child benefit

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered a £10bn tax-cutting Budget, promising to create a “new generation of investors” — but what does he actually have in store for our personal finances? Host Claer Barrett is joined by an expert panel to discuss tax changes coming in April, with higher-earning working parents set to see the biggest boost. Armed with direct guidance from HMRC, Miranda Green, the FT’s deputy opinion editor and Rafe Uddin, FT politics reporter, talk us through changes to child benefit, and whether plans for a new “UK Isa” and a retail offering of NatWest shares this summer will really boost the fortunes of London’s stock market — and of investors. They’re joined by Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who sets out what people on different salary bands can expect to see from the second cut to national insurance — plus what tax policies the opposition Labour party might be thinking up after Hunt shamelessly borrowed some of its biggest ideas. 

For more tips on how to organise your money, sign up to Claer's email series 'Sort Your Financial Life Out With Claer Barrett' at FT.com/moneycourse

If you would like to be a guest on a future episode of Money Clinic, email us at money@ft.com or send Claer a DM on social media — she’s @ClaerB on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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For a full guide to tax changes, read this FT Weekend piece: Will the Budget leave you better off? 

Listen to more episodes, such as Tax cuts: will they or won’t they?, When is a tax cut not a tax cut? The Autumn Statement digested and more.

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Tamara Kormornick and Persis Love. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The government has just extended the deadline to April 2025 for people to top up their National Insurance contributions. For many people approaching retirement, especially women, it offers a fantastic opportunity for them to increase their state pension by thousands of pounds by paying in only a few extra hundred. As you can imagine, the demand is huge, and has jammed the government pensions hotline. Money Clinic host Claer Barrett speaks to Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister and now a partner at consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock. He fields questions from FT readers and listeners about who should apply (and who should not), how to apply, and what kind of a deal to expect.

The episode features a clip from the Martin Lewis Podcast on BBC Radio 5 Live.

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Deadline to plug UK state pension gap extended until April 2025

Find out more about voluntary National Insurance contributions

See your State Pension forecast and find any gaps in your National Insurance record

Check your State Pension age

If you live or plan to retire abroad, click here for the the UK’s International Pension Centre

If you would like to talk to Claer on a future episode, please email the Money Clinic team at money@ft.com with a short description of your problem, and how you would like us to help.  

Say hello on social media: you can follow Claer on Twitter and Instagram @Claerb, and Claer’s guest Sir Steve Webb is @stevewebb1

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Laurence Knight. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Child benefit and state pension - It’s not the most obvious link.

But if you are a parent who is looking after a child instead of working, you need to register for child benefit in order to build up your entitlement in retirement age.

Austerity swept away the universal child benefit and those households where one parent earns more than £50,000 have to start giving it back until it is removed altogether above £60,000.

Unsurprisingly, many who fall into this bracket simply opt not to take it and see no point in registering. Unfortunately, mums and dads who stopped work to look after children are now finding they’ve missed building up their state pension.

It should be easy to fix, but HMRC and the government have been stalling parents affected. That’s why This is Money has started a campaign to get this mess fixed, before it gets any worse.

On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost discuss how this all happened and why it matters to not just those affected.

Also on this week’s show, we discuss whether it’s a good idea to delay your state pension and why banks and building societies are cutting mortgage rates, despite the Bank of England raising rates.

And finally, can you really have a weekend away in Europe, flights and a decent hotel for £57? Yes you can, thanks to a very clever new website we tracked down.

Enjoy.