Jonathan Watts-Lay from WEALTH at work, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business to discuss the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our retirement savings as a third of us say we will never be able to afford to retire because of increasing costs, and with food prices soaring, interest rates rising and energy costs remaining high, 83% are concerned we will have to work longer and postpone our retirement.

Indeed, about one in eight (13%) say rising costs mean they have either stopped or reduced the amount they pay into their pension, which could have serious implications for the future, while 29% admit with bills rising they may consider stopping payments in the future - this will be of particular concern especially when lower fixed rate mortgage deals end and if inflation fails to fall as quickly as initially thought.

Furthermore, one in ten of those eligible to access their pensions have withdrawn their savings earlier than previously intended to supplement their income with 31% either intending or considering to do so in the future.

Jonathan Watts-Lay, from financial wellbeing and retirement specialists, WEALTH at work, explains what this could mean for a generation of workers who may stop contributing and give thoughts on how to balance your finances to make retirement a realistic possibility.

WEALTH at Work provides financial education programmes, guidance on savings and pension schemes,regulated financial advice, and schemes such as salary advancement and salary sacrifice, to organisations in both the public and private sector.

Catherine Sermon from leading thinktank Phoenix Insights  talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about how the Government is being urged to avert a midlife crisis.

Older workers, those aged between 45 and 54, risk being lost to the work economy and left behind with the latest ONS figures released this week showing economic inactivity among 50-64 year olds at a six-month high - job dissatisfaction, caring responsibilities, illness and early retirement are all factors, leaving a massive void and skills gap for employers to fill, but only 5% of this demographic choose to retire with the others forced out of the workplace by circumstance.

Therefore,the government is being urged to help these people build new skills andencourage new workplace opportunities or else face increased economic inactivity as it is feared many people in this age group could be underprepared and not equipped to make beneficial career moves which keep them more fulfilled in the workforce for longer, risking thousands more retiring prematurely and exacerbating economic inactivity among those aged 50+.

While a third of 45-54 year-olds expect to change career before they retire, research shows this group is 60% more likely than 35-44-year-olds to have not taken actions related to their career in last six months (48% vs 30%) with only 15% receiving careers advice in the last three years.

In addition, 42% of workers aged 45-54 have been in their existing main occupation for 11 years or more with 30% of this age group not having a clear plan for how they will work until retirement, while a lack of confidence can prevent these workers from seeking new opportunities.

Among those working aged 45 – 54, the most common reasons for holding back from job changes include feeling too old or too young (21%) or that it's too late to change job or career now (16%).

Catherine Sermon from leading thinktank Phoenix Insights is determined to change the way people think about their careers in mid-life, and with 3.5 million over 50s economically inactive, according to ONS, now is time to act before the “great retirement” trend becomes a permanent feature of the UK’s economic forecast.

She is encouraged to see more younger workers returning to work, but worries the over 50s are being left behind with economic inactivity among 50-64 year olds at a six-month high, adding that“we found over half of over 50s feel they are being left behind in employment, and just one in seven think there is sufficient support to encourage them to remain in or return to work."

Record long-term sickness raises concerns for long-term finances, with Catherine adding: “Supporting this group back to work, if they are able, will help them continue to save and significantly improve the prospects of their future retirement income.”

About Phoenix Group

Phoenix Group is the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business with £259 billion of assets under administration.

Will Carmichael, CEO and Co-Founder of NatWest Rooster Money talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about Kids' finance trends as pocket money growth outpaces inflation.

The nation's kids are cleaning up with their pocket money on average up by 11% during 2022/23, outpacing CPI inflation which stands at 10.4% for the same period. The average child receives £6.42 a week, or £338.84 a year, according to a report looking at kids' finances.

While six-year-olds saw the biggest increase in pocket money up to a whopping 34% year-on-year growth to reach £3.94 a week, 16-year-olds enjoyed the highest weekly allowance of £12.75, according to NatWest Rooster Money’s annual Pocket Money Index.

Parents are feeling the pinch with fewer kids (57% down from 65% the previous year) receiving a regular allowance - perhaps to compensate one-off payments are on the up, comprising 39% of kids’ earnings (up from 34%) as parents use special occasions and good behaviour as opportunities to reward their offspring eg birthdays (£47.01), good school results (£15.98) doing homework (£6.76) or even a visit from the tooth fairy (£3.24) with maths the school subject for which they are most likely to get a ‘bonus’ for (£8.12). Plus, the top five most lucrative chores per job are Cleaning the car (£2.46), Helping with the shopping (£1.11), Vacuuming (£0.96), Doing the laundry (£0.67) and Helping in the garden (£0.64).

Kids are incredibly entrepreneurial, with those with ‘side hustles’ - such as babysitting, selling and upcycling and tutoring etc enjoying a 16% increase in associated earnings - amassing an additional £50.84 in income over the year and with the UK becoming more of a cashless society, the traditional piggy bank and saving for a rainy day has been replaced by new modern methods to engage with children with the number of targets set by kids for gaming currencies like Minecoins and Robux shoot up 220% year on year.

Data was collected from user activity on the NatWest Rooster Money pocket money app and prepaid debit card between 1st March 2022 and 28th February 2023. The sample comprised 126,122 kids.

About NatWest Rooster Money

NatWest Rooster Money is a kids’ prepaid debit card and pocket money app that gets kids confident with money, preparing them for brighter futures. Founded in 2015, RoosterMoney relaunched as NatWest Rooster Money in May 2022. The app features a range of flexible features designed forkids from ages three to 17, including a Star Chart and a Virtual Pocket Money Tracker to kick start money management, through to the Rooster Card (a prepaid debit card for kids from agessix to 17). Rooster Money was voted Best Children’s Pocket Money App in the Moneynet Awards 2021 and Best Kids’ Spending App in the Finder Banking Innovation Awards of 2020.

A Rooster Card subscription is £1.99/month or £19.99/year. NatWest, Royal Bank or Ulster Bank customers can get up to three Rooster Card subscriptions free for as long as they retain their account with the bank. To be eligible for the offer you must be 18+, have mobile or online banking and with child(ren) aged six to 17.  Other fees may apply. T&Cs apply.

The Rooster Card is issued by National Westminster Bank Plc pursuant to a licence from Visa Europe. National Westminster Bank Plc. Registered in England No. 929027.Registered Office:  250 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4AA. Financial Services Firm Reference Number: 121878. National Westminster Bank Plc is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority, and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The Rooster Card utilises the e-money permission held by National Westminster Bank Plc.

Olivia Selley, Associate Solicitor, Harcus Parker  talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about ‘Mortgage Prisoners’ heading to court.

Many of us have faced increased mortgage rates recently but there are thousands of homeowners who have been trapped with high rates for more than a decade after their lender collapsed.  

These ‘mortgage prisoners’ are stuck on exorbitant mortgage deals, and in the past year, near-monthly rate rises have seen some prisoner’s rates leap from 4.5% to as much as 8.29% - pushing homeowners to the brink.   

A new report has revealed that the worry of not being able to escape their unaffordable mortgages has had a devastating impactwith many of them suffering financially, mentally, and physically with no end in sight.  

But victims and their lawyers – Harcus Parker – will be taking their case to the High Court for the very first time as they push for anend to their unfair charges and compensation for what they have been through.   

Indeed,the law firm has just won an important concession in its ongoing compensation battle to help TSB’s Whistletree mortgage customerswho were trapped on excessively high interest rates with TSB agreeing to a High Court trial in early 2024, to let a judge rule whether its Whistletree mortgage customers were financially exploited - the hearing may set a precedent for other similar mortgage prisoner claims.  

While the government has made more than £2 billion from the sale of these loans hundred and thousands of mortgage prisoners have been overcharged billions while the FCA and the Government has done little to support them.   

Most have been unable to switch to a different provider because they don't pass current strict affordability tests.   

In response to the report, a spokesperson for HM Treasury said: "We are open to practical and proportionate solutions to help mortgage prisoners, working with the Financial Conduct Authority and industry to carefully consider all proposals put forward."  

As a result Harcus Parker is taking action against the companies that bought the loans from the Government – arguing that they deliberately stopped the mortgage prisoners from accessing cheaper, more affordable rates because they knew they would be unable to switch providers.  

Impacted mortgage prisoners should sign up to find out whether they could be eligible to join the claim by visiting www.whistletreeclaims.com  & https://harcusparker.co.uk/  

Christian Verhounig, Ambassador Cruise Line CEO talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about the first British cruise line to successfully launch in the UK in over a decade.

Last year Ambassador Cruise Line was the first British cruise line to successfully launch in the UK in over a decade

On Friday 12th May 2023 the line’s second ship, Ambition, setting sail on her maiden voyage from Port of Tyne at 18.00 after a day of celebrations.

In all, Ambition will sail from eight different departure points around the UK – Newcastle, London Tilbury, Dundee, Edinburgh Leith, Falmouth, Liverpool, Bristol and Belfast.

Like its sister ship, Ambience, Ambition is a traditional cruise ship, but its small to mid-size allows it to access many of the UK’s smaller ports.

Picking up guests from their closest port means they will no longer need to make journeys, often several hundred miles long, to get to a single departure point.

Ambition’s launch is creating many new jobs, while bringing more tourists to and boosting the economies of all the locations it will sail to and from.

Both Ambition and Ambience have been upgraded to operate at IMO Tier III, placing them in the top 10% of cruise ships to achieve this level of environmental operation. They also operateat environmental standards that only come in effect in 2025, enabling them to even sail in the most environmentally protected areas such as the World Heritage Fjords, where only 10-15% of the world’s cruise ships can access.

To comply with the latest requirements, companies like Ambassador must reduce NOx emissions by around 70%. Ambassador reduced Ambience’s emissions by 95% from her first sailing in April 2022. The main upgrade modifications have resulted in an overall 7% fuel reduction, 80% less sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions, and an annual CO2 emission reduction of 5.358 tons – significantly relieving the impact we leave on our oceans.

The ships are outfitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction Reactors – reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by approximately 95%. Ambassador has ensured extensive investment into technicalupgrades, to improve the environmental performance of the ships, including:

• SCR
• installation, including a 0-hour maintenance overhaul of the main engine
• and installation of new turbo chargers, economisers and silencers.
• New Advance Waste Water Treatment Plant.
• New Ballast Water Treatment Plant able to operate in the most environmentally protected areas around the world.
• Replacing of the Food Pulper system with New Biodigester.

https://www.ambassadorcruiseline.com/

Nicholas Hagi Savva, a senior associate solicitor in the personal injury team at Slater and Gordon, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about why 78% OF PEOPLE IN PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION JOBS HAVE BEEN INJURED AT WORK.

Despite all the advances that have been made in recent years, construction sites remain among Britain's most dangerous places to work with almost four in five people (78%) in physical jobs in the industry reporting being injured while at work.

Accidents and injuries occur all the time, and many of them are down to other people not following the safety rules. The most common construction site injuries are slips, trips, and falls (45%) followed by cuts/lacerations (43%) and muscle strain (42%), according to research from Slater and Gordon.

Shockingly, more than a third (35%) of people who have worked in physical construction jobs say they have been asked to do work in an area in which they are not qualified to do, and 40% admit they sometimes feel unsafe at work.

As many other industries adopt a hybrid working model, this is not something those working in construction can do with 2 in 5 (41%) saying they have felt rushed back to work by their employer after an injury.

Not being able to work can have a big financial impact with a third of people (34%) who have been injured while working not taking time off for their injuries stating it was because of them not being able to afford to do so, with a quarter (26%) saying the job needed completing.

The average time people take off for severe injuries is 28 days with them losing up to £5,262 in income.

When on-site, 42% say their workplace often downplays injuries with more than half (57%) saying they have worked while sick.

Furthermore, nearly half (49%) feel their boss could be doing more to make construction sites safer.

Nicholas Hagi Savva, a senior associate solicitor in the personal injury team at Slater and Gordon https://www.slatergordon.co.uk/

David Lorenz, Founder & CEO, Lunaz, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about Lunaz and their collaboration with Waste management company Biffa is embarking on a ground-breaking trial that could revolutionize the waste industry, save millions of pounds for taxpayers and remove huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. 

In what is believed to be a world first, they have signed a contract with Silverstone-based Lunaz – the UK’s fastest growing vehicle electrification company – to convert the first ten of their 2,900 fleet of diesel lorries to electric. 

The two British companies are combining expertise to give Biffa trucks a new lease of life. This ensures older vehicles are upcycled instead of being replaced with new ones in the run-up to the 2030 ban on the sale of fossil-fuelled vehicles.  

This is the first step of the two companies working together to electrify Biffa’s fleet of vehicles. This multi-year production programme is expected to see growing numbers of vehicles delivered to Biffa over themid-term as the FTSE-listed company has committed to reduce emissions by 50% and minimize the purchase of fossil-fuelled trucks by 2030.  

Each upcycled electric vehicle emits zero tailpipe emissions, saves 21 tonnes of embedded carbon, is £50,000 cheaper than buying an electric vehicle from new and over the total life-span of the vehicle is significantlycheaper than running the diesel equivalent.  

In all there are around 25,000 bin lorries operating in the UK. As well as commercial waste management companies like Biffa, on average each local authority has around 60 vehicles.  

Lunaz estimates that converting the nation’s local authority fleet of bin lorries from diesel to would save the taxpayer around one million pounds for every 20 lorries converted. And converting all 29,000 lorries would save around half a million tons of embedded carbon. 

The company is already bidding for work to convert fleets for multiple local authorities across the UK. 

Lunaz’ home in Silverstone, England has a capacity to up-cycle more than 1,110 industrial vehicles every year.  

Lunaz investor David Beckham welcomed the Biffa deal, saying;

“This deal is a strong endorsement of Lunaz’ innovative approach to

finding sustainable solutions and I’m delighted to be an investor in

this fast growing and exciting British company”. 

Jack Kennedy, UK & Ireland Economist at Indeed, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about how optimism has been rising that the UK economy will avoid recession this year, we continue to see the labour market coming off the boil.

Vacancies fell for the ninth consecutive month to 1,105,000, though remain well above pre-pandemic levels.  “Regular wage growth remains high at 6.6% y/y but eased back from 6.7% and, after accounting for high inflation, real wages continued to be squeezed at one of the sharpest rates on record at -2.3% y/y. The gap between private (6.9%) and public (5.3%) sector regular wage growth continued to narrow, with the latter picking up to the strongest since 2005. 

“We saw a further 0.4 percentage point drop in inactivity in the latest figures to 21.1%, the biggest drop in nine months, mainly driven by 16-24 year olds as more students returned to the labour force. But inactivity due to long-term sickness continued to increase, hitting a new record high. Overall inactivity remains over 420,000 above pre-pandemic levels. The Chancellor made inactivity a focus in last month’s Budget, though the OBR estimates that his package of reforms may only lower inactivity by about 100,000 and will take several years to take full effect. 

“One measure of labour market tightness, the ratio of unemployed people to vacancies, remains close to historic lows at just 1.2. But that may not give the whole picture if employers aren’t as determined to fill those vacancies as they were before. 

“At Indeed, we’re seeing some signs that employers have started to scale back their recruiting intensity. For example, employers’ use of signing bonuses, which soared during acute worker shortages,has reduced as competition for new hires abates. Today, the share of job postings offering a joining bonus has dipped below 0.9%, from a peakof 1.1% in November.”

Yvonne Sampson,Head of Enterprise for GC, Business Growth Hub, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about "EnterprisingYou and Green Economy, part of the Growth Company family, who will holding an event titled "Is your business ready for the Green Revolution – The future is now" on 25 April 2023 in the recently opened “Green Skill Academy” at Trafford.

Following the recent government Climate and Energy strategy, more emphasis is being put on moving towards a net zero future. This includes investing in green technologies and solutions for our homes. In addition, Greater Manchester also has an ambitious target for the city region to achieve net zero by 2038, which is way ahead of the UK’s target in 2050.

The event will allow people to hear about the opportunities brought up by the gov't target of net zero and see them in action. Local businesses and sole traders have also been invited to join the event, providing guidance on upskilling the workforce and taking advantage of the increased demand for green technologies like solar, EV and heat pumps.

This presents a great opportunity for self-employed traders to get in on the action on all the new green tech and see how they can make these changes without the massive cost.

EnterprisingYou is a fully funded programme that supports the self-employed. Delivered by the Growth Company and People Plus, it gives access to 1:1 business support, personal financial advice, personal development courses, employment support and more.

Yvonne Sampson is an expert in this area and has helped many businesses. As Head of Enterprise at the Business Growth Hub, Yvonne can discuss how the moves to net zero and green technology will impact small businesses and what options are available to help with that move.

Yvonne has over 25 years of working in the Business Support arena and specialised in working with Women entrepreneurs, Ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities. Yvonne set up her own sports franchise business over 10 years ago and has a bank of 14 associates.

She believes that if you have the passion, energy, self-belief, and confidence, you're 80% there to build a good business."

Nick Gold, Founder & Managing Director, Speakers Corner, talks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business about how businesses can shape their reputation, as 86% of businesses owners say reputation management is more of a priority than training staff with 87% viewing it as more of a priority than diversity across their business. 

In world in which a tweet can tank share prices, ‘cancel-culture’ can dethrone a CEO, and poor brand management can cause public outcry, consumer perception is more important than ever, affecting the trust of your customers, recruiting the right talent and securing investment.

While social media can enhance a brand through increased visibility, it can also be a pitfall with 35% of business owners finding the speed at which news travels via these networks as the main challenge to reputation control.

Disclosures around diversity and inclusion/equal pay and addressing pay gaps (28%), a financial scandal (28%) and revelations around working conditions (27%) are the biggest nightmare when it comes to a business’sreputation being tarnished with owners saying the consequences that poor reputation have had on their business in the past include a third receiving negative media coverage and 32% experiencing either investmentwithdrawal or a negative impact on profits.

Social media is a platform that businesses can use to enhance their brand via increased visibility, but it can also be the pitfall to their reputation, as it opens the door to other areas of reputation management from negative media coverage to employment development needed. 35% of business owners find the speed at which news travels now on social media as the main challenge to reputation control.

To show the heightened attention businesses are placing on protecting and preserving their reputation, data shows that the vast majority (86%) of business owners agree that reputation management is more of a priority than training staff, and 87% view it as more of a priority than diversity across their business.

Brand’s biggest nightmare when it comes to ways their reputation could be tarnished are disclosures around diversity and inclusion / equal pay and addressing pay gaps (28%), a financial scandal (28%) and revelations around working conditions (27%).