable, let's say, coming to your community, coming to the street, and then the last bit of it is done by a wire into your house. Fibre to the home is where the fibre comes all the way into your house. You don't have to usually have an engineer to fit it, but they might come and look at the outside of your house, and that's where you get the faster speed. So most of the new fast deals are fibre to the home, so you will need a slightly different setup, they might send you a new router to do it, they may not, it depends what you've

• 7:57Martin Lewis?

  got. But just to go in context, Vodafone's got deals of up to 500 meg, which is just, you know, 10 times what most people are getting. Twenty-five pounds a month, once you factor in the incentives, and most people are paying 60 quid a month for, for a quarter of the speed. And I could go on, and the Sky deals out there, and there's other deals. So those people are out of contract on your broadband. This is the moment of this year to be going and checking what you can get. And just to say, the advertised speeds these days, the rules are, over 50% of customers must get those advertised speeds in peak time. So it used to be 10%, it's now 50%, so it's sort of changed the way it works.

• 8:36Speaker 07

  But I mean, it's not entirely commoditized this product in the sense that there are other variables, such as you go with a provider and something goes wrong. How long are you going to be waiting on a, you know, to get somebody out or even to get somebody to answer the phone?

• 8:51Martin Lewis?

  Well, the common answer to that is it has generally been open reach, which is the underlying provider that has caused the delay on all of them. So there has been a similarity, of course, there's big differences in customer service. Virgin operates by itself, so you could judge that. And I haven't mentioned the the alt nets, as they're called, these new local networks, hyper optic community fibre, giga clear, which can all be undercut some of the prices I've mentioned and are available in your area. You're right, Adrian, but and it's really interesting. When I, we do customer service ratings on my site when we talk about broadband, I can't really mention it that much. But I have this thing where because broadband service is so poor, our levels of out of

• 9:32Martin Lewis?

  10 for service on good, okay, and poor, what we count good, okay, and poor, about two points lower than any other sector, because good service in broadband is six out of 10 and above. Because broadband across the board is so poor. But I don't tend to see that there is a commonality of reading that if you're paying less, you get worse service. I mean, it's luck of the draw. And let's just put this in perspective, people are paying 60 quid a month for slow speeds and could be paying 20 quid a month for 10 times the speed. That's a 500 pound a year saving. And things seem to be improving on the connectivity once you're getting fibre to the home, which is the new faster stuff. So I would, I get the nervousness and I'm not saying it'll be perfect for anyone, but I would say it does work.

• 10:15Speaker 07

  Let's um.

• 10:17Martin Lewis?

  But go via a comparison site, don't go via direct.

• 10:20Speaker 07

  Got it. Let's, let's go to your four topics to check out, check out what you're missing out on or not. Where should we start? What about marriage tax allowance?

• 10:32Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so there are 2.1 million eligible married couples who are not claiming this, and this is a big tax break. It was, it's deliberate social engineering in the tax system to reward marriage or civil partnerships. If you are cohabiting. It does not count. It doesn't matter you live together 20 years and have five kids. This is about being in a legal marriage or a legal civil partnership. If you are in that case, then the tax break works like this. Shall we get married again, Adrian? I like it when we do this.

• 11:02Speaker 07

  Yes, I do enjoy that. Civil partnership or bells and whistles.

• 11:06Martin Lewis?

  Let's go the whole hog. Let's go a bit romantic, you know, religious ceremony and everything. Right, so Adrian and I are married. Adrian, who's the basic rate taxpayer? Who's the non-taxpayer? Who earns more?

• 11:15Speaker 07

  That would be you, mate.

• 11:16Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so, fair.

• 11:22Martin Lewis?

  So, you're a non-taxpayer for the sake of argument in this case. So you earn less than that £12,570 a year. And when I do this, lots of people go, "Yeah, but I volunteer. Yeah, but I work. Yeah, but I have disability." Yeah, but if you're a non-taxpayer, if you don't pay income tax in a year, that is the only criteria. All your other ifs and buts, irrelevant. You don't pay income tax in a year. And you're married to someone who pays the highest rate of tax they pay is a 20% basic rate taxpayer, which would be me. So what you are allowed to do is you are allowed to apply to transfer 10% of your personal allowance, the amount you can earn each year tax-free, which is £1,260-odd quid,

• 12:05Martin Lewis?

  is 10% of it, and you can give that to me. So your unused allowance is coming to me, so I now have £1,260 quid's worth of income that is untaxed, which was being taxed at 20%, which is a net gain of around £250-odd quid. But I can also, if we'd been married for those past four, five years, and this had always been our scenario, you'd always been a non-taxpayer, I've always been a 20% rate taxpayer, we can backclaim four years. Now, the backclaim you often get by cheque or backs, and that's around a grand if you're claiming back four years. And then the current year claim is done by changing your tax code.

• 12:48Martin Lewis?

  And once you've done it, as long as you're still eligible, they will keep doing it each year. You don't need to notify them again. It's an absolute no-brainer, but 2.1 million eligible couples are not claiming. But you have to claim it. So this is important. You're the non-taxpayer.

• 13:01Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 13:01Martin Lewis?

  I, as the taxpayer, cannot claim it. You have to apply to give me that 10% of your tax-free allowance. I can't take 10% of your tax-free allowance.

• 13:10Speaker 07

  But why is it opt-in? Why is it an opt-in situation?

• 13:15Speaker 07

  Sorry, you're looking exasperated with me for asking the question?

• 13:17Martin Lewis?

  No, I'm not. I'm exasperated because it is. I like all of these things because automatically they don't... There's a better answer, actually. I give them some justification. And it's actually an issue that comes up in other areas. The tax system, separate to the benefit system, is based on individual income only. That was changed years ago. That is no longer a man and his wife in the old days, the way we tax. So HMRC knows your tax situation, and HMRC knows my tax situation, but HMRC does not know our tax situation.

• 13:50Speaker 07

  Does it know if you're not paying tax? And does it know if you're married? Because if you know those two things, then you might be suggesting...

• 13:57Martin Lewis?

  HMRC, I don't think, does know if you're married, because that doesn't... Unless you're claiming this, it doesn't know if you're married. The benefit system does. But just to explain why that's quite complex, when I've been campaigning about the high-income child benefit charge, which is a whole different matter, and saying it should be done on household income, one of the problems is HMRC doesn't do household income. Benefits does household income, and they're not joined up. So because it works like this is the answer. Whether it should or it shouldn't is a different question. But yeah, it's incredibly important. So I go back. Non-taxpayer, married to a basic 20% rate taxpayer, marriage tax allowance, absolutely easy. You just go to gov.uk to apply for it.

• 14:36Speaker 07

  Got it. Eric on Facebook says, "I put in for a marriage tax allowance some years ago. Wife then got a bill."

• 14:43Martin Lewis?

  Right. That does happen. Now, there are two reasons. I rarely get that, but I do get it occasionally. There are two things that can happen. The first one is, when you put in for marriage tax allowance, all the calculations are done, and they look and go, "Oh, you weren't paying tax on this that you should have been paying." Now, I need to be plain, that would have happened anyway. This is a catalyst, not a cause. It might have just happened three months earlier than they were otherwise doing it because they're looking at your tax system. But the main reason here, and it's a really good question... So, let's go back to us. The tax free allowance is £12,570. Now, let's imagine I earn 20 grand. So I'm way above that allowance.

• 15:25Martin Lewis?

  You, though, you earn £11,570 a year, a thousand pounds short of it. You cannot apply to a move a thousand pounds of your tax free allowance. You have to move 10% of it, which is £1,260. So you've given me £1,260 I can earn tax free, but you lose it. So now you have £260 of your income that will be taxed and you will receive a tax bill. You are losing out on 20% of 260 quid, which is, what, about 40 quid? But I'm gaining 250. So net, we are still up. We're just not up the whole amount.

• 16:08Martin Lewis?

  The only time marriage tax allowance doesn't work, this is quite tough to explain, but hopefully I can get it, is if I was only just above the threshold where I pay income tax. So let's say I earn £13,000, which is £430 above the threshold, and you were only just below the threshold where you don't pay. So you earn £12,400. In that case, you giving me your 20% means you will pay more tax on the switch over than I gain.

• 16:41Speaker 07

  Right.

• 16:42Martin Lewis?

  For most people, the answer is, as long as, the easy way to think of it, if the 20% rate taxpayer is comfortably above £12,570, let's say above 14 grand, you'll always be better off, even if the non taxpayer gets a bill. It's only in the circumstance where the 20% taxpayer is only just above the threshold and the non taxpayer is only just below the threshold. In that very niche, and it's only a small number of people, in that very niche occasion, this doesn't work and you're better off not claiming. But for the enormous majority of those 2.1 million people, I would, I would guess, and I'm making this number up, about 2,090,000 of them.

• 17:22Martin Lewis?

  It's a net gain and you should do it.

• 17:24Speaker 07

  Flynn on Twitter raises something else.

• 17:26Martin Lewis?

  That was complicated. I hope people understand.

• 17:28Speaker 07

  If I did, when Lee Dixon, the footballer, was going through his, what analysis he was going to do on the television for a game, he always used to talk me through it first. And later on, I heard him describe me as his idiot filter. If I can get him to understand it, then it's suitable for broadcast.

• 17:47Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I'm feeling very good. I pass the test. You're very self-effacing. It's not true.

• 17:53Speaker 07

  No, it largely is true. Flynn on Twitter, when is the best time to hand back the marriage tax allowance when your partner has just crossed the income tax threshold?

• 18:01Martin Lewis?

  Call them and let them know straight away. Just, you know, if you're, if you're, look, in truth, in most cases, if your partner's crossed the tax threshold, then there's no net gain for you. They're just giving them 20% of your and they're going to save tax and you'll get the same amount. But the simplest thing to do is to declare it to the revenue when you know.

• 18:19Speaker 07

  Okay. What about council tax benefit then?

• 18:24Martin Lewis?

  Okay, this is a really quick one, but it's an important one that I wanted to do. There's loads of things I talk about on council tax and we'll do a full programme in one day about how you read band and all the different discounts that people are available to. But there's a real, and this is even more of your question, I'm going to do my agent voice, but why? Why do they do it that way? That makes no sense. Right? I could just do the whole podcast when you're not here. I could just do the whole thing. Right, so there's council tax support worth up to £1,500 a year missed by possibly two and a quarter million people. That data is from Policy and Practice, who I work with

• 19:06Martin Lewis?

  to get the data. It's not government figure, the 2.25 million people. So this is a council by council reduction scheme for those on lower incomes. And it can cut your council tax depending on the council by up to 100%. In other words, you're paying out.

• 19:21Martin Lewis?

  Now, it very commonly applies to people who get universal credit or similar legacy benefits and people who get pension credit. But most people on universal credit and pension credit assume they will automatically get the council tax payment, the benefit. You do not. They are totally separate claims. Council tax support has to be claimed from your council. Universal credit and pension credit are claimed from central government. And because they are two separate claims, that's why there are potentially 2.25 million people eligible for council tax support who don't get it, simply because they don't know

• 20:05Martin Lewis?

  you don't get it automatically, you have to make a separate claim. So if you are on universal credit, or you are on pension credit, or you are on a legacy benefit like working tax credit, contact, go onto your council's website or contact them by phone and have a look at what the criteria are for council tax support in your area and check whether you're eligible. And the vast majority of people in those categories will be eligible. Discount might be 25%, it might be 50%, it might be 100%. But two and a quarter million people are missing out on it and it's just like, you just want to go, shouldn't it be joined up? But it's not.

• 20:45Speaker 07

  Okay, we've got, we've got a few minutes till the news and sports.

• 20:50Martin Lewis?

  Do we do a couple of tellers? We could do a couple of tellers.

• 20:52Speaker 07

  That's what I was, that's exactly what I was fishing for. So this is when the kids help you with their finances.

• 21:00Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 21:01Speaker 07

  Go on, do you want to start?

• 21:02Martin Lewis?

  So I've got the Facebook ones, you've got the ones from X. We all get in on the octopus energy saving hours through winter, especially my 14-year-old who is a proper Yorkshire man and goes around the house turning everything off. Seriously, he asked me why I needed the light on when my laptop was giving out light from Claire on Facebook. My daughter did that to me the other day, someone told me off about money savings. Daddy, you've left the light on. You always talk about saving energy, you've left the light on in your office. I felt very chastised.

• 21:32Speaker 07

  I imagine you all groping around in the dark somehow with with low with rechargeable batteries in little low.

• 21:39Martin Lewis?

  No, it's not quite.

• 21:41Speaker 07

  Not quite like.

• 21:42Martin Lewis?

  Quite like that.

• 21:45Martin Lewis?

  Remember, the philosophy of saving money is to now enable people to live a better life. It's not to curtail their life. What have you got?

• 21:52Speaker 07

  Somebody says, is it Lois? Might be the um. Something my thirteen year old wants. He always checks it out, reads the reviews, finds the cheapest and tells me that accompanied by sending me the link. To the said item. Um. So he's trained well at bargain hunting. That that's actually quite a valuable. Skill. Well, yeah, well, you want it. Find me the very, very best price somewhere and I'll have a think about it if you clean the car.

• 22:21Martin Lewis?

  And Nicola on Facebook is very similar, actually. She says, when my girls were about thirteen, we told them they could have a quarter of any savings they made us on things like. Insurance, roadside assistance, utilities. They were straight on to the comparison sites and earned themselves a nice little reward. While saving us loads and learning a great lesson about saving money. I I'm just giving that a round of applause. One of the things I always talk about when you're starting, even with kids aged seven. Is when you open them that children's savings account, which people ask me all the time and I don't worry, I'll do best children's savings before we get to Christmas because I know loads of people are interested at the moment. And don't do it for them, do it with them. Explain to them what interest is. Explain to them, and here's my explanation, simple explanation of interest.

• 23:01Martin Lewis?

  Interest is the price of money. So when you save, you're letting the bank have your money for a time and it has to pay you. To have your money. So you want to go with the bank that is paying you the most to have your money at a time. But if you're getting money from the bank and you want the money from the bank.

• 23:19Speaker 07

  You've got to pay them.

• 23:20Martin Lewis?

  You've got to pay them and you want to pay them the least. And that's what interest is to a seven year old. And talk them through it and then go through which one's higher or which is a higher number, which does it work, which does it go through? And now, obviously, it's much more advanced what Nicola's done on Facebook, but I love it. I mean, the the adult independence that you will give them when they have to go and look after themselves. Of having the experience. And and a big question, just get in touch on this one. At what age did you start to tell your children about your household's financial situation, if you were struggling or if you're affluent? At what stage do you break that news to them and let them understand it?

• 23:57Speaker 07

  That's a fascinating question because you would surely err on the side of not worry, you wouldn't want to worry them, would you?

• 24:06Martin Lewis?

  Well, you wouldn't want to worry them, but on the other hand, certainly once they get into the teen years or even the tween years, if they're demanding you spend money, a calm understanding of we are on a budget, we have to be very careful, you know, things are tight and these are the way we can live our life, but we have to be careful, takes pressure off and kids are very supportive on that type of thing. But keeping them in the dark puts a pressure on the parents. So there's that balance of what age do you do you start to load a little bit of understanding and responsibility on to your children?

• 24:36Speaker 07

  Let's talk about children's national insurance contributions.

• 24:40Martin Lewis?

  Yes, this is so this is the theme today is you're missing out on. This is quite a complicated one, but it's really important. And in fact, you remember I was quite moved at the start of the show last week because a woman had just stopped me in the street in tears and that's what this was about.

• 24:53Speaker 07

  Right, yes.

• 24:53Martin Lewis?

  So a few people have asked me, what is it? So let me explain in detail. There are two categories here. Now, this is all about national insurance years and national insurance credit that go towards your state pension. To get a full state pension, you need 35 ish. It's a very big ish. Don't hold me to 35. 35 ish years of national insurance contributions. So if you're missing out on a year, I mean, that has a real impact. It can be worth thousands of pounds more to you to get an extra year late. Each extra year is worth thousands of pounds more once you retire. So this is big money. Now, two categories. Category number one, 200,000 are missing out because the wrong partner is getting national insurance credits. Here's how it works. You get national insurance credit from working

• 25:38Martin Lewis?

  as long as you're earning over a certain amount, which is not very much, you get national insurance credits. You will also get national insurance credits if you're taking time off work to look after your children, your young children, not when they're 32, not your children, but yeah. But that is triggered by applying for child benefit.

• 25:56Martin Lewis?

  If the wrong partner, if the working partner applies for the child benefit, they're already getting national insurance credit from working.

• 26:05Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 26:06Martin Lewis?

  But the partner who isn't working hasn't applied, so they don't get the credit.

• 26:09Speaker 07

  Okay.

• 26:10Martin Lewis?

  So what?

• 26:10Speaker 07

  You're not getting double.

• 26:11Martin Lewis?

  You're not getting double, you're just getting the same national insurance credit. So you need to ensure that it is the non-working partner who's getting the national insurance credit. And if you've done it wrong, you can apply to retrospectively transfer your childcare credit, which is what the lady was talking to me about last week, that she had got, you know, boosted a pension by thousands of pounds and she was in tears because she's now actually, she'd retired and it's now working for her and she's getting the money and she didn't know how she'd have lived without it. So just have a check, if one of you isn't or wasn't working and the other was working, which one of you claimed the child benefit, which one of you got the national insurance credits? That's 200,000 people got that wrong. The second one is very similar.

• 26:54Martin Lewis?

  Child benefit is reduced once you start to earn, it's now 60,000, it used to be 50,000 and it goes completely once you earn 80,000 pounds. That is the highest earner earning over 80,000 pounds. But previously it was over 60,000 pounds and this again is potentially backdateable. So many people want, because they are not eligible for child benefit, don't claim child benefit. But as I have just said, it is the act of claiming child benefit that triggers the national insurance credits for childcare. So in the circumstance, for example, we'll be, we'll be married, we've got a child now, Adrian.

• 27:29Speaker 07

  Oh, sweet.

• 27:30Martin Lewis?

  Be beautiful and handsome and very clever and speak very well.

• 27:33Speaker 07

  What's his name?

• 27:34Martin Lewis?

  Olaf. Olaf, I like Olaf.

• 27:36Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 27:37Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 27:37Speaker 07

  I love Olaf.

• 27:37Martin Lewis?

  Olaf Ermentude Lewis, he chose to take my name, I don't know why.

• 27:42Speaker 07

  The inheritance.

• 27:44Martin Lewis?

  So, right, so.

• 27:48Martin Lewis?

  We have a child. This time, you're the high earner and I'm staying at home. So you earn a hundred grand a year and I don't work. So I'm at home.

• 27:54Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 27:55Martin Lewis?

  I've gone, well, we don't need child benefit. We're not going to get anything. I'm not claiming it. I'm not getting national insurance credits because we've got a child. So we need to claim child benefit. Either you can actually claim at zero rate. So you can claim it and ask for nothing.

• 28:07Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 28:07Martin Lewis?

  But by claiming and ask for nothing, you trigger the national insurance credits important for your pension. And it's thought, again, another very common one. So those people who are higher earners and earning over that threshold, if there's a non-working partner, make sure you're claiming child benefit either at a zero rate or it's being rebated because that's what gets you the national insurance credits.

• 28:29Speaker 07

  Let's move on to attendance allowance.

• 28:31Martin Lewis?

  Okay, this is the big one.

• 28:32Speaker 07

  Shall I start with the question here?

• 28:33Martin Lewis?

  Sure.

• 28:34Speaker 07

  Okay, so Jeanette on Facebook, following your show, I applied for attendance allowance for my husband with early Parkinson's who waited six weeks and were turned down. I appealed by phone and they phoned back a few days later, spoke to my husband and we were awarded the lower rate paid back from his application in July. Thanks for the advice.

• 28:55Martin Lewis?

  Well, let's, this is not trivial. The lower rate is 73 pounds a week, so 3,780 pounds a year. So being paid the lower rate isn't like we got the lower rate, it's like we got the lower rate. On that, I spoke to Age UK about this, who are brilliant at attendance allowance. They tell me their technical team are starting to see what they call more fundamental errors being made by people on the, at the application level, not the individual, and people are being turned down when they shouldn't be. So we have to be very careful with filling out the form. And if you think you're entitled to attendance allowance, you should push through. But let me go into explaining what it is. Because, again, this is numbers from policy and practice that I've worked with for this number, not the government. We think a million

• 29:36Martin Lewis?

  people may be eligible for attendance allowance and not getting it. This is for disabled or ill state pensioners. That's who we're talking about. People of state pension age. Could be you, could be someone you know. And it's just listen out for someone you know in these circumstances. Attendance allowance is not means tested. So your financial situation is irrelevant here, which makes, which is why it applies to so many people. It applies to both mental and physical health conditions. One aside, if you get PIP, personal independence payments or disability living allowance, they're usually more worth more. You can't get that and attendance allowance don't apply. Stick with, stick with what you've got. So it is for people, if you need help, I'm going to define help in a moment, during the day or during the night.

• 30:18Martin Lewis?

  Then you're on the lower rate, 73 pounds a week, 3,800 pounds a year, that works out to be. If you need help during the day and the night, you're on the higher rate, 109 pounds a week, which is 5,600 pounds a year roughly. If you have less than a year to live, you're also on the higher rate, 109 pounds a week, less than just 5,600 pounds a year. So help is defined as must have needed help for six consecutive months, even if you didn't get it. So the fact you haven't had help is irrelevant. Help is help with someone for daily living. It could be feeding, it could be eating, it could be going to the toilet, it could be getting yourself dressed, it could be mobility.

• 30:56Martin Lewis?

  It's all of those natural, ordinary purposes that a healthy, well able bodied person would be able to do for themselves.

• 31:04Speaker 07

  Who assesses this? There's sort of if, buts and grey areas.

• 31:07Martin Lewis?

  There are, but these are the rules. In fact, there's a lovely quote by Lord Denning. It is, you know, when you, when you apply, you're going to need your national insurance number, your GP number, your prescription and hospital records. All of those things help, but the vast majority of people don't actually have an assessment in person. The application form does it as long as they've got the records that are backing up their condition. You know, I had somebody on my telly show the other day. This was a man who had very severe arthritis in his, in both hips. He could, could struggle to walk. I mean, you know, he's walking two or three metres, he's living with his, his daughter and his son in law. Very clearly he had mobility issues and he got attendance allowance. And attendance allowance is worth it. I should also state it's not just help with daily living.

• 31:48Martin Lewis?

  There's also a supervision category and supervision is if you need somebody to watch you to avoid danger to yourself or to others. Then that also counts. Now, when you are doing this, it's, it's common for people with Parkinson's, dementia, terminal illness, physical disability, and a whole lot more. It is very common. It is really, it's quite intuitive really. If you need help. And you're a state pensioner and you need help to live and do things that most people would take for granted that they can do for themselves. And you're not on any other PIP or DLA. You may well be entitled to attendance allowance. If you are, I would always suggest you do not apply online.

• 32:31Martin Lewis?

  You call up and request a form, and this is why. If you call up and request a form, they will back pay you to the date that you requested the form, unless you hold on to the form for ages and you've deliberately held on to it. You know, as long as you're getting it back within six or eight weeks. If you apply online, and most people start an application, they need to go and do loads of checks. It's only when you submit the application. So you're better to call up, get them to send you the form, even though the paper form is cumbersome. Fill it in with as much detail as possible. Be careful, get this right. If you need help, the Age UK website is great and it has a helpline too. I have had an enormous number of successes on this since I launched this, my campaign, awareness campaign about a year ago, and I've had quite a large number of failures too. So I need to manage expectations. You raised the question, who decides? There's a level of arbitrariness.

• 33:16Martin Lewis?

  But we need to pass word. It also unlocks, you know, unlocks a disability rail card. It may unlock a blue badge. It may unlock council tax, and my discount, it may give you extra pension credit. It may give you carers credit if you've got a carer. Getting this, it also is often not quite a gateway, but an indicator that you're eligible to many other things.

• 33:35Speaker 07

  Amanda on Facebook said a lot of people think the attendance allowance has been used to pay for care, it has to be used to pay for carers. This isn't the case. The money can be used for anything and DWP will not check how you have spent.

• 33:48Martin Lewis?

  Absolutely correct. I go back to again what that criteria, you must have needed help for six consecutive months. It is not, you must have had help for six consecutive months. And sadly, in our society at the moment, there are many people who need help but haven't had help. So that's the criteria and it is then money to ease, you might, what you choose to spend it on to ease your living because of these cases. Most people I talk to are spending it on mobility aids or they're spending it on, you know, things that can help them. I've heard stair lifts being bought with this type of money. You don't have to use it for a carer at all.

• 34:23Speaker 07

  We've got two listeners talking to each other on Facebook. Karen says, I applied for attendance allowance, I was turned down because I only take paracetamol for pain. I appealed and a phone call later to explain I can't take anything stronger as I react badly to anything stronger and I was awarded a higher rate. It pays to speak to someone to appeal. As he told me, it was because of the painkillers that I was turned down, but once explained, he understood, very helpful. And then Joe on Facebook says, this gives me hope. I applied for my mum and she has heart failure. They said she didn't qualify for attendance allowance. I'll ring them and try again.

• 34:57Martin Lewis?

  Well, yeah, I would go through Age UK. If you've been turned down and you think you're entitled. I mean, I had someone the other day who's on, has to live in an oxygen tent and was turned down. It's like, I mean, you very clearly meet all the definitions of attendance allowance if you're, if you're stuck and having to use an oxygen tent on a, on a very regular basis and that you can't get up and down. So now, the painkillers, just let's be clear, reading between the lines, that is not someone who has to take, you know, that taking paracetamol means you can get attendance allowance. Right, what that, that will be someone who has a condition that they've not mentioned and we don't want to go into their medical condition, but that, that they're taking, the painkillers they're taking is paracetamol, the attendance allowance would have gone, that's, you can't

• 35:32Speaker 07

  Which implies

• 35:33Martin Lewis?

  Which implies it's not in that much pain and therefore they didn't get it. But we don't know what the underlying condition was. But I just really, I, I, I want your help, regular listeners and you're listening on the podcast as well. Just think, is there someone you know who is in this position? Remember, it's not means tested, there's no financial test. Because a million disabled or ill-state pensioners are likely entitled to this and not getting it. And the, I get so, I'm very lucky in my life, I get many, many thank you emails. But the, this is one of those, when you get an attendance allowance success, the, the, the relief, because, I mean, it just permits people to live life that has been taken away from them, to live an element of their life in many cases. And people are just going, I can finally, you know, a man who was buying, bought himself

• 36:18Martin Lewis?

  a wheelchair and was able to get out of the house for the first time because he got a wheelchair. You know, it's that type of absolutely transformative change that it can provide for some people, which is why it would be, it's incumbent on all of us to spread word.

• 36:30Speaker 07

  And the first step. Is to ring who?

• 36:34Martin Lewis?

  Well, I would say the first step is to do a little bit of reading.

• 36:37Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 36:37Martin Lewis?

  And so you can read that on various websites and Age UK has a good website and just go through. You know, I've given you the criteria, but in a bit more detail, exactly what they'll want. Then I would get your documents together, get your hospital records together, get your prescription details that you've got, so you can sort of explain. Then if you're competent, capable and think I 100% clearly fit into this category and I've read the Age UK website or I've read another website and it's telling me that, then go call up, call up the, via gov.uk, I could give the numbers actually. In England, Scotland, Wales, 0800 731 0122. In Northern Ireland, 0800 587 0912. Available daytimes, weekdays, both of those.

• 37:22Martin Lewis?

  Call them up, ask for a form, fill in the form. If you're struggling, you can call the Age UK help down. I don't want to ram the Age UK help line. So, I mean, see that as, that's if you're struggling, but fill in the form carefully. This depends on your own personal competence, you'll know that. You know, if you're somebody who's been working in the professions and been filling in forms and documents for all of your lives, you can do this. If that's not your vocational experience, you're not good at it, then get some help and speak to Age UK to do it with you.

• 37:45Speaker 07

  Okay, but you might still need help getting your hospital records and everything together. Yeah, I'm just thinking of somebody elderly, living alone.

• 37:54Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 37:54Speaker 07

  You're not going to be able, you probably won't be going online for them and it's very difficult to get anyone to answer the phone, you know, get your doctor's surgery to do it, it's hard.

• 38:04Martin Lewis?

  None of this is easy. None of this is easy. Listen, we've got the numbers out today, they're boasting about 146% uplift in pension credit applications on the back of the winter fuel payment. Still leave 700,000 of the poorest, most vulnerable eligible pensioners not getting pension credit, not getting winter fuel payment. I mean, because that's an up to 240 question application form. The benefit system is too complicated. It tends to be the most vulnerable people who apply for benefits and then we make it quite tough. I just, I'm moving off, but with my charity, Money Mental Health Policy Institute, they did some amazing research on this. One of the problems we have, when universal credit was Was launched, it was launched to get it out quickly. It was launched as a minimum viable

• 38:45Martin Lewis?

  product that would just, you could do. But there was no testing done in the mainstream mode for people with mental health and mental capacity issues. And actually, a huge proportion of people on universal credit have mental health and mental capacity issues, far bigger than the rest of society. But do you know that we found that the form you have to fill in to be in a, to enable you to allow a third party to help you fill in the universal credit application form is incredibly complicated. But you have to get that form to fill in to allow somebody else to help you with it. I mean, so the whole system, and we're watching the charity, my charity is now working with government to try and improve that form. But I mean, this is, this is an endemic problem in our benefit system. Anyway, speaking of finding things difficult, play the theme tune.

• 39:29Martin Lewis?

  That's segue, but.

• 39:34Martin Lewis?

  Hello, welcome to Money Mastermind. It's where I pose Adrian a money teaser and he's starting to invariably get them wrong.

• 39:40Speaker 07

  I'm not, I'm just gonna pick it at random from now.

• 39:42Martin Lewis?

  No, no, no, no. I want you to try and we want to understand your logic in why you picked. So, the current score, Adrian has done eight of them. It's three option multiple choice. Therefore, we'd be hoping he would have got at least three right, but he hasn't. He's got two of the six right, less than random chance. So, now I need to be honest, in the past, in some of these mastermind introductions to set up the question, I've been rude about Adrian. I've parodied the way he speaks, I've parodied his dress sense, I've parodied his overall demeanor. So I think it's important to say to you all, loud and proud, that in reality, I feel Adrian

• 40:23Martin Lewis?

  deserves a lot of credit. And sadly, with his awful long budgeting skills, it's necessary that it gets a lot of credit too. So let's move on to today's question. That wasn't the best setup. It wasn't my favorite.

• 40:34Speaker 07

  I liked it.

• 40:36Martin Lewis?

  It was okay. It was okay. Adrian, today's question is all about credit or debt, if you prefer. I would like to know which has the highest interest rate of these three options. There's no maths in it. And HSBC, and I'm using HSBC for all of them, but the trend follows all the same on the banks. I just thought I needed to use one consistent bank. This is not about HSBC. An HSBC purchases credit card, standard APR. So no 0% period, after the 0% period, the standard APR of HSBC's credit card for purchases. B.

• 41:09Martin Lewis?

  HSBC's bank's standard overdraft EAR, equivalent to the same, both interest rates, or C, HSBC's standard loan APR for £1,000. So A is its purchases credit card, B is its overdraft, C is its loan. Which of those three has the highest interest rate and do explain your logic?

• 41:33Speaker 07

  Well, all of these three, we would assume in their basically industry kind of average.

• 41:41Martin Lewis?

  Exactly, that's why I picked it. This isn't about HSBC, but just to be fair, I wanted to go with one bank. If I could have done Barclays, I could have done, I could have done Lloyds, I could have done any of them. So I want to know, and this follows the standard pattern that they all do.

• 41:54Speaker 07

  Yeah, I would suggest.

• 41:57Martin Lewis?

  Well, tell me your order.

• 41:58Speaker 07

  Well, I would say, well, I'm going by what I've heard you say.

• 42:05Martin Lewis?

  Never a bad thing.

• 42:06Speaker 07

  Times, just that the absolute most expensive form of debt is, is a credit card, is borrowing off your, you know, credit card, going, you know, going over, you know, going, not going overdrawn, not paying it back, you know, just not paying it off in full. So, I mean, that's got to be the highest. Thereafter, I don't know much about what you, what you get, what you, a major bank would charge you for a loan. I would suggest it was slightly less than an overdraft.

• 42:44Martin Lewis?

  So you would say loan cheapest, followed by overdraft, followed by credit card most expensive?

• 42:51Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 42:52Martin Lewis?

  So your answer is A?

• 42:53Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 42:54Martin Lewis?

  Final answer?

• 42:55Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 42:56Martin Lewis?

  Are you sure?

• 42:57Speaker 07

  Well, no, I'm not sure about anything.

• 43:02Martin Lewis?

  I love the nihilism. It's just, I feel I've been cruel with you on these mastermind questions. There's a reason for them. Okay, so let's do the answer. HSBC's standard loan for a thousand pounds, I mean borrowing money a thousand pounds is always expensive as a loan is 16.9% APR. If you were borrowing £10,000, it'd be 6.6%, much cheaper. HSBC's credit card that you talked about, now it does have a 0% for purchases, so obviously when it's 0%, if you're using that right, that is the cheapest way to borrow, but we talked about the standard APR. It's pretty common to most credit cards now. I used to talk about it being 18, 90%, not 18, 19%, it's now 24.9%. Now, with overdrafts, in the old days, they

• 43:47Martin Lewis?

  used to charge you a daily fee, or they would charge you something of that ilk. That all changed, I think it was just before the pandemic, 2019, where they said it needs to be done by, it has to be done by an APR rate. And we saw an enormous homogenisation of the rates of overdrafts. And they all came in all around 39.9%. So, can we have an uh-uh? I'm afraid it's another one wrong.

• 44:12Speaker 07

  I'll take the uh-uh for a lesson.

• 44:14Martin Lewis?

  And let me explain.

• 44:16Speaker 07

  This is unarranged overdraft.

• 44:17Martin Lewis?

  No, this is standard overdrafts, not unarranged. This is, this is just going into your overdraft. You know, common parlance, you just go in. You might have a little buffer zone, but, and the reason this is important, it's fascinating what you said, because I thought you were going to get it right when you said that, because I have talked about this before. People often think debit cards, good. Credit cards, bad. But if you are overdrawn, your debit card is a debt card, and it is likely a more expensive debt card than a credit card. I mean, if you have credit card debts and overdraft debts, people try and pay off their credit card as much as they can from their overdraft. No, you pay the minimum on the credit card because it's cheaper. You try and put as much of your income

• 44:58Martin Lewis?

  as possible towards clearing the overdraft, because overdrafts of main, main banking debt, we'll ignore some, you know, subprime type lending or other type of lending, is the devil's debt, it's the Most expensive form of main banking debt. You do not want to be in your overdraft unless you've got a buffer zone or you're one of the few with a 0% on the overdraft. So we need to stop thinking, I talk about credit cards because more people have credit card debt than have overdraft debt. But we need to stop thinking credit card's bad, debit card's good. It's way too binary when it doesn't actually work like that. For those people who are in the overdrafts, I've got lots of tips. First of all, you need to try and make it cheaper. There's only one bank offering a 0% overdraft at the moment. That's First Direct, offers 250 quid 0% overdraft.

• 45:42Martin Lewis?

  It also pays you 175 quid to switch to it. The problem is it won't necessarily transfer your overdraft over. So it might give you the 250 quid overdraft. It's not guaranteed, but you might get it. But then you, it won't close your old bank account because you've got an overdraft. You would have to move it over. So it's a bit tricky, but you can do it. And of course, 175 quid might just help as well and use that to reduce your overdraft. You could alternatively use money transfer credit cards. A money transfer credit card is a bit like a balance transfer. It's very rare, most cards don't do it. Be very careful, don't pay cash. Is where you get a credit card at 0% that gives you money into your bank account. So you now owe the credit card at 0%, but the money's gone in your bank account and you can therefore use that to clear your overdraft.

• 46:27Martin Lewis?

  There's a Virgin Money one, which is 12 months 0% with a 4% fee, 26.9% APR afterwards. There's a Tesco Bank one, which is nine months 0% with a 4% fee, 24.9% afterwards. So you could use that to shift your overdraft on if you're accepted and then try and pay that off and get out of your overdraft. Because even the rate afterwards on those cards is cheaper than most people's overdrafts. If you are repaying your overdraft, try to pay a fixed monthly amount like you would on any other debt. So for example, if you're 500 quid overdrawn, aim that next month you're paying off 100 quid, you'll be 400, the month after you'll be 300. Budget that way. Try considering moving your direct debits to just before payday. The idea then is you're overdrawn for less time, so less interest accrues. That's important to do.

• 47:11Martin Lewis?

  If you've got savings, of course, use them to clear an expensive overdraft. And if, if you're going, I can't even come close to my overdraft and my credit cards and all my other debt, if you're panicking about your debt. If you've got over a year's worth of salaries debts, if you can't make your minimum repayments on your debts, or if you're just not sleeping or got anxiety, go and seek a non-profit debt counselling agency, Citizens Advice, National Debt Line, Step Change, talk to them, they can help you, they can help you sleep at night. But overdraft is not a trivial debt, we should not ignore it.

• 47:45Martin Lewis?

  Podcast producer Suzanne is here, so PPS, very similar to normal podcast producer Simon, I'll call you both PPS. So PPS, we're going to do some tellers together. The tellers this week was tell us when your children, especially under 18s, have helped you with the household finances and what have they done. So what have you got out of there?

• 48:03Speaker 03

  I think these two you're going to really like. So this is from Rosie on Twitter. She says, "My 10-year-old did the mental maths on a garage bill that I was just about to pay, and he realised I'd been overcharged by 20 quid. School taught him not to be afraid of numbers or maths." That's from Rosie.

• 48:19Martin Lewis?

  I've got one, let me do one. That's lovely. Well done, Rosie. And it just shows you, a good bit of mental maths, even when kids are starting out and don't necessarily understand the financial context, can really help. This one is from Pauline on Facebook. "My daughter started a part-time job at school, so has been budgeting from an early age. She told me about you," I think that means me, "years ago, and has been savvy following your advice. Her house was paid for in seven years and she has never had credit. I'm so proud of her." Oh, well done. Well done, Pauline, and well done, Pauline's daughter.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  This is a great one. This is from Liz on Twitter, and she says, "My 12-year-old son, who's on the autism spectrum, reminded me to set up an extra current account to keep two direct debits ready to avail of all upcoming bank switches."

• 49:06Martin Lewis?

  Nice banking mule, yeah.

• 49:07Speaker 03

  Yes, on, as she puts it, with the handle @mse__deals. "I earned almost £1,000 in the first year."

• 49:19Martin Lewis?

  Well done. Well, we love bank switching. I might actually be doing that on the show next week, talking about how you bank switch and how you become, set up a mule account just to take advantage of the bank switch deals. Let's do this one from Shell on Facebook. My son, who has special needs, when he was younger and we went food shopping, he was always finding the deals, telling me and my late husband not to get that, get these, buy two, get one free. He saved us loads of money. See, I love it. I think all of these are interesting and fun ways to start to engage the kids on the finances. I tried to talk to my daughter the other day, I was teaching her the difference between prepaid cards, debit cards and credit cards. We almost talked about that in the show just now. Maybe, probably not the most fun way to do it. I think some of these are more fun than the way that I do it. What else have you got?

• 49:59Speaker 03

  Okay, I love this one. My 13 year old has been making money on Vinted, selling old stuff. Bit of a Dell boy, like his dad was back in the day on the markets. That's from Kerry.

• 50:08Martin Lewis?

  They're all good and they're all different skills in saving money and making money. Helen on Facebook. My son Casper is 12. During lockdown, aged eight to nine, to make homeschooling more interesting, he decided to start making dog biscuits as a business. He's made over £2,000 and invested his money for his future. I love it, Helen. Well done to you. And Casper, brilliant stuff. Aged 12, already got your own business. You'll be a dragon in 30 years and one will come pitching to you for money.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  This is a very good one for Black Friday. You'll approve of this. If I ask my daughter if she wants takeaway, she always says to me, but do we have takeaway money? She questions most purchases, asking, do we need this? Or she makes do with what she has. She's 14, but she has always been this sensible. That's from at Old Breeze Oracle on Twitter.

• 50:56Martin Lewis?

  This is very interesting. We'll probably stop there, but I've been thinking, because when I read this on the social media responses to this, it was a really split response. Some who just thought the entire question of the kids helping out with the family finances or being good with money was absolutely hilarious because it's just not what kids do. And others, as you've heard from all these positive examples that we've got, saying, yes, it absolutely does work. And I think part of this is we do have different money personalities. There are different attitudes to money. And if you've got a kid who's got, you know, financially savvy or good with maths or interested in deals. And you can get them into the gamified element of saving money. I mean, it's almost how I started originally was everything I did was gamified. How do we beat the system? How do we play the system? I've broadened out in the range of things I talk about these days.

• 51:40Martin Lewis?

  But getting them involved in that gamified nature of it can really engage them in starting to think about being a consumer. And the more you can do with them before they start to become financially independent, before they have to do all this themselves. I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking your 16 year old. I mean, it depends on your issues. But taking your 16 year old through the final financial budget, even setting it as a challenge for them to see how it works out or what you need to do. And these type of tasks and learning at home to supplement the financial education that they should be, but many aren't getting in schools. For me is really important. That's why I wanted to do the tellers this week and I do hope you enjoyed it.

• 52:16Speaker 03

  Can I read you my favourite one?

• 52:17Martin Lewis?

  Okay, go on.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  And this one says, my 12 year old ordered a mixed grill on holiday. It's been downhill ever since.

• 52:27Speaker 03

  It's the, it's the entryway into spending a mixed grill.

• 52:31Martin Lewis?

  Well, it is, but it's, let's just play it back. Sorry to be all worthy. Let's just play it back for a second. I mean, just in terms of educating kids, there is a point at which you start saying, look at the prices on the menu.

• 52:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, my dad would always go for a mixed grill. He used to drive mum crazy.

• 52:46Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, but your dad, your dad was paying.

• 52:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was paying.

• 52:48Martin Lewis?

  Or your mum might have been paying. But my point is when you're a kid, if your kids go through the menu and they order, oh, that sounds nice. And they order the steak and the steak costs 60 quid and you were expecting to pay 20. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying, look at the price of that. Are we going to do that? We can't afford that at the moment or we don't want to spend that much on it. I think those, those transparent conversations start to educate people. That money is a limited resource.

• 53:15Martin Lewis?

  Okay, you lucky, lucky podcast listeners. It's that time of the pod where I do special tips just for you. I know, so exciting. I've got a couple of light ones this week because it's been quite a heavy show. First of all, free personalised letters from Santa. Yes, you can get them from Santa because he has elves stationed at various different places that can help out. The first one and the one with the shortest closing. ...date is to get a free Braille letter or large print or audio tape for children who are blind or partially sighted. The deadline for Braille audio CD and large print letters is Sunday the 1st of December. You can do it via the Royal Institute of Blind People, RNIB. They have a free application form on their website to do it.

• 53:59Martin Lewis?

  So if your child is blind or partially sighted, worth doing that one quickly. If you miss the deadline, they will send you an email if you email them, but it's far better to get the Braille audio CD and large print letters, Sunday the 1st of December for that one. Then the mainstream one, the Royal Mail has elves as well, who very kindly, if you post them a letter from Santa, the letter you're sending to Santa needs to have a stamp on it, but they will send you one back without a stamp. So, I mean, technically it isn't free, but you get it. And you just need to post the Santa's letter to Santa, or Father Christmas, whichever you prefer, at Santa's Grotto, Reindeerland, XM45HQ. XM45HQ.

• 54:40Martin Lewis?

  And you need to do that by Monday the 9th of December, but get them in quicker and it's a lot easier. There is also a Welsh address to post to. I'm going to try and pronounce it, but I'm going to do it horribly because I didn't pre-prepare this. I apologise to everybody in Wales or who is a Welsh speaker. Sioncawn, ogof sioncawn, gwled i cerwyr. XM45HQ. I know I just mess that up horribly, I was trying at least. And finally, for a suggested donation of £3, the NSPCC actually has a whole different range of elves who all work on different themes, eight themes to be on, for example, including Babies First Christmas and The Christmas Express. And for a suggested donation of £3 to the charity, you will get a letter back from Santa.

• 55:25Martin Lewis?

  The deadline for ordering your letter via post is Sunday the 15th of December. Donations support children in need by providing services such as Childline. The letter is available in English or Welsh and should arrive in the post in time for Christmas. And my second tip is for Tesco shoppers. You have just days left, or in fact less than that, depending on when you're listening to the podcast, to use £18 million worth of Clubcard vouchers. Obviously, you won't have the Clubcard vouchers, that's a collective amount, but you get the point, although there is a way to extend them with a little trick that is available. So what this is about is Tesco Clubcard vouchers normally last two years, and the next tranche of them runs out on Saturday the 30th of November, so not very long. If you don't want to spend your vouchers, well, first thing, spend your vouchers.

• 56:10Martin Lewis?

  Go online, check whether you've got any vouchers in Tesco Clubcard and if they are, where they date, and if they're dating on the 30th of November, you could spend them, you could spend them in store or online, or you could use them for Tesco Rewards where you double up the points. If you have nothing you want to spend them on at the moment, for example, you're saving up something big on Tesco Rewards, there is a way around this. So let's say you have a £10 Tesco voucher. Go and get a £50 worth of rewards with it, say for a Pizza Express voucher, as no idea. Then you should get the £50 Pizza Express voucher and 950 points given to you, which then can be converted into vouchers and will last another two years. So you extend it. Now Tesco does technically say that if it thinks

• 56:52Martin Lewis?

  people are trying to abuse its system, it will not honour that, but we've never had a case of it. And I think if you're just extending one or two vouchers, it shouldn't be a problem at all. But I needed to put that caveat in there. And those are my tips this week.

• 57:05Martin Lewis?

  That's it for the Martin Lewis podcast this week. Thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed it, please tell your friends and do make sure you subscribe. We tend to put out a new podcast every Thursday. And as I always say, if you haven't enjoyed it, that's your own fault. You didn't need to listen to the end. This is quite a long podcast. Why have you stayed? You need to look at your decision making ability. If you're not enjoying something, staying for about an hour to listen to it, what are you doing? See you next week.

• 57:33Speaker 03

  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 team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you're listening on demand, it's worth double checking as the details can date.

• 58:04Speaker 05

  BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts.

• 58:10Speaker 02

  In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? What were lines doing in York in the third century? I'm Misha Glennie and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world.

• 58:25Speaker 03

  It's one of the first times really that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers.

• 58:30Speaker 04

  If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure.

• 58:34Speaker 02

  In Our Time, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Tea or coffee? Love a cup of tea.