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Money Box: The Scottish homeowners whose Green Deal has turned sour

The Scottish homeowners whose Green Deal has turned sour

28/07/2018

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, The Scottish homeowners whose Green Deal has turned sour

Hundreds have been left in debt by home improvements that were supposed to be cost-neutral

The Green Deal that's left households in debt, thousands miss out on tax-free childcare, and are customers paying too much to use debit and credit cards?

Customers have been left stressed and in debt after signing up to an energy-saving deal they believed would save them money, but instead have found their electricity bills have gone up. More than twenty households on Glenfruin Road in Blantyre, near Glasgow, were persuaded to have solar panels fitted on their roof by a company called HELMS, as part of a government scheme called the Green Deal. The costs would be partially covered by a loan from a government-sponsored body called the Green Deal Finance Company and from money they'd get from generating their own electricity. What they didn't realise was that they'd signed over the rights to that money and would not receive a penny. Tony Bonsignore investigates. 

Are retailers being charged too much for allowing customers to pay by debit or credit cards? The UK payments watchdog is reviewing banks that process card transactions on behalf of businesses to see what fees they impose. There's concern that a lack of competition within the card industry means that customers are not getting a fair deal. James Lowman, Chief Executive at the Association of Convenience Stores, explains how the system, (known as card-acquiring services) works and voices his concerns about a lack of transparency. 

More than a million families are not claiming a valuable Government tax break which could help ease the cost of paying for summer childcare. The scheme is called Tax-Free Childcare, and started in April 2017. HMRC has told Money Box that although 1.5m families are eligible for the top-up payments, there are currently only 240,000 Tax-Free Childcare accounts being operated by parents. Paul Lewis talks to Victoria Todd from the Low Incomes Tax reform Group to find out who's eligible and why the take-up is so low.

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