2024

Energy firms are said to be sitting on over £3 BILLION of our cash, building up this huge reservoir from the two-thirds of homes who pay by monthly Direct Debit. Yet we're about to enter the PERFECT TIME to stop the rip-off and get that money back – it's all about understanding the Direct Debit cycle.

There was no news on energy standing charges in today's 1.2% rise January Price Cap announcement, but I do expect to hear the results of the Ofgem consultation before the year's out. Though sadly, I'm cautiously pessimistic. Here's a mix of a briefing and my thoughts...

Be careful who you listen to on Student finance. There’s a lot of nonsense spoken. And even when you’re getting facts, be wary, it has changed so often, the way it works for is different even for some still at Uni now, never mind those who graduated a decade ago. So I want to explain the practical impact on your pocket – which is radically different to the more political spin you will usually hear. 

Complaints about smart meters are through the roof. Too many people tell me theirs are broken. Others refuse to have them and feel companies are forcing them. I'm generally in favour of the concept of smart meters, though I think the way they've been rolled out since the start has been dire. Things need to change, so today I sent this open letter to the new Labour Government's Energy Secretary of State, Ed Miliband...

There's a lot of nonsense spoken about student finance. Not only because its fundamentally misunderstood by millions, but also as the system has changed so often, even if you talk to someone in their second or third year at uni now, the way it works for them is different to you, never mind those who graduated a decade or two ago.

We have a new Government, and new Chancellor, in Rachel Reeves. I’ve written to her today to highlight some areas of financial injustice we were working on with the previous government before the election (see my letter to Jeremy Hunt), in the hopes of getting things done. Here is the letter sent today (with some added links for further info)… 

I've set out to find the nation's best cheese 'n' onion crisps, with a mass taste test of 44 different packs, sampled by 26 tasters. This is my second data-Crunch – it all started last year, with the glorious best salt 'n' vinegar crisps tasting. Yet some people, strangely (or perhaps more accurately), started to say it couldn't end there, and that I needed do the same with cheese 'n' onion.

No one set out to make dealing with finances difficult for people with mental health issues, but rarely did they think about how to make it easy. So there weren't any 'bad actors', but lots of terrible systems. After having had my own 'dark days', I always vowed that when I could, I wanted to try and do something about it. So in 2016, I set up the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute charity. I'm still the chair of trustees today and provide the core funding as part of my charity fund.

A dozen years ago, in June 2012, MSE joined the Moneysupermarket Group and I pledged £10m to go to charity. As that was a public pledge and I feel a duty of transparency, every year or so I bash out a blog report to explain where I'm up to, and who's got what money.

On the 9 January 2024, Jeremy Hunt the Chancellor of the Exchequer was a guest on ‘ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show’, it was a wide ranging consumer finance interview, you can watch it here. As part of it when I was pushing some key campaigning points, his response was to ask me to write to him. Below is the letter sent today (which I will also send to the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves)…