Will the Winter Economy Plan save jobs and how does it work?
There won't be another budget this year. Instead, we had the Winter Economy Plan unveiled this week as fears over a second wave of coronavirus infections - and the further economic turmoil it could create - takes hold. Despite repeated calls to extend the furlough scheme, Chancellor Rishi Sunak held firm. How does this new Jobs Support Scheme stack-up, will it be enough and what else did Mr S...
50m Sep 25, 2020
50m
How to make an offer and avoid overpaying for a home
Britain is in the grip of a mysterious property mini-boom. Talk of a property market more buoyant than it’s been in years, of viewings and offers flooding in and family homes in hot demand, doesn’t seem to just be the usual estate agent puff. Evidence from mortgage reports, surveyors and data on estate agent activity, appears to bear this out. The stamp duty holiday and lockdown itchy feet h...
59m Sep 18, 2020
59m
Could you fall victim to lockdown fraud?
As if 2020 wasn’t already proving to be a painful enough year, fraud has soared in lockdown. Fraud victims are now losing at least £11.5million a day but the real total is estimated at £80million, as only about 15 per cent of cases go reported. Cases are up 43 per cent in lockdown, according to Action Fraud figures, and the amount lost is up a staggering 286 per cent – meaning a victim loses ...
51m Sep 11, 2020
51m
What's behind the UK property and US shares lockdown mini-booms?
The property market in the UK and the stock market in the US appear to be pulling off gravity-defying feats. The coronavirus crisis is still here, waves of job losses keep on coming and almost everyone is agreed there is more bad news to come. Yet, shares in the US and house prices in the UK are on the up. Is there anything behind this other than cheap central bank money and the belief that ...
45m Sep 04, 2020
45m
Do you know how your pension is invested – and what will happen to the triple lock?
A large chunk of workers are unaware that their pension savings are invested in the stock market. When asked in a recent survey what they think happens to their cash, the most common answer was that they had 'no idea.' It doesn't make for pretty reading – Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at why it matters, and what can be done to get people more interested in their retirement pots. It comes ...
43m Aug 28, 2020
43m
Online supermarket battle intensifies with forthcoming M&S and Ocado tie-up
Since the start of lockdown in March, more Britons have ordered supermarket shopping online to be delivered to their door to dodge the crowds and beat the queuing mayhem. This could be perfect time for Marks & Spencer, who will start its long-awaited tie-up with Ocado at the start of September, as the latter ends its 20 year long relationship with Waitrose. M&S is starting a 'back to basics' ...
58m Aug 21, 2020
58m
Is the coronavirus recession as bad as it looks?
We are in the worst recession in living memory for the UK with GDP plummeting by 22.1 per cent in the first six months of 2020. But strange as it may sound, does that matter? We knew things would be terrible as the coronavirus lockdown pressed the pause button on the economy and people’s lives. Shops were shut, businesses were shuttered, everyone who could worked from home, almost 10million ...
44m Aug 15, 2020
44m
Can you invest for profit and your money to do good? We talk socially responsible investing
Can you make a profit and get your money to do some good?  The stereotypical image of the stock market and investing isn’t one of caring about the world around you, it’s more characterised by a make money at all costs attitude. But like many stereotypes that’s not accurate.  Most personal investors are just ordinary people trying to grow their wealth over the long term – and like the populat...
23m Aug 13, 2020
23m
Are negative interest rates off the table?
Interest rates may have been slashed to the bone in the wake of the coronavirus crisis but the threat of a dive into negative rates has remained. This week, however, the Bank of England opted to stick at 0.1 per cent and upgraded its view on the economy for this year, saying GDP will only fall by a worst-in-a-century 9.5 per cent rather than a worst in 300-odd years 14.4 per cent. It also hin...
55m Aug 07, 2020
55m
Is this the end of summer holidays? The pain in Spain and what happens next
After a great deal of fuss about air bridges and people being able to go on summer holiday, things suddenly changed last weekend.  A swift about turn saw a 14 day quarantine period imposed for those arriving in the UK from Spain at just six hours’ notice, hitting tens of thousands of holidaymakers who are there already, those with trips booked and leaving Britons hoping for some Spanish sunshi...
46m Jul 31, 2020
46m
How to start investing and grow your wealth
Over the long-term investing in the stock market has proven to be the best way to beat inflation and grow your wealth. But how do you know when the time is right to start? What are the things to consider when working out what investments might suit you? And do you need to wait until you are wealthy before you become an investor? In this first of two special This is Money podcasts, Simon Lambe...
36m Jul 24, 2020
36m
Will the Government tinker with capital gains tax to help pay the coronavirus bill?
The Chancellor has ordered an urgent capital gains tax review which could hit many homeowners and investors, depending on the outcome. With Rishi Sunak and the Government looking at ways to foot the coronavirus bill, will CGT be changed and will they keep their manifesto pledge to not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT? On this week's podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce, and Georgie Fr...
53m Jul 17, 2020
53m
Will a stamp duty holiday and Rishi's rescue be enough?
The showstopper was a big stamp duty cut, the important element was about keeping jobs afloat, and the rabbit out of the hat was a great British meal deal. But the question is, was Rishi Sunak splashing the cash in the summer statement enough to get the nation’s confidence back in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, or will real recovery require more down the line? On this week’s podcast, Sim...
54m Jul 10, 2020
54m
The self-employed excluded from the coronavirus rescue
The Chancellor’s coronavirus rescue plan for the British economy has been bold and big, but one important part of the workforce feels somewhat hard done by. A chunk of the self-employed have been excluded from Rishi Sunak’s support in a way that employees have not. More than 9million employees are having 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 a month paid by the taxpayer under the furlough s...
48m Jul 04, 2020
48m
Has lockdown left you with more money to save or struggling?
In an unpredicted turn of events, the coronavirus lockdown has been good for some when it comes to their bank balances. People collectively tucked away £30billion in savings accounts in March and April, around three times as much as the two months previous - with this credited  to surplus cash and moving money to safety. A large slab of that went into easy-access accounts despite plunging rat...
50m Jun 26, 2020
50m
Are banks triggering a mortgage credit crunch?
Banks and building societies have been slashing their mortgage ranges for those with smaller deposits. The number of mortgages available for those with a 10 per cent deposit has plummeted by 90 per cent compared since the start of March. This week, Nationwide announced it won’t lend on deposits smaller than 15 per cent, while TSB says even that’s not quite enough. What’s going on and is this...
47m Jun 19, 2020
47m
The rise of the lockdown investor - tips to hunt for better returns
Stock markets crashing tend to put savers off investing in shares, but there has been a sizeable rise in new investors in Britain during lockdown, reports suggest.  That came as savings rates plummeted (again) and people decided to go hunting for a bargain amid the stock market turmoil in March and April. But who are these novice investors and what do you need to think about to get started?  On...
52m Jun 12, 2020
52m
Are electric bikes and scooters the future of transport after coronavirus? (Or will it just be cars?)
Since lockdown began in March, there has been a huge uptick in cycling and walking, as people got out and about while staying at home.  But while before coronavirus we were all told public transport was a good thing, now with restrictions easing and Britain slowly going back to work, Britons have been told to actively avoid it. Does that mean the inevitable return of the car, or with the Govern...
48m Jun 05, 2020
48m
Are we all going on a summer holiday?
It's nearly June, the sun is shining, and right about now people would usually be eagerly anticipating summer breaks they’ve booked, or planning where to go away. Meanwhile, the sunny weather over the past few months would usually have led to thoughts (and lots of features) on a staycation summer. But this isn’t any given year. Coronavirus and the lockdown means we are advised not to travel abr...
43m May 29, 2020
43m
Could your savings rate go negative?
The threat of negative interest rates is looming large for savers. This week, a government bond auction saw UK gilts sold at a negative rate for the first time, while Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey refused to rule out the base rate flipping below zero. But could you end up with a negative rate on your savings account? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look a...
49m May 23, 2020
49m
How many state pensions have been underpaid? With Steve Webb
A This is Money investigation has revealed a string of women who have been underpaid their state pension, but are they just the tip of an iceberg? On this week’s podcast, our pensions agony uncle Steve Webb and pension and investing editor Tanya Jefferies tell the stories of the women paid thousands less in state pension over the years than they should have been - and discuss their probe into t...
51m May 15, 2020
51m
Santander's 123 chop and how do we pay for the coronavirus crash?
The latest Santander 123 account rate cut, trying to turn a profit on mortgage holidays, how we pay for the coronavirus crisis and furlough scheme and the crash in car sales all feature on this week’s This is Money podcast. Once upon a time, Santander’s 123 could lay claim to being the king of the current accounts. As banks battled to customers to switch, Santander’s cashback and 3% interest-pa...
38m May 11, 2020
38m
Is the Fomo rally the real deal, or will shares fall again?
It’s been called the Fomo rally, as shares picked themselves up off the floor after a diabolical March and bear markets turned bullish. The FTSE 100 closed a notch below 5,000 on 23 March, the day it was announced Britain was going into lockdown, but somehow managed to bounce 23 per cent to the middle of this week before slipping back. In the US, April was even more astonishing – the S&P 500 ha...
50m May 01, 2020
50m
Meaning Business: Craig Wilson on the Ventilator Challenge and Williams Advanced Engineering
Meaning Business is a new podcast series, where Simon Lambert speaks to people from the world of business, who are doing interesting, innovative and meaningful things. It will appear in your feed, in addition to our usual weekly This is Money podcast. In these interviews, Simon will find out more about the other side of business away from profits and growth - and how it can be a force for good....
31m Apr 29, 2020
31m
Is investing instead of saving worth the risk?
Should you save cash and accept low interest rates, or invest and take the risk that you could lose money? This is the perennial dilemma for those with some money to set aside, who are looking to build their wealth. And it’s not been made easier by a rollercoaster 20 years. Since the turn of the millennium, we’ve had three hefty stock market crashes, but we’ve also had the past decade of histor...
58m Apr 24, 2020
58m
How bad will recession be and what will recovery look like?
The economic destruction of the coronavirus crash was laid bare in reports from the Office of Budget Responsibility and IMF this week. Lockdown has already wiped £50billion off the UK economy and is costing the nation £2billion a day, said the OBR. Meanwhile, the IMF warned the global economy would take the biggest hit since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with advanced economies shrinking 6...
47m Apr 19, 2020
47m
The looking for good news episode
It can be tough to find good news at the moment but on this special Easter podcast we go looking for some. And amid the coronavirus gloom, there are some good news stories to tell, from how Britain has adapted to working from home, to the appreciation shown to our valued frontline workers and NHS staff, and those volunteering to help others. On the podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie ...
59m Apr 10, 2020
59m
Is furloughing workers the best way to save jobs in the coronavirus crisis?
Every year Collins Dictionary chooses its word of the year and just three months into 2020, it feels like coronavirus might be a shoe-in for the title. But among the other words likely to be picked as high-fliers, it seems that furlough will also be in with a shout. Until a few weeks ago, it's unlikely many people had ever considered what being furloughed would mean, but now it's the topic on m...
45m Apr 03, 2020
45m
Will coronavirus sink the property market?
Britain is on lockdown and so is the property market. The Government has told people not to move home while the coronavirus lockdown is on, and the property market has been frozen as estate agents are instructed not to do viewings and valuations and surveys can’t happen. Meanwhile, banking giants Barclays and Halifax have axed a big chunk of their mortgage ranges – only offering new deals throu...
53m Mar 27, 2020
53m
Will helicopter money save us from the coronavirus crisis?
Britain has been told to stay at home, pubs have been ordered to shut and you’re not even allowed to go to the gym instead. The coronavirus crisis has turned the consumer economy upside down. Businesses and workers risk going bust on an almost unprecedented level, unless a rescue plan that works can be cooked up. Cutting interest rates and quantitative easing was the medicine in the financial c...
59m Mar 20, 2020
59m
The Budget, the base rate cut and the stock market crash
Well, what a week. We've had a Budget, a 0.5 per cent base rate cut and stock markets going haywire thanks to coronavirus and oil price crashes. Why did the Bank of England cut rates to 0.25 per cent on the morning of the Budget and what are policymakers hoping to achieve? How did Rishi Sunak perform in his first Budget as Chancellor and what was announced in his speech? On Thursday, the FTSE 1...
1hr 4m Mar 13, 2020
1hr 4m
Does Nationwide's savings lottery show there's still life in the cash Isa?
Every year, between March and April, there used to be a cash Isa season. Banks and building societies clambered over each other in the race to top the best buy tables. This hasn't been the case for a while. However, Nationwide - with a new savings lottery - and Coventry - with a new deal - have offered signs of some green shoots this year, but is it even worth having a tax-free savings account ...
48m Mar 06, 2020
48m
Making the Money Work: Shappi Khorsandi on getting comedy to pay the bills?
On this episode of Making the Money Work podcast, comedian Shappi Khorsandi joins Andi Peters and Simon Lambert to discuss how she built a career in comedy, her unusual life as the daughter of an exiled Iranian poet - and how she once hired Alan Carr to work in a charity call centre. This is the final episode of five in the Making the Money Work series, in partnership with FSCS, that has appear...
27m Mar 03, 2020
27m
Bull markets don't die of old age, but do they die of coronavirus?
Bull markets don't die of old age, we've been told countless times in recent years, but do they die of coronavirus? That is the question that rattled investors are asking themselves after an astonishing week in which the FTSE 100 has fallen 12 per cent. Stock markets around the world have sold off, as investors dump shares driven by a combination of the fear that a crash is finally arriving and...
48m Feb 28, 2020
48m
NS&I and Marcus Bank cut rates - what's the point of saving?
This week, savings have been in the spotlight with National Savings and Investments cutting rates on a number of its offerings, including popular Premium Bonds. Both Marcus Bank and Saga also cut easy-access rates. On this week's podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at what's behind the cuts and question: should savers head elsewhere, and what is the point of tucking money a...
46m Feb 21, 2020
46m
Making the Money Work: How to make being a comedian, writer and podcaster pay with Tessa Coates and Stevie Martin
In this Making the Money Work episode, we talk to writers, comedians, podcasters and performers Tessa Coates and Stevie Martin about how you can make your money work if it comes from such a variety of sources.
29m Feb 18, 2020
29m
Will the new Chancellor give pension tax relief the chop? This is Money podcast
This week started with rumours of a pension tax relief cut and mansion tax, saw the Chancellor fall on his sword, and ended with people none the wiser about whether a Budget tax raid is more or less likely after all that. Sajid Javid exited the stage to be replaced by one of his own men, Rishi Sunak, after an attempt by Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings to take back control at the Treasury was...
43m Feb 14, 2020
43m
Are you ready for an electric car? From range anxiety, to Tesla’s boom, and how to buy at 40% off
Would you swap your car for an electric one? If the government gets it way, soon many more of us will have to. The proposed ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars was dragged forward by five years to 2035 this week – and hybrid cars were bundled into the showroom clear-out too. If that sticks, this means that by 2030 – just a decade from now – it’s highly likely the vast majority of cars bei...
1hr 4m Feb 07, 2020
1hr 4m
Making the Money Work: Alastair Humphreys on how to fund a life of adventure:
Adventurer Alastair Humphreys is the guest on the third episode of our special Making the Money Work podcast series, in partnership with FSCS. He tells Andi Peters and Simon Lambert about living and funding a life of adventure and why he wants people to go on cheap 'microadventures' close to home.
30m Feb 04, 2020
30m
It's Brexit Day, so what happens next?
It’s Brexit Day – and whether you voted leave or remain, are celebrating, or commiserating, we wish you a happy one. After 11pm on Friday 31 January 2019, Britain is officially no longer a member of the European Union. The big question is, what happens next? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost discuss both what Brexit means immediately for consumers and travellers...
48m Jan 31, 2020
48m
Are tax returns too taxing - and could you not know you need to do one?
Are tax returns too taxing, why did new overdraft rules backfire, are challenger banks biting and what are the cars that hold their value best? We answer these questions on this week’s This is Money podcast.  It’s tax return time. The organised will have safely filed their tax returns long ago, but there are still plenty of people who don’t yet feel the last minute has arrived. But what if you ...
51m Jan 24, 2020
51m
Making the Money Work: Boxer Anthony Ogogo on what happened after the London Olympics
The Making the Money Work podcast talks to Olympic bronze medal winner and former professional boxer Anthony Ogogo about how people fund a boxing career and whether an Olympian makes much money.
26m Jan 21, 2020
26m
Has Santander signalled the end of current accounts with benefits?
Santander is to cut the rate of interest customers can earn with its 123 current account. It will mean one of Britain's most popular accounts will have dropped from a top tier 3 per cent when it launched in 2012 to 1 per cent. Why has the high street banking giant done this and could it result in an exodus of people moving? Does it signal the end of current accounts with benefits? It is also ca...
56m Jan 17, 2020
56m
Is this the plan that will finally help savers?
Savers had a resoundingly duff deal over the decade that just ended, as they paid the price for the borrowing binge that proceeded it. Understandably, many feel somewhat aggrieved – like a moderate drinker who got the hangover that should have gone to the party animal. But it’s not just ‘emergency’ low interest rates that turned permanent that delivered the pain, banks and building societies pa...
1hr 4m Jan 10, 2020
1hr 4m
Making the Money Work: Kiko Matthews on how you fund rowing the Atlantic
This bonus podcast episode is from This is Money's new special series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to record-breaking Atlantic solo rower Kiko Matthews.
29m Jan 07, 2020
29m
The biggest financial stories of 2019
Does Woodford trump Brexit and the election, were you more concerned about the wealth gap, or do all those pale into insignificance next to the challenges of climate change? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Tanya Jefferies discuss the money stories that shaped the final year of a tumultuous decade. Fallen star fund manager Neil Woodford dominated the financial headlines ...
54m Dec 20, 2019
54m
Does the Boris bounce have legs? What the election means for your finances
The stock market and the pound bounced as Boris Johnson claimed his 80 seat majority in a better-than-expected election win. But will the honeymoon period last into the New Year, beyond Brexit on 31 January, through a Budget in early February and past the negotiations about how exactly our future relationship with the EU will pan out? The Conservative manifesto was thin on detail, but on this p...
47m Dec 13, 2019
47m
Are the rich really getting richer and poor becoming poorer?
The combined wealth of British households is up 13 per cent between 2016 and 2018 - with the average standing at £286,600. But it's not all about house prices. In fact, the bulk of the rise is thanks to private pensions rather than property inflation, according to the Office for National Statistics. And it says that despite plenty of election claims to the contrary the rich aren't getting riche...
53m Dec 06, 2019
53m
What does the election mean for your finances?
Will this election really prove to be about Brexit?  That issue was predicted to define the vote, but while each party’s Brexit stance will be at the forefront of people’s minds there are many other factors that now seem to be heavily influencing how the 12 December general election is shaping up. One of the biggest is the battle over the economy and our personal finances. There’s a sizeable di...
51m Nov 29, 2019
51m
How does Labour plan to raise taxes and spend?
Labour's election manifesto has been revealed and it involves a huge £82.9billion spending spree – to be funded by a similar tax rise. It outlined a 45p income tax rate above £80,000 and to leave no one in any doubt about its intentions opted to call its new 50p level above £125,000 the Super-Rich Rate. On this podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce run through the main financial p...
33m Nov 22, 2019
33m