Money Box

Pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants in England Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland are now open for indoor business. But there’s growing concern about the numbers of vacancies across the hospitality sector. According to trade body UK Hospitality there is a shortfall of almost 200,000 workers.If you run a hospitality business, how difficult are you finding it to get staff? Are you a worker who’s left the sector to look for employment elsewhere? Let us know your experience: moneybox@bbc.co.ukIn recent years the hospitality industry has seen a massive growth as more and more of our disposable income has been spent eating out. Could these staffing problems bring this trend to an abrupt end? With many hospitality businesses struggling during the pandemic - despite government support -staff have had to be laid off. Continuing lockdown uncertainty also hasn’t helped.Expert panel: Kate Nicholls - CEO at trade body UK Hospitality Gerwyn Davies - Senior Labour Market adviser at Chartered Institute of Personnel

Children’s Commissioner for Wales Professor Sally Holland explains why she, along with the Commissioners for Scotland and Northern Ireland, want the DWP to drop a Universal Credit entitlement rule introduced by the coalition government in 2017. It only provides support for a maximum of two children with a few specific exceptions. Money Box reporter Joice Etutu hears from some of the thousands of people who have received random cheques from HSBC Banking Group. Amounts vary from tens to thousands of pounds. They’re still also being sent out to the group’s M&S Bank, first direct and John Lewis Finance customers who had arrears on loans between 2010 and 2019. Many thought it was a scam, but it’s not. EU citizens who want to continue living in the UK are in danger of missing a crucial deadline which could see them lose access to benefits and the right to work. June the 30th is the last date to apply for the EU settlement scheme which allows people to retain their legal status post Brexit. However there’s

What are you rights when making a complaint? How do you make sure you escalate your grievance to the right person? What difference can social media make in getting your grumble seen and sorted?Adam Shaw is joined by Martyn James from Resolver, a free, independent issue resolution service. and Alicia Alinia , Managing Director, Consumer Legal Services at the law firm, Slater & Gordon.Producer Smita Patel Editor Alex Lewis

A Money Box listener has been refused work by two employers because he was unable to provide his National Insurance Number despite the Department for Work and Pensions saying individuals can start work without one. Last year we reported that people coming to the UK with the right to work weren’t able to obtain a National Insurance Number because the government had stopped issuing them. People can now apply - but that process takes up to 16 weeks and trying to get work in the meantime can be tough. Paul Lewis talks to Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. National Savings & Investments apologises to more than 14,000 customers after it changed the terms and conditions on a savings product without telling them. We hear from Gary Rycroft, a partner at Joseph A Jones solicitors.The regulator clamps down on insurance firms who cut prices for new customers while quietly increasing them for loyal ones. Michael Sicsic, managing director of financial services consultancy Si

Apprenticeships allow you to earn money as you study for qualifications and gain practical experience on the job.There's a wide range of careers and industries to choose from but a recent Ofsted report said that 10% of apprenticeships are inadequate, so how do you find a good quality scheme to help you develop the skills you need to succeed?On Wednesday's programme Adam Shaw speaks to apprentices and employers about their experiences and ambitions and we'd love to hear from you too.If you're interested in becoming an apprentice or you're an employer who'd like to hire apprentices e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.Presenter: Adam Shaw Producer: Diane Richardson Editor: Emma Rippon

One in four of us is considering buying an electric car, according to the energy regulator Ofgem. So, what are the finances of going electric? They often cost more to buy but the claim is that they can be cheaper to run. Adam Shaw and guests discuss the cost of buying, insuring, charging an electric vehicle and the tax breaks you get if you buy or lease an electric car through a business?Adam is joined by Ginny Buckley, founder of electrifying.com, an electric car advice site & Hayley Jay, business specialist sales, from the car dealership Furrows. And we hear from listeners about their views on electric vehicles.Producer Smita Patel Editor Alex Lewis

Financial firms are being told they will be forced to treat their customers better under plans by the regulator for a new “Consumer Duty”. It will set down a higher level of consumer protection that firms will have to follow. The consultation on the plans has just been published and the new rules should be in force by the middle of next year. Paul Lewis talks to Nisha Arora, Director of Consumer and Retail Policy at the Financial Conduct Authority.Money Box continues to get complaints from customers who have current accounts with the online firm Pockit. They tell us that the money in their accounts - often thousands of pounds - has been frozen, sometimes for months. Virraj Jatania, Pockit’s founder and Chief Executive, provides some answers.Every month millions of people in the UK use the social media platform TikTok. It specialises in short videos normally made by individuals on their mobile phone and edited to music. The videos cover everything from comedy to dance to money. But we hear about concerns that

Buying a house with a mortgage is one of the biggest commitments we make in life. The pandemic has seen households managing lower, unpredictable incomes with furlough and government grants on offer. What effect has that had on lenders and their decisions to approve or decline applications? If you’re trying to get one or switch to a better deal - how are you finding it? What new mortgage products are banks and building societies now offering borrowers? Charmaine Cozier is joined by: Runouska Dass, Independent mortgage broker Keith Barber, Director of Business Development, the Family Building Society Producer Smita Patel Editor Alex Lewis

Many people on Disability Living Allowance are rejected when they are assessed for the newer benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Paul Lewis hears about some of the experiences of claiming PIP and discusses with Daphne Hall, vice chair of the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers and Dr Jim McCormick, chair of the Disability and Carers Benefits Advisory Group.More than 100,000 couples in the UK divorce each year — around 40% of marriages. It is over 20 years since divorcing couples could bring the value of pensions into the pot when they share their assets. But only one out of every eight cases take pensions into account as part of the financial settlement. So why is pension sharing at divorce forgotten in so many cases? Paul Lewis speaks to Jo Edwards, head of Family Law at Forsters.Up to a quarter of a million people over the age of 70 get no state pension - but around half of them could. Former pensions minister Steve Webb explains all.It’s nearly three months since we first reported that

Last year families spent nearly £7 billion on their furry friends. Pet ownership has soared and so has the number of services on offer for the modern-day pooch. Felicity Hannah and guests discuss the rising costs of buying a pet, keeping it well & safe, whether to insure it and the demand to cater for all their needs from luxury food to care day.Producer Smita Patel Editor Alex Lewis

Mortgage providers are refusing to follow new guidance intended to help hundreds of thousands of people who are unable to sell or re-mortgage their flats because of the cladding crisis. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS, issued the guidance to its members across the UK just two months ago. But Money Box has learned that despite being involved in preparing the guidance, many lenders aren’t following it - leaving people struggling to sell because buyers can’t borrow the money they need.Welfare benefits expert, Anna Stevenson from Turn2us outlines how people on Universal Credit will be able to get cheap broadband and some free calls from June 1st and discusses other discounts on utilities for people on benefits. National Savings & Investments does not use two factor authentication when you log on to your account. Is that a security risk? Paul Lewis talks to Adenike Cosgrove, a cyber security strategist at Proofpoint.And nearly two million workers who do more than one part-time jobs are exclu

The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a huge amount of pressure on banks and customers alike. How have you - and your bank or building society - adapted? Felicity Hannah and guests explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped the way we manage our money and whether those changes are here to stay.E-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk with your personal banking stories, questions and experiences.Have you changed your banking habits? Has your access to support, products or services altered? What is your bank or building society doing well and what could be done better?Joining Felicity are: - Julie Ann Haines, CEO Principality Building Society - Alex Neill, CEO of Resolver complaints website - James Daley, consumer campaigner and founder of Fairer Finance Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producers: Smita Patel and Diane Richardson Editor: Alex Lewis

9 in 10 of us use direct debits to pay some or all of our regular bills. 4.5 billion payments were processed in the UK in 2019. It’s a simple way to pay - you sign a mandate with a business or organisation and they take agreed amounts on a specified date. They come with a guarantee which protects you if payments are taken mistakenly. Or at least that’s what a Money Box listener thought when a payment for his gym membership went wrong.Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have soared in value beyond any other asset. Ten years ago one Bitcoin was worth one US dollar - today one is worth 53,000 US dollars - nearly £42,000 pounds. One big concern with buying, storing, or selling cryptocurrencies is how secure it is. Paul Lewis talks to an investor who discovered £11,000 had gone missing from his account, as well as cryptocurreny expert Kate Boucherel.Last week the High Court ruled that high cost lender Provident could move forward with a scheme to pay redress to customers to whom it had mis-sold loans. Provi

Adam Shaw looks at dementia and money. Producer Smita Patel Editor Alex Lewis

The regulator Ofcom tells Money Box people shouldn’t trust Caller ID. It says the spoofing of numbers can be stopped, but to do so will take years. Spoofing has been used by fraudsters to convince thousands of people they are being called by banks or HMRC and trick them into handing over tens of thousands of pounds. It's more than two years since the collapse of London Capital and Finance where investors lost £237m. This week the government announced a new scheme in which almost 9,000 people will get some of their money back. Why do many banks charge 39% interest on overdrafts but pay less than 1% on savings? Listener Edwyn describes the difference as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘scandalous.’ Paul talks to Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. And what happens to your pension if you die before drawing it? Romi Savova from PensionBee explains. Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researcher: Sowda Ali Producers: Ben Carter and Joe Kent Editor: Alex Lewis

Have you been tempted by a quick cash win, a jackpot prize or the challenge of finding a winning betting strategy? There are many forms of gambling available online and in person to engage and entertain us but when does a gambling hobby become a personal and financial problem? On Wednesday's Money Box Live Charmaine Cozier and guests explore the enticements that lure you in, lead to compulsion and where to get help. What are the symptoms of problem gambling and the steps to recovery? Joining Charmaine are:Anna Hemmings, CEO of Gamcare Matt Gaskell, Clinical Lead at The NHS Northern Gambling ServiceIf you’ve a question or an experience you’d like to share e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk nowPresenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Diane Richardson Editor: Alex Lewis

The Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group has called on the Government to take urgent action to address the exploitation of some contractors, in a new report. MPs are also demanding a government-backed independent review into how the contracting market operates, to ensure contractors are paid and taxed fairly for the work they do. Paul talks to an IT project manager who barely avoided bankruptcy after an unexpected six-figure tax bill and Ruth Cadbury, co-chair of the Loan Charge APPG Group.How do banks protect vulnerable customers and protect their money from criminals? We hear one victim’s story about how she had tens of thousands of pounds stolen not once, but twice and how her bank failed to keep her money safe. Paul talks to Tamlyn Edmonds, specialist fraud prosecutor with Edmonds, Marshall, McMahon.A pilot scheme with a new approach to improve support for people with health and financial problems is being launched in Lambeth and Southwark in South London. If it's successful there are hopes it will b

Working from home is changing the way we think about where we base our life and careers, but how remote can we be from our business or office?Can you live and work hundreds of miles away from your employer and what could that mean for your personal life and finances or for the company you work for?Whether you’re an employee or an employer we’d love to hear from you, e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now with your thoughts, questions and experiences.Joining the conversation with presenter Felicity Hannah at 3pm on Wednesday 14 April are Neil Carberry, CEO at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Jodie Hill, Director at employment law firm Thrive Law.Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Diane Richardson Editor: Emma Rippon

More than 200 pensioners responded to a request to tell us how much their state pension was. They were nearly all different amounts. Next week the basic pension is rising to £137.60 a week and the new state pension paid to younger pensioners to £179.60. But those are amounts that hardly anyone actually gets. So why are pensions - the old and the new - so complicated? Who better to answer that than two former pensions ministers. Sir Steve Webb had that job throughout the years of the coalition government and Baroness Ros Altmann for just over a year under David Cameron. Pockit is not a bank. But it does offer what it calls a current account. In fact that is a pre-paid card which customers load money onto and then can spend it almost as if it was a bank account. But some users have told Moneybox that their accounts have been locked and they they have struggled to get through to Pockit to find out what's going on. Paul talks to Martyn James, consumer rights expert at Resolver.It is now more than 90 days since t

There’s been a rise in the number of divorces according to the Office for National Statistics along with predictions that even more couples will split as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Many law firms are reporting huge spikes in the number of separations during the pandemic.Plans for new “no fault” divorce rules are due to come in in the next few months and will abolish the need to blame one of the parties when pursuing a divorce. But what happens to the finances during all of this? What if a couple weren’t married or owned some assets before the marriage?Presenter Louise Cooper will be joined by:Rhona Adams, partner at Morton Fraser and head of the family law team Claire Gordon, family law partner at Farrer & Co Michael Royce, senior policy and propositions manager at the Money and Pensions ServiceE-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @Moneybox now with your thoughts, questions and experiences.Producer: Darin Graham Editor: Richard Vadon