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You and Yours: Financial Abuse, Roaming Charges, Florists, Council Tax Debt; Financial Ombudsman

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12/03/2015

Financial Abuse, Roaming Charges, Florists, Council Tax Debt; Financial Ombudsman

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Financial Abuse, Roaming Charges, Florists, Council Tax Debt; Financial Ombudsman

How people in abusive relationships are trapped by debts forced on them by their partners.

Consumer news and issues. How can government departments, agencies and banks help to protect survivors of physical and financially abusive relationships?

Women's Aid and the TUC are calling on government departments, agencies and banks to review their practices to protect survivors of physical and financially abusive relationships.

We speak to one survivor who was left with £95,000 worth of debt and from Hilary Fisher, Director of Policy at Women's Aid.

By 2018 it's predicted that we'll all have 70 connected devices in our homes, which will change how we act as consumers. Melanie Abbott reports live from the Retail Week conference where it's been a topic of discussion, and hears from Dixons Carphone Warehouse CEO, Seb James.

EU governments have said roaming charges for mobile phone users travelling in the 28-member bloc should remain at least until the end of 2018. You and Yours hears from one customer who faced huge bills when their mobile phone signal automatically switched to overseas networks when close to the Irish border.

There are 15,000 florist businesses in the UK. It's an industry made up of mainly small businesses who are seeing their sales decline as Supermarkets offer cheaper and cheaper bouquets. So what are independent Florists doing to boost business? 

Councils are being accused of using aggressive debt collection tactics and offering less help than banks to people who've fallen behind with their bills. We speak to debt charity StepChange who say too many councils adopt a heavy-handed approach to non-payment of council tax.

Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service are taking longer to resolve than a year ago.Peter hears from one man who waited four and a half years for the financial ombudsman to settle his case and to the chief ombudsman at the FOS, Caroline Wayman, about why there are such long delays.

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