Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are a type of digital money that has proliferated in recent years. They are mostly unconnected to governments or central banks. Some people treat them as an investment, some people as a bit of a flutter, and many more people don't yet know anything about them at all. We look at how they work and how the regulatory landscape is changing with the UK's financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority currently consulting on a range of proposals. It could mean crypto-related firms will be covered by the same requirements as traditional financial firms, boosting consumer protections.It comes as Action Fraud, which is the UK's national reporting centre for cybercrime, says crypto-related scams jumped by 16% last year. In fact, it accounted for two thirds of all investment fraud reports.Felicity Hannah is joined by Kate Baucherel, a digital strategy consultant specialising in emerging technologies like crypto, and Louise Abbott, a partner at Keystone Law with a focus on fraud, crypto and asset recovery.Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: James Graham
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson(This episode was first broadcast at 3pm on Radio 4 on Wednesday the 24th of September 2025).
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27:38
Warning over Trusts and Landlord Mortgages
Top lawyers have told Money Box that people across the UK are being misled into paying thousands of pounds for products which they are told will protect the value of their home from inheritance tax or being taken to pay for care home fees. In reality, they say, these schemes do not work and may trigger legal complications and huge financial costs in the future. Usually the products involve setting up some sort of 'trust' but they are often sold by people who are not lawyers and are not regulated. The Association of Lifetime Lawyers, asked over a hundred its own members and found 95% of those lawyers surveyed said they had seen such products being missold and more than 4 in 5 said they had clients who had been misled. Buy-to-let mortgage rates have dipped to their lowest level in almost three years and there is more choice of mortgage products for buy to let landlords than ever before. The data, which comes from Money Facts, might be good news for any landlords coming to the end of a 2 year fix when rates were higher, but not for those who fixed 5 years ago when rates were much lower. What does it mean for the market?The state pension looks set to increase by more than inflation in April - that would mean an extra £500 a year for many.
And why are house prices rising faster in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK?Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Eimear Devlin
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 20th September 2025)
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24:58
Money Box Live: Navigating a Terminal Illness
This week on Money Box Live we're looking at a topic that's very difficult but very important. What happens to your finances when the worst happens? How do you plan for your financial future when you've been diagnosed with a life-limiting or terminal illness? It's a question a group of MPs have been asking too. The All Party Parliamentary Group for Hospice and End of Life Care has found that people can face real hardship because they often have extra costs combined with a loss of earnings.Felicity Hannah is joined by Jamie Thunder, senior policy manager for financial security at the end of life charity Marie Curie and Nina Sperring, partner at Price, Slater, Gawne solicitors. She's also a member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners which specialises in estates and wills. We also hear from Nathaniel Dye, a music teacher who was diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer at 36.Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: James Graham and Helen Ledwick
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson(First broadcast at 3pm Wednesday 17th September 2025)
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28:30
Mortgage Charter and Unclaimed Benefits
New figures reveal that more than a quarter of a million homeowners have temporarily reduced their mortgages payments, or extended their mortgage term, since lenders agreed to offer better support to customers in June 2023 through what was called the Mortgage Charter. There's been a sharp rise in people taking their tax-free lump sum out of their pension over the past year. Since 2015 people over the age of 55 could take 25 per cent of their pension pots tax-free and then use the rest as they wished. These figures from the regulator the Financial Conduct Authority show tens of thousands more people made that choice - why?Millions of people are missing out on tens of billions of pounds worth of help ranging from benefits to social tariffs from utility companies. That's according to the latest analysis Policy in Practice suggests. What type of benefits are people missing out on?And the £100 limit on contactless card payments looks set to be scrapped. The regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, published plans this week to let banks set their own limit - or indeed have no limit at all. Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Eimear Devlin
Editor: Jess Quayle(First broadcast 12pm on Radio 4 on Saturday 13th September 2025)
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24:56
Money Box Live: The Cost of University
About a quarter of a million 18-year-olds in the UK secured a university place this summer and are now preparing to head off to their chosen institution. The numbers increased by about 5% at a time when the costs associated with getting a degree are also rising. There's a patchwork of different funding models across the UK, but for students in England and Wales tuition fees have gone up for the first time in eight years. We take a look at how tuition and day-to-day costs are funded across the UK, and hear from students about their housing - another major cost that has been increasing.Debt is also now a major part of the university experience, with students in England graduating with an average debt of £53,000. One graduate explains how she has struggled to make a dent in her debt over the past 10 years despite holding well paid jobs.Felicity Hannah is joined by Tom Allingham from the student money website Save the Student and Clare Dickens, director of the Student Life team at the University of Wolverhampton.Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: James Graham and Helen Ledwick
Editor: Jess Quayle(This episode was first broadcast at 3pm on Radio 4 on the 10th of September 2025).
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