What do you want Martin to ask Mark Hoban, Treasury Minister?

Jennifer

Have you considered returning to Teeside to contest a seat in your own area? As MP for Fareham Hants you offer the locals little.

J

x11x11x11

Hi, Could the question be asked would not a fairer way of deciding when to pay a state pension be based on the number of years worked (NOT CLAIMING BENEFITS). Both my wife and I started work at 15 and will have to work until we are 66 making a total of 51 years worked before we receive a state pension. We understand the need to modernise the pension system, but feel penalised when many younger people going to college and Uni etc will not start work properly until they are in their mid 20's making years contributing to the modernised pension pot of around 43 if they work from 25 until they are 68 which is 8 years less than ourselves or 10 years if it stays at 66. Surely a figure of around 40 years worked for a basic state pension would be fairer and a small addition for each year worked on top of the basic 40. As we said previously we understand the need for change but feel we are being made to pay for ALL the previous governments mistakes (and still continuing) over the years. :mad: Good luck Martin

jennifernil

I would like you to ask if it can be made compulsory for all banks (indeed EVERONE) to provide a geographical phone number as well as 0845 type ones.

Every time I complain about this I get told "but it's a local number charge"

Yes, but still something like 4p per minute. And it often takes a very long time to get through to anyone.

Using my alternative calling system, I pay only 6p for a UK call, no matter how long I am on, so a big difference.

Even if you request a geographic number, they generally refuse to provide one.

savingsusie

Why are Mortgage Lender's able to charge such high fees to arrange a mortgage?
Surely these are not reflective of the actual costs of setting up and arranging a mortgage.
These arrangement fees should be considered in the same way bank charges were considered too high, unrealistic, and not reflective of the actual cost to the bank / lender.
Lender's appear to be using these charges to give a lower APR headline rate and make extra profit from huge arrangement fees.
Why can't the Government assess the realistic average cost of setting up a mortgage and put a cap on how much the Lender's are able to charge.
This would help the Consumer tremendously by providing clear, concise information on mortgage costs. The APR rate shown would be the actual cost of the mortgage, without any need for complex calculations.

savingsusie

There has been a lot of press recently about access to credit for people on low incomes and the use of Loan Sharks and companies like Provident charging high interest rates.
Put money into the development of Credit Unions. Use good PR and marketing to encourage the use of Credit Unions for saving and borrowing whatever your income.

DrSyn

Ask the minister why transfering a savings ISA can not be made as quick as the old PEP Savings where.

1.With the PEP Savings when I wanted to transfer funds all you did was walk into the original provider tell them youwant to transfer. There and then they gave you a certificate which stopped you losing the tax advantages and stated the amount of your fund. You then took it to your new provider. Job done!

2. Now the transfer can take a lot longer with the advantage going to the old provider, not you!

vixen1500

I realise that people are now living longer BUT -

surely someone retiring at 65 and living until 85 will only be claiming for 20 years.

Where as a teenager/twenty something year old not working will just after a few years turn into a longterm unemployed person. Who will then end up claiming not only for themselves, but also any family they produce for a much longer period.

Give everyone the option of retiring at 60. They at least will have been working and paying taxes so have paid into the system.

Free up jobs and lets get the young off benefits and supporting themselves and their families.

p.s. I wonder just how many of the MPs could manage to do a manual job working shifts at the age of 65 or even in their fifty's. Infact I would love one of them to take up the challenge of doing a month working 12hr shifts - I am sure that my husband would love to have a month off whilst one of them covered for him.

Ops did I just see a flying pig? lol

mjc1157

The Conservatives when in opposition said that they would pay full compensation to Equitable Life members. Now in office they are back tracking on their electoral promises and at best it looks as if we will only get back 15% of our initial contributions. Is an 85% loss the best we can now hope for?
Mark Cody

Inflicted_Loss

After equities had finished crashing in 2008 you and the FSA and the High Court got together to compel Standard Life to invest in low interest fixed and bonds, crystallising the losses. You then made it even worse by allowing the demutualisation to proceed and money was distributed in shares and dividends to non-members. Equities have now largely recovered. Are you going to investigate Standard Life's miserable maturity payouts, keep your nose out of people's business in future instead of making things worse, or just give me the £45000 I have not received?

Patjan

This is really to repeat and reinforce what others have already written.

The obscenely low savings rates which have been around for years now, are basically subsiding borrowers and increasing the banks' profits. When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he recognised that savers had had a raw deal and promised to do something about it. Result? A big fat zilch! The Coalition is no better.

Hundreds of thousands of people do not have mortgages or loans, but do have savings and rely on their interest to survive. Why should we see our standard of living drop because of the dreadfully low intrest rates, while those with mortgages/loans are effectively subsidised by us?

So my question to the Minister is: When are you going to increase interest rates on savings to an ethical, moral and viable level?