Are you thinking of turning your 'side hustle' into a full time job? Perhaps you want to take the plunge but don't know your sole trader from your limited company. This Money Box Live is a toolkit for anyone planning to start a new business - or those who've started one but might need a helping hand. And we have Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden on the show to talk about what makes a good idea, the positives of running your own business as well as the pitfalls to look out for. Following the...

Campaigners for victims of pension and investment fraud met with the Treasury this week. We'll hear from the Conservative MP who is the co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud, Caroline Nokes, who was at that meeting. What's the latest for working parents of two year olds planning to take advantage of the free 15 hours of childcare in term time which begins in April? Thieves are stealing the identities of bereaved families to try and steal money from friends and...

How are you dealing with energy costs this winter? Money Box Live has heard some people are skipping meals whilst others in full time employment are turning to warm banks and food hubs to cut costs. The energy price cap, which is now what most of us pay, jumped 5% at the start of the year to £1928 for typical use - but what exactly does that mean and are you a typical user? Meanwhile, the charity Citizens Advice has estimated two million people on prepayment meters could have their gas and...

Some people who have been defrauded out of some or all of their pension fund are now being chased by HM Revenue & Customs for tax on money they no longer have. They were persuaded by advisers to cash in their pension and invest it in schemes that promised big returns. In fact they were often fake and some or all of their money disappeared. But HMRC is demanding tax on this missing money because they cashed in their pension too early. A campaign group based in Parliament is calling for a...

Flooding damages property, lives and can be incredibly financially damaging as well. There was £352 million pounds in insurance claims for damaged homes following storms Babet, Ciaran and Debi at the end of last year according to the Association of British Insurers. We don't yet know the financial fall out of January's storm Henk - the eighth named storm of the season - but as the climate changes, insurers expect even more of this kind of weather. So what is flooding costing homeowners and...

New figures given to Money Box show there has been a big increase in the amount of money being stolen through fake text messages offering people jobs. These recruitment scams are usually sent via text or WhatsApp and offer high pay, easy hours and the chance to work from home. Last year 126 people contacted Action Fraud saying they'd been victims of this type of scam with £977,000 stolen from them. That is 50 times as much as was reported the year before. What do you need to look out...

The price of nursery can be more than a mortgage. In fact, to send a two-year-old to nursery for 50 hours a week, allowing you to work full time, can set you back more than £14,000 a year according to Coram the children's charity. But, from April this year, working parents in England can claim 15 government funded hours for two year olds, instead of waiting for them to turn three to get help. Applications for that support are now open - but there are concerns that not all parents will be be...

National Insurance will be cut for millions workers from today. It'll be cut from 12% to 10% - the lowest main rate for more than twenty years. The government says this cut will save an employee on average earnings around £450 a year. However, some experts including the Office for Budget Responsibility say that gain is far less than the cost of freezing personal tax allowances from 2021 while wages rose. What will it mean for you? A new set of regulations designed to help victims of fraud...

It can feel like new year, new you, with so much potential for change and improvement, but then reality can kick in. Around 1 in 3 of us will have made a financial resolution this year, but according to Hargreaves Lansdown, almost 20% of us won't even make it to the end of this week. So how do you make them stick? Felicity Hannah is joined by behavioural & data scientist Professor Pragya Agarwal, Laura Suter, Head of Personal Finance at AJ Bell and consumer rights expert Martyn James....

Are you putting down the mince pies and opening your bank statements? Well, you're in the right place as we're dedicating some time to the kinds of money topics that come up between Christmas and New Year.  Perhaps you want to know your consumer rights before hitting the sales, what to do with unwanted gifts or maybe you've spent more than you can afford this festive season? If so, then you've come to the right place. We'll hear why for hundreds of thousands of people, their tax return has...

Higher earners in Scotland are to pay more income tax from April. That was one of the headlines from the Scottish government in its budget on Tuesday. We'll discuss that change and more with Professor Mairi Spowage, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde. Tens of thousands of teenagers could benefit from studying the subject of core maths once they turn 16. That's according to the charity Maths in Education and Industry. The course was launched in 2014...

A typical rental property gets 25 enquires from people who want to view it, according to the property listings site Rightmove. That high demand also comes alongside high prices. The estate agents Hamptons says tenants have been hit with the biggest rise in rental costs in at least a decade. And it's not just tenants feeling the pinch. We look at the impact rising interest rates have had on those owning the homes people are renting. With Felicity Hannah today to go through your questions and...

The Office for National Statistics has published the first of a new quarterly set of figures designed to reflect how inflation is experienced by households. They are called the Household Costs Indices and include things like mortgage costs, interest and insurance. It showed that overall UK household costs rose by 8.2% in the 12 months to September. How does it compare to other measures and what impact could it have? Are you thinking of buying a gift card as a present for Christmas? ...

This week we're tackling the cost of the festive season and looking at how to avoid scams. The cost of Christmas is up almost a quarter over the last three years according to the The Centre for Economics and Business Research. What can you do to keep costs down? And as figures from UK Finance, the trade body for banks, suggest nearly £100m will be stolen from around 200,000 people through fraud and scams over the Christmas period we'll discuss what you can do to avoid them. With Felicity...

Teenagers are being bombarded on social media with promotions for financial products they might not understand and that are usually too risky or dangerous for them to invest in. The MP Robin Walker, who chairs the Commons Education Select Committee, wants to see financial education for 16-18 year olds strengthened. The Department for Education told us "Financial literacy within citizenship is compulsory for 11-16-year-olds in the national curriculum, so young people are taught about the...

This is a transformative time for banking. The last decade has seen an incredibly fast-paced increase in the use of technology and also a rapid decrease in the use of cash. High Street banks, where most of us have our money, have adapted. From branch closures to online accounts, we'll discuss how banking is changing. We look back at the history of banking with Cambridge University Economic Historian Dr Victoria Batemen. We’ll also speak to Dave Fishwick whose life story became a movie...

Property buyers have said their home completions are being left in limbo after a company providing IT services to law firms was hit by a cyber incident. Money Box has found some of the UK's largest lenders have begun extending mortgage offers for those affected. A national debt charity is calling on lenders to improve the way they identify customers who're getting into problem debt. StepChange says its recent research shows almost half of people with credit debt are experiencing difficulty...

This week on Money Box Live we're talking about Power of Attorney. What it means, who needs one and some of the pros and pitfalls. Presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star, Angela Rippon shares her experiences with the programme and Felicity Hannah is joined by a panel of experts to answer your comments and questions. Solicitor Gary Rycroft helps clients set up and manage the legal side of Power of Attorneys and Sandra McDonald is former Public Guardian for Scotland and author of 'Power of...

We'll take a closer look at what the Autumn Statement means for your personal finances. On Wednesday the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, made announcements about tax, pensions and benefits. With his top takeaways, Paul Lewis talks tax cuts and the unfreezing of the local housing allowance. A listener went into a filling station to put just enough petrol in her car to leave her enough money to buy food for the family dinner. Then, the petrol station ringfenced the cost of a full tank and although...

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt has opened the red briefcase once again to deliver the Autumn Statement in the Commons. But what does it mean for you and your money? Felicity Hannah will be looking at how today's announcements impact your personal finances - from pensions, to taxes and benefits. Joining her to answer your questions and comments are, Alice Haine, Personal Finance Analyst at BestInvest, Dawn Register, Partner at the accountancy firm BDO and Sangita Chawla, Managing Director for...

The number of reported scams involving QR codes has nearly quadrupled in less than three years according to figures seen by Money Box. The data was revealed by City of London Police and gathered from reports made to Action Fraud. The Charted Institute of Trading Standards is warning those reports are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. We'll hear the story of one woman who was scammed after using a QR code in a car park. The government's cost of living support payments to help people on...

Most people would like to save for their children but it's not always straightforward. There are questions about the best accounts, about how much you can afford - and about what those children might decide to spend the money on once they hit 18! According to Standard Life 7 out of 10 parents are worried they're not saving enough for their youngsters' futures. Felicity Hannah is joined by Kirsty Stone, a Chartered Financial Planner at the financial adviser The Private Office and Stephanie...

As the number of homeowners behind on their mortgage jumps we look at a scheme in Wales trying to help people stay in their homes. Also on the programme we speak to experts who weigh up the pros and cons of deferring your state pension and hear about the complications one woman had in getting the money she was owed. We'll tell you if you're eligible for the winter fuel payment and, as the cost of living continues to bite, we visit a baby bank in Perth and Kinross to meet the volunteers who...

This week we are talking all things love and money and what co-habiting, marriage and divorce mean for your finances. Do you split the bills evenly or have a complicated spreadsheet to work out who pays what? It comes as recent research published by the University of Bristol revealed 100,000 couples divorce in England and Wales every year - but only a third of them use the legal system to sort out their finances - the majority negotiate their own arrangements or in the worst cases, reach no...

For the first time we know the record of individual banks on reimbursing victims of fraud. The Payment Systems Regulator published figures this week which show, bank by bank, what proportion of the victims were reimbursed and what proportion of their money they got back. Millions of people, some with quite modest savings, now face the prospect of paying tax on the interest those savings earn. Who does it affect and what do you need to do about it? We'll discuss a new report from the...