BBC Money Box

Money Box

All that matters about money with Paul Lewis. News of savings and investments, credit cards and loans, pensions, banking, tax, benefits and giving to charity. The UK's premier weekly round-up of personal finance from the BBC.
Weekly English United Kingdom Business
20 Episodes

Money Box Live: Does Being Single Cost You More?

More people are living alone, in fact 3 in 10 households are made up of single adults, according to the latest government figures. Research from the pension specialist Royal London also suggests single people are more likely to be in their overdrafts at the end of the month and have…
22 Jul 30 min

Mansion House and Council Tax for Terminally Ill

It was a momentous day on Tuesday as the government and regulators announced major changes in the way investments will be sold. What's been proposed and what's the role of the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in that? Inflation rose to 3.6%, this week the highest it has been since…
19 Jul 24 min

Child Trust Funds and the Cost of Insurance

Campaigners say more needs to be done to help the parents and carers of tens of thousands of disabled young adults access their own money held in Government backed Child Trust Funds. The Financial Inclusion Commission has told Radio 4's Money Box it wants the Government to officially endorse an…
19 Jul 26 min

Money Box Live: AI and Your Money

Three quarters of financial firms are already using Artificial Intelligence, according to the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority, with more set to follow in future. Last month a new inquiry by the Treasury Committee began looking into the potential impacts of AI in banking, pensions and other…
15 Jul 35 min

Bailiffs and Premium Bonds

We'll discuss proposals to reform the bailiff industry, hearing from a man whose small parking fine ballooned into a debt of more than £400 once bailiffs got involved. Paul Lewis interviews the minister responsible for the planned changes: will they be fair on both creditors and debtors and will they…
11 Jul 25 min

Water Bills and How to Save?

New research, seen exclusively by Money Box, suggests a third of households in England and Wales are trying to cut the amount of water they use to help reduce their bills. The research comes from the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol which worked with the Financial…
4 Jul 24 min

Avoiding Scams and Changes to Wills

Hundreds of millions of pounds was stolen from people in 2024 by thieves who tricked them, manipulated them, and then drained their bank accounts. The latest figures from UK Finance show that more than £450m was handed over to criminals in that way. That was slightly less than in 2023…
27 Jun 24 min

'Making Tax Digital' and Bank Charges

Hundreds and thousands of sole traders and landlords are facing a significant change in how they file their tax returns. In less than a year 800,000 people with a turnover of above £50,000 who fill out self assessment tax returns will have to fill out summaries four times a year,…
20 Jun 25 min

Fraud Crackdown and Is Cash King?

The fight against what is called push payment fraud - when victims are groomed and manipulated into transferring money to criminals - took a huge step forward in October when new regulations for banks and other finance companies were introduced to make the banks involved liable for the losses. It…
14 Jun 24 min

Money Box Live: The 'Sadmin' of Bereavement

Earlier this spring the Financial Conduct Authority warned that some banks and firms lack empathy when dealing with bereaved customers and called for them to do more. Money Box Live received a huge response from our listeners when we covered the story, with emails from listeners about how they coped…
10 Jun 28 min

Cancer Costs and Mortgage Deals

Around 1 in 2 people living in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime according to Cancer Research UK. That stark statistic is a reminder how the disease can impact families up and down the country, but it's not just the health of people diagnosed that can…
6 Jun 25 min

Money Box Live: Move or Improve?

If your home isn't working for you, should you pack up and move or get the builders in and improve? Moving is expensive, aside from the price of the house there's Stamp Duty and solicitors fees to think about. So, is it worth getting the builders in instead if you're…
3 Jun 29 min

Wealth Divide and Domestic Abuse

People over the age of 60 hold nearly £3 trillion of wealth in the value of their homes, almost all of it mortgage free. That is more than half of all housing wealth in the UK. Under 35s by contrast control only £600 billion and half of that is mortgaged…
31 May 25 min

Pensions Minister and Poor Bereavement Service

In an exclusive interview with this programme the Pensions Minister has talked about the government's plans to reform the UK's pension system. Torsten Bell has said that pension schemes should be moving more of members' money out of shares and into infrastructure projects where returns are higher. And he announced…
24 May 25 min

Money Box Live: School Wraparound Care

Parents typically pay an average of more than £80 per week for a childminder and £66 per week for after-school club, to cover the hours they're working. That's according to the latest data from the charity Coram Family and Childcare. This week a new trial of free breakfast clubs launched…
21 May 28 min

Investing in Gold and Accessing Child Trust Funds

Money Box investigates fees being charged of teenagers who are struggling to access their child trust funds. We speak to an 18 year old who agreed to pay a claims management firm 25% of his fund plus VAT, not realising he could do it for free. Lord David Blunkett was…
17 May 25 min

Money Box Live: Social Housing

New analysis shows that some parts of England have waiting lists for social housing that exceed 100 years. Recently the government pledged £2 billion of new investment to build up to 18,000 new social and affordable homes. But will that be enough? Felicity Hannah is joined by Jasmine Basran of…
14 May 28 min

Tariffs, Pensions and Credit Card Debt

The stock markets have been on somewhat of a roller coaster since US president Trump announced global trade tariffs. Listeners emailed Money Box to tell us about the impact of the fall out in their pensions and investments. The advice from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association which speaks for…
10 May 24 min

Money Box Live: Will Tariffs Affect your Finances?

US Trade tariffs, stock market ups and downs, economic uncertainty. What do they all mean for your money? Since last Wednesday, when Donald Trump announced huge increases in tariffs for goods being imported by the USA, global stock markets have been in turmoil. Money Box Live is discussing what these…
7 May 28 min

Investments and Carers Allowance

Stock markets around the world have plunged in reaction to the import tariffs imposed by President Trump and then the retaliation of China which responded with its own tariffs on American goods. Economists have warned that this trade war could seriously damage the world economy, and make all of us…
3 May 25 min