Travelex customers face continued chaos
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Council tenants on Universal Credit are much more likely to be in rent arrears than those who don’t get the benefit. That’s according to research carried out by Money Box. We surveyed local authorities for 12 of the largest cities across Britain and found tens of thousands of people having to manage this debt. The numbers also suggest not only are people on the benefit more likely to be in arrears, but they’re likely to owe much more too. We find out why.
Proposals about how to reform leasehold laws in England and Wales have been described as 'nothing more than tinkering' by campaigners. We speak to Professor Nick Hopkins the member of the Law Commission responsible for this report.
And foreign exchange company Travelex is still closed for business after a ransom attack eleven days ago. We find out what this means for its customers.
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Howard Mustoe Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.8 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
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| 0:35.0 | check out BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.2 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:46.8 | Hello, nearly two weeks after criminals held the foreign exchange firm Travelex to ransom, |
| 0:50.1 | some holidaymakers and others are asking where their money is. |
| 0:55.6 | And will a new report make it cheaper for leaseholders to buy or extend their lease? |
| 0:57.7 | But we start with rent-areers. |
| 1:02.6 | A Moneybox investigation has found that council tenants in England and Wales on the new benefit called Universal Credit are much more likely to be in rent-areers than other tenants. |
| 1:07.9 | We surveyed 12 big cities. |
| 1:09.7 | Here are just two examples. Newcastle told us that |
| 1:12.7 | about three in four tenants on universal credit are in arrears compared with less than one in three |
| 1:18.0 | on other benefits. Manchester told us the amount of arrears averaged £739 for tenants on |
| 1:25.0 | universal credit, but just 266 for those on housing benefit. |
| 1:30.3 | Everywhere we inquired from Hull to Cardiff, Nottingham to Sheffield, the story was the same. |
| 1:35.5 | Tenants on universal credit are between two and three times more likely to be in rent arrears, |
| 1:40.1 | and those arrears are between two and three times as big. |
| 1:44.5 | Steve lives in Hull with his wife and four children in a council house. |
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