Money Box

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Money Box: Funeral Plans and Energy Credit

07/10/2023

Funeral Plans and Energy Credit

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Funeral Plans and Energy Credit

A funeral firm goes bust - leaving thousands of customers without the plans they paid for.

A funeral firm that ceased trading has left thousands of customers without the funeral plan they paid for.

A funeral plan company with more than 13,000 customers has gone bust leaving thousands of people without the plan they paid for.  One Life Funeral Planning Limited was just 1 of around 40 firms which were not approved by the Financial Conduct Authority in July 2022 when it took over regulation of funeral planners.  Attempts to find a regulated firm to take over its customers failed and last November its directors put it into administration.  What can its customers do?

Christine Farnish, a former non-executive director at the energy regulator Ofgem, has told Money Box the amount of credit held by energy companies is a "real problem" that needs looking at.  It comes after we revealed last week that suppliers held more than £8bn of customers' money in the form of credit on their accounts in the first three months of this year.  Ofgem said protecting customers is its top priority and that it encourages suppliers to help customers spread the cost of winter over a full year to help them manage their bills. Previously Energy UK have told us told us at the time this £8.1bn was being held as credit prices were extremely volatile and the level of government help was unknown.

Nearly half a million new 18 year olds have not claimed hundreds even thousands of pounds waiting for them in child trust funds the govt and parents set aside for them.  Check here: findctf.sharefound.org
 
And is there a way to tell if you really are investing ethically? A new database may be a step towards that. 

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast, 12pm Saturday 7th October, 2023)

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