Money Box

This week has seen a new Prime Minister and a new Chancellor of the Exchequer. As soon as John Healey was appointed the announcements began. First came the announcement to cut VAT on household energy bills from October, next a plan to cap bus fares in England from January, then a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues in England starting from April. But what about that major issue on the doorstep when Andy Burnham was campaigning to be elected in his new constituency of Makerfield? The frozen personal tax threshold. We'll discuss what this might mean for your money.
Nearly two million households in England and Wales are living in water poverty according to a new study seen exclusively by this programme. The technical definition of that is when people spend more than 5% of their income, after housing costs, on water bills. What it means in reality is being unable to afford to pay for water, and being in debt to a water company. We'll speak to the Consumer Council for Water, who commissioned that study.
Plus, we'll look at the rules around gifts and inheritance tax as a new survey by the financial advisors The Private Office found more then 8 in 10 of its clients aged over 45 believe parents and grandparents should help younger generations during their lifetime rather than leave an inheritance after death.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Amber Mehmood, Catherine Lund and Jo Krasner.
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 25th July 2026)

Major reforms are planned to shake up house selling in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The government hopes the plans could end gazundering and gazumping and make buying and selling homes faster, cheaper and less likely to fall through.
Gazumping happens when a seller switches buyer at the last minute, usually because someone else can pay more, gazundering is where a buyer suddenly drops their agreed offer just before contracts are exchanged.
One in three house sales fall through before exchange. This costs sellers £400m and the wider economy £1.5bn each year, according to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Plans to reform the system include the introduction of a sellers’ pack, similar to the system operating in Scotland.
Felicity Hannah is joined by Nathan Emerson, the CEO of PropertyMark (a professional body for property agents) and David Bridge, Head of Conveyancing at the Dorset-based solicitors Kiteleys .
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Craig Henderson
Production co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(This programme was first broadcast at 3pm on Wednesday July 22nd, 2026)

Urgent action is needed to help people in their sixties on low incomes who face a delay of up to a year before they can claim their State Pension. That is the main recommendation of a new report from the Work and Pensions Committee. Pension age rises over the next two years from 66 to 67 and the committee of MPs fears some of the people affected by that delay face poverty unless the benefit rules are changed to give them more money. The Department for Work and Pensions says in February, 0.02% of the Universal Credit caseload was aged 65 or 66. It also welcomed the report saying it will consider the recommendations in due course.
There’s growing concern in the housing industry over the rise in a practice known as “gazundering”. It’s when people selling homes are told by buyers just days before exchanging, that they must drop the agreed price by thousands of pounds or risk losing the deal. The Conveyancing Association says it’s a growing problem and is urging the government to implement reforms which would stop the practice “without delay”. The government says it's stopping gazundering by introducing "legally binding agreements that prevent buyers from walking away at the last minute without a valid reason, with fines for those who do."
Money Box has found that a grant which can be used to install a heating system than can also act as air conditioning is not up and running, despite being announced in November. We'll investigate why.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth, Jo Krasner and Niamh McDermott
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
Photo Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 18th July 2026)

New regulations begin today (Wednesday July 15th) for shoppers using Buy Now Pay Later. Consumers using services like Klarna and Clearpay will now be given more protection but also a greater risk of rejection, as new affordability checks begin.
BNPL schemes often provide interest free payment options over several months and have proved immensely popular. Experian estimates that a 100mn transactions were made that way last year, adding up to about £7bn.
Meanwhile, new data from one of the country’s largest free money advice services, Money Wellness, shows BNPL has become an increasingly common feature of customers' finances over the past four years, with June recording 4,520 customers seeking help with BNPL debt. That's the highest June on record and second only to the traditional post-Christmas spike seen in January.
Presenter Felicity Hannah talks to the Financial Conduct Authority to find out if the new rules are going to improve things for shoppers. She’s joined by an expert panel answering listener questions – Mick McAteer of The Financial Inclusion Centre, a UK not-for-profit policy and research group. and Matthew Sheeran from Money Wellness.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Craig Henderson
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
Photo credit: Pakorn Supajitsoontorn via Getty Images.
(This episode of Money Box Live was first broadcast on BBC Radio Four at 3pm on Wednesday 15th July)

A deadline approaches for 860,000 self-employed people and landlords who must start reporting their income and expenses in a new way. It is called Making Tax Digital and it affects small businesses with a turnover or gross income above £50,000 a year. They have until 7th August to report their income and expenditure to HMRC. What do they need to know?
It is “unacceptable” that the government has refused to commit to bringing the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme back in-house. That’s according to PCS Union, which says a rare joint committee hearing in Parliament this week highlighted the “catastrophic failures” of the scheme, leaving many members facing “unacceptable delays, errors and distress” when trying to access the pensions they have worked their entire careers to earn. The Cabinet Office, which has overall responsibility for the scheme, says immediately terminating the contract would cause more problems and severely disrupt the pension payroll, jeopordizing the financial security of hundreds of thousands of public servants.
How are rules which make banks reimburse victims of fraud going? A new report evaluates the first year of Mandatory Reimbursement.
And a major high street bank has changed its mind after deciding not to allow customers to deposit their cheques in a Post Office.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Catherine Lund
Output Producer: Craig Henderson
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 11th July 2026)