'I had £18,000 stolen after my drink was spiked'

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A 26-year-old believes his drink was spiked on a night out and his finger print used to unlock his smart phone allowing thieves to steal £18,000 from his bank accounts. A leading anti-fraud campaigner warns that criminals appear to be adopting the "sinister" tactic of spiking drinks to get money.

The Government is asking Parliament to pass a retrospective law which would make it easier to collect tax from higher income people who claim child benefit. The Finance Bill measures stand to override a legal ruling which allowed some households, where someone has income over £50,000, to keep the High Income Child Benefit Charge which they should have paid. Courts had decided that HMRC should not have used discovery assessments, which allow it to reopen closed tax periods and issue bills for previous years, to recover it.

Some people on low incomes may find it harder to receive tax credits and other benefits after the way the money is paid changes next year. It's part of a wider government push to get all entitlements paid into bank accounts but debt experts warn that some vulnerable people may not meet the criteria for a bank account.

This week Zog Energy became the 25th supplier to collapse. If yours has ceased trading with your account in credit how do you get a refund?

Reporter: Dan Whitworth Producer: Charmaine Cozier Researcher: Drew Miller Hyndman Editor: Emma Rippon

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
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0:48.1	Now, this Christmas, thousands of people across the UK will be without a safe place to call home.
0:53.7	But listen up, you can help change that.
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1:24.5	Thanks, Mel, and do give to that appeal if you can.
1:28.8	I'm Paul Lewis, welcoming you to this Moneybox podcast. The government asks Parliament to pass a retrospective law to make
1:35.1	it easier to collect tax from higher-income people who claim child benefit, and why it will be
1:40.7	harder for nearly 10,000 low-income households to collect their tax credits from April.
1:46.7	But first, one of the UK's leading campaigners in the fight against fraud says criminals appear to be adopting the sinister tactic of spiking people's drinks to steal their money.
	...

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