:00:00. > :00:00.be closed for a month. The Roman Catholic Church has criticised
:00:07. > :00:19.government welfare reforms. Now Declan Curry is here with Your
:00:20. > :00:28.Money. Hello and welcome to your weekly guide to making the most of
:00:29. > :00:34.your cash. Richer in retirement. The city watchdog says pensioners could
:00:35. > :00:40.be 7% better off every year in old age if they got a better deal. Our
:00:41. > :00:53.reporter seeks out hidden treasure in old maps. And Kate has tips on
:00:54. > :01:00.turning spare cash into a Child's nest egg. While we work, many of us
:01:01. > :01:05.save for our old age. Many of us will then take those savings and
:01:06. > :01:11.swap them for an insurance policy that promises to give ours and
:01:12. > :01:21.income every year that we live. They are often add value. If you watch
:01:22. > :01:26.this programme you will know that you can shop around because we have
:01:27. > :01:34.gone on and on about it, now the city watchdog has caught up. Over
:01:35. > :01:42.400 annuities -- 400,000 annuities are sold every year. Six out of ten
:01:43. > :01:49.of us do not shop around and almost deep percent could get a better
:01:50. > :02:03.deal. -- 80%. Getting a better deal could increase your annual income by
:02:04. > :02:10.7% per year. We knew much of this already, what is the watchdog going
:02:11. > :02:17.to do about it? It has taken them a year to get to this stage. They are
:02:18. > :02:23.now telling us that many people do not get a decent deal out of their
:02:24. > :02:27.pension saving which is a tragedy. If you have spent years putting
:02:28. > :02:35.money into a pension plan you are entitled to get the best return from
:02:36. > :02:39.it. Many people are not doing that. What the watchdog has done is put
:02:40. > :02:46.some flesh on the bones and given as some evidence of the fact that so
:02:47. > :02:51.many people are missing out by not shopping around. Do people actually
:02:52. > :02:57.understand the value of shopping around to get the best possible
:02:58. > :03:05.deal? Is it going to be worth their while to pay a financial adviser to
:03:06. > :03:10.help with this? The system is probably too complicated and needs
:03:11. > :03:15.some radical change. You put your finger right on one of the problem
:03:16. > :03:20.is, if you go to a financial adviser they will say it is going to cost
:03:21. > :03:24.you money and your instinctive thought is why should I pay for
:03:25. > :03:33.advice for something I do not really understand? Yes, but everything will
:03:34. > :03:37.not be fine as we know, the statistics the watchdog has produced
:03:38. > :03:42.show that is not the case. If able get this wrong, they get it wrong
:03:43. > :03:46.for life so it is often worth paying a few hundred pounds to get the
:03:47. > :03:53.extra thousands over the course of your lifetime. There are also
:03:54. > :03:58.annuity brokers that you can go to who will do the shopping around for
:03:59. > :04:03.you, you will have to pay something to them as well but I do urge people
:04:04. > :04:09.to take this very seriously and, where necessary, take advice. They
:04:10. > :04:14.need to consider the timing of the annuity purchase, they do not have
:04:15. > :04:18.to take an annuity and the older you are when you hand over your pension
:04:19. > :04:25.pot for an annuity, the better the deal you have. That is because there
:04:26. > :04:30.is less time for that payment to be made to you. Do you get one that
:04:31. > :04:34.pays you a level income for life or one night gives you a spice 's
:04:35. > :04:47.benefit or one that is linked to inflation? -- spices benefit. You
:04:48. > :04:52.have a real possibility of getting a big increase in your income. People
:04:53. > :04:58.are living longer and therefore they cost more to provide but really we
:04:59. > :05:03.want to get the best deal. The regulator is now going to do a
:05:04. > :05:07.further study to look at things like the profit margins of some of these
:05:08. > :05:12.insurance companies and whether there is any sort of market default
:05:13. > :05:17.going on here which could be put right. I welcome that, I just wish
:05:18. > :05:22.they would get on with it because there are 400,000 people per year
:05:23. > :05:33.taking out a new tees and many are getting a poor deal. This needs to
:05:34. > :05:42.be put right. Thank you for your insight and shading your expertise
:05:43. > :05:54.with us. -- sharing. Customers who were mis-sold insurance for home
:05:55. > :05:59.repairs, there will be payback. You do not need to do anything, the
:06:00. > :06:05.company will write to you if you are to get that cash. They have been
:06:06. > :06:16.fined for taking advantage of customers. Over 700,000 forms missed
:06:17. > :06:22.the tax revenue deadline and will be fined. There was a 23% jump in loans
:06:23. > :06:27.to people buying their first house or flat. Despite the government
:06:28. > :06:35.funding for lending and help to buy schemes, buyers still typically
:06:36. > :06:38.offer a deposit of 20%. The energy companies are making more profit
:06:39. > :06:44.than first thought says the energy minister. He has told the watchdog
:06:45. > :06:50.to considerably king the biggest firms up if they are too dominant.
:06:51. > :06:55.If you remember pirate stories, you will know that X Marks the spot. It
:06:56. > :07:01.is the place on the map that the secret treasure is buried. What if
:07:02. > :07:09.the map itself is the secret treasure? You may not have thought
:07:10. > :07:23.of lobes themselves as a potential investment but even as paper maps
:07:24. > :07:31.are replaced by tom-tom they are becoming desirable. This is
:07:32. > :07:42.currently priced at just over ?1 million. Last year alone this firm
:07:43. > :07:48.sold 20 more pieces than before. The number of people interested in maps
:07:49. > :07:52.has increased, they are also a broader range of people coming in
:07:53. > :08:02.and becoming interested in the material. Younger customers are
:08:03. > :08:10.visiting the market. 25 to 30-year-olds guard the bigger
:08:11. > :08:16.screw. People are very aware of mapping and I think that has created
:08:17. > :08:25.a renewed interest in the process of mapping historically. It is tempting
:08:26. > :08:33.to think you have to spend a lot of money to get anywhere with maps but
:08:34. > :08:40.the 1931 edition of the London underground map was given away for
:08:41. > :08:44.free and it is now worth ?1500. Plans of the tube have become
:08:45. > :08:50.eminently collectable. People buy up things they have a connection to
:08:51. > :09:01.which has boosted charters of major cities. So too are satirical maps
:09:02. > :09:05.related to historical events. This man thinks the Internet is behind
:09:06. > :09:11.rising prices, particularly items from the last century. A few years
:09:12. > :09:23.ago I do not think people realise how rare some 20th-century material
:09:24. > :09:30.was. They've got something for a hundred years ago would be more rare
:09:31. > :09:42.than something given away free in the 1940s. Did I see the end of
:09:43. > :09:48.March for the tax thing? It is January. We all knew it was. For
:09:49. > :09:54.some reason I said March! If you pay your energy bill by direct debit and
:09:55. > :10:00.the company takes too much from you in advance how do you get it back?
:10:01. > :10:06.EDS says it will give the fool annual refund to any customers who
:10:07. > :10:10.are in credit. They will give you an automatic refund if they have taken
:10:11. > :10:18.too much. Until now, you have had to request one. If you are with another
:10:19. > :10:21.company heeded the advice. Take an up-to-date meter reading, send it
:10:22. > :10:29.in, check your next bill, if you are in credit phone them and ask for the
:10:30. > :10:34.money back. If you are dreaming wistfully about the time your
:10:35. > :10:38.children move out in that does not necessarily ease the strain on your
:10:39. > :10:51.bank account. How can you make your money work harder? Kate Murray is
:10:52. > :10:58.head of savings and investments at a family finance specialist. She is in
:10:59. > :11:02.Brighton for us. The biggest challenge for any pavement is to
:11:03. > :11:09.find any spare money at all at the end of the month but assuming it is
:11:10. > :11:21.they are, you to aim for, giving for the short-term and saving for the
:11:22. > :11:25.long-term. You need to think about different ways of saving. The first
:11:26. > :11:30.thing is to save for the short term, for the here and now. You might want
:11:31. > :11:34.to open a bank or building society for your child, put it in their
:11:35. > :11:39.name. In those accounts, if you get ?10 in a birthday card or pocket
:11:40. > :11:43.money, you want to put that money away with the child. That really
:11:44. > :11:51.helps the child learn about the value of money. If they want to save
:11:52. > :11:54.for the latest tablet or a school trip, or an outfit for a party, that
:11:55. > :12:00.is the type of thing where they go with a passbook. They might have a
:12:01. > :12:05.cash card. They need to learn how to budget. We had school savings and
:12:06. > :12:11.things like that many years ago. Saving for the long-term is
:12:12. > :12:16.different. It is very different. That is really about saving for the
:12:17. > :12:21.child 's future, when they are young adult. We all know the pressures
:12:22. > :12:26.that young adults have now. Whether it is saving to get their first step
:12:27. > :12:30.on the housing ladder, for example. The cost of university fees are so
:12:31. > :12:35.much higher than when I went to university. The average debt. One
:12:36. > :12:42.leading university is ?30,000. That is about saving for the long-term.
:12:43. > :12:47.The key message for me is to start early. Doing little and often can
:12:48. > :12:55.really make a difference over the long-term. There are now a junior
:12:56. > :13:10.versions of the ice, the tax efficient account. You can open one?
:13:11. > :13:18.Junior ISA 's, you were saying how difficult it is for parents who want
:13:19. > :13:23.to do the right thing. You can ask God parents and grandparents to get
:13:24. > :13:26.involved and they can pay into those accounts. One group of children
:13:27. > :13:31.cannot have a junior ice and they are those who could have had a child
:13:32. > :13:39.trust fund. If you could have got one, you cannot have a junior ice.
:13:40. > :13:44.If your child was born between September 2002 and June 2010, they
:13:45. > :13:50.would automatically have had a child trust fund. That product actually is
:13:51. > :13:53.very similar to the Junior ISA. Both are long-term savings products and
:13:54. > :14:01.both are locked away for the child for when the child reaches 18. Thank
:14:02. > :14:07.you very much. That is all for this week. News, tips and information
:14:08. > :14:13.about savings, borrowing, spending, pensions and all the rest of it
:14:14. > :14:17.online. Updates of course by following our feed on twitter.
:14:18. > :14:20.Thanks for watching again this week. I hope to see you next week. We have
:14:21. > :14:41.more for you then. This is BBC News. The headlines: two
:14:42. > :14:46.people die after another night of fierce storms batter Britain. One
:14:47. > :14:48.woman was killed in London and an 89-year-old man was killed on board