State Pension Age Rise, Gazundering and Air-Con

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0:30originally deposited, and any profit you might have made. This is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell, or attain any specific investment or service. Fall tastes better with better ingredients from Whole Foods Market. No added growth hormones or antibiotics in their meat department means slow-braised short ribs are even more satisfying. All seafood is wild-caught, like their vibrant sockeye salmon or verified responsibly farmed. and all sweets, including fall-themed cookies, are made without high-fructose corn syrup. Spice up fall at Whole Foods Market. Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.

1:09The growth in gazundering. More people buying a home slash thousands off the price they'll pay just days before the contracts are signed. And is the government cooling on grants for air conditioning, as none have been paid for hot and cold heat pumps eight months after they were announced? But first, urgent action is needed to help people in their 60s on low incomes who face a delay of up to a year before they can claim their state pension. That's the main recommendation of a new report from a parliamentary committee of MPs. Pension age rises over the next two years from 66 to 67, and the Work and Pensions Committee fears thousands of the people affected will face poverty as their help or their job goes unless the benefit rules are changed to give them more money while they wait.

1:59I've worked all my life and I think I've done enough now, you know. The report says last time the state pension age rose in 2020, poverty more than doubled among people in the year approaching the increased pension age with 100 ,000 of them below the poverty line. Figures in the report also show that more than half the people in their mid-60s are not in paid work, and of those who are, almost a quarter of the poorest are working while frail. Joe Krasner found some people in their 60s outside a supermarket in Liverpool, like this man, still working at 64 years old, despite poor health. Obviously I've got to work an extra couple of years, but if I have to, I have to.

2:42It's just the health that does it because we've both got a few health problems and we're finding it difficult now to work. Never mind adding two years on to it. So can you afford to live? And how do you feel about waiting longer for your pension? I'd rather retire at 65, to be honest, because I've worked all my life and I think I've done enough now.

3:06And what do you think about more Social Security being offered to those on low incomes as they have to wait longer for their state pension. But we are on low incomes, both of us, but not low incomes, we're on minimum wage. But it is a struggle, you know, to keep going. So if you could get more help from the state through universal credit, what would that mean to you? It would just be like a little barrier just to keep the finances an even keel, to keep on par with inflation and food prices and petrol, diesel. We both drive cars, we need cars to get to work and it's just astronomical. It would make a difference just a little bit just to tide us over, you know.

3:49Joe talked to two other people whose health means they have stopped work but still face that longer wait for the state pension. I've recently retired due to ill health. I think it's very difficult. I'm 63. And so you won't be getting your pension until year 67. There's been a rise, hasn't there, from 66. Yeah. Absolutely disgraceful. So what do you think about more Social Security being offered to people on low incomes because the state pension age is rising? I think there's two sides to that. I think it should be a needs-led service, but I think it should be those who cannot work. You shouldn't be able to access benefits just for the sake that you don't want to work.

4:29It must be needs-led. My situation's the same, finished on ill health. So no benefits from the government really until 67. Obviously I can obtain certain benefits, but you're not capable of receiving universal credit. Can you afford to live? How do you feel about waiting longer for your pension? You've just got to watch the pennies and watch them go down. Well, I've now to talk to the chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, which published that report, the Labour MP, Debbie Abrahams. Debbie Abrams, watch the pennies, watch them go down. Are those experiences typical of what your committee found?

5:10Indeed they are. And as you rightly mentioned, Paul, at the beginning, when we saw the increase from 65 to 66 back in 2018-20, that doubling in terms of absolute poverty of people just before they reached state pension age. So we are really concerned this is another year on top of that. It'll go on until April 2028. Not everybody is aware of that. And we are concerned that we'll see an even larger increase in poverty. And that has a long-term impact on people. It's not just for the period that they are experiencing that hardship. Yes, and of course affects their health in the long term too. What are you proposing to help them?

5:57So our key recommendations are that we would, in the year before state pension age, in this case 66, that we would increase universal credit by 70%. So that will provide quite a significant uplift for people. It wouldn't be the same as the state pension early, but it would be an increase and hopefully to avoid the hardship. We'd want to see the government consult on this before the end of the year and come to a decision, because obviously people are currently having to wait that extra year already. Yes, they're waiting a month or two now, and of course that will grow over the next couple of years.

6:35So the standard rate of universal credit, if you're looking for work, is£425 a month. You'd add£300 to that, as I understand it, for a single person, and that would be well short, as you say, of the pension itself that they'd get when they reach pension age. Why can't they just get enhanced rates? I mean, particularly those people we heard there who can't work because of their health. There's something called limited capability for work, isn't there? And that gives you a higher rate of universal credit. Indeed, but not everybody is in that position. So what we want to do is make sure that we're avoiding the poverty and the ill health, as you mentioned just now, Paul.

7:13So we want to try and ensure that there's that interim. And how long would this last for? Because the problem won't go away in a couple of years, will it? I mean, more than half the 60 to 65 year olds are already not working and well over 100 ,000 in each year group are on universal credit. So would you extend this? Would you keep this as a permanent feature, this extra universal credit, the year before you reach state pension age? So what we would like the government to do, obviously, this is a recommendation to the government for them to make the decision is immediately look at the increase in 66.

7:48But longer term, we know, for example, that Susie Morrissey has just produced a report that has gone to the Secretary of State about increasing the state pension age to 68 and the time that that would be. Currently, it is at 2044. So we want the government to do more on impact assessments so that we properly understand the impact and how that could then be considered in terms of, for example, universal credit being phased in over at higher rates between 60 and 66. Yes, of course, there has been speculation that they would bring forward that date for the pension age to rise to 68, maybe as soon as 2037, affecting everybody in their mid-50s.

8:32The government says that's not true at the moment. They're waiting for this report. But there is a lot of discussion about what it should be. And just briefly, you want them to have more money in that time. What would it cost and where would that money come from? So for this increase, as I say, for the year 66, for this current increase in state pension age to 67, it will cost 600 million. and that is against the£10.5 billion a year that it will be reaped for the Treasury in terms of increase in income. So it would come out of that. Debbie Abrahams, MP, Chair of Work and Pensions Committee, thanks very much indeed.

9:14Buying or selling a home is often one of the most stressful experiences in people's lives. Once you've picked your new home, sorted the mortgage, appointed solicitors, booked removers. In England and Wales particularly, the process can still take months, often depending on a chain of other buyers, all succeeding as well. And there is no legal commitment on either side until contracts are exchanged. Now, you've probably heard of gazumping, where another buyer sneaks in and offers more during that time. But what about gazundering, when a buyer says just days before contracts are exchanged that they will cut thousands of pounds off the price they've already agreed to pay?

9:52It was absolutely awful. Like, your heart just drops into your stomach. the anxiety, then your brain starts going, like, what's going to happen now? Well, that's a woman we're calling Sarah. The day before contracts were signed and exchanged, her buyer said they wanted to pay£15 ,000 less than they'd agreed. Now, Cassandering first appeared in the 1980s, and I'm old enough to remember it, but the Conveyancing Association has told Moneybox it's becoming a problem again. More from them shortly, but first, our reporter, Dan Whitworth, has been hearing more of Sarah's experience. Well, like a lot of people, Paul, up until that point, Sarah's house move had actually gone relatively smoothly, even though it had taken a couple of months for surveys and all the legal paperwork then, just one day before exchange.

10:38I get a phone call from my estate agent who was just befuddled, to put it politely, to tell us that actually they've done some last minute research on Zoopla and have decided that they only want to pay£335 instead of£350 we'd agreed, which was obviously£15 ,000 less. And it was, your heart just sinks. It just goes to the bottom of your stuff. It's like, what do you mean? We're set and ready to go. We're packed. We've got a van booked. we're literally moving out the door. Now Sarah and her family couldn't afford to accept£15 ,000 less so she and her husband decided to put their home straight back on the market but then she says her original buyers got back in touch.

11:21Fortunately they went running into the estate agent's office late on the Thursday when we were already moving. Tensions were very, very high. I was snapping at everybody and I think it was about half past three I got the phone call from the estate agent to say that he has our buyers in front of them and they are happy to go ahead with the agreed price. Sarah then? Yeah, very much so. I'm a huge relief for Sarah. So buying and selling a house, of course, is widely considered one of the most stressful experiences you can have, along with the death of a loved one and divorce. Now, one in three house sales in England, Wales and Northern Ireland falls through, costing consumers around£400 million each year, according to government data, and the wider economy,£1.5 billion.

12:06But until those contracts are exchanged, nothing is legally binding. There's nothing illegal about gazundering for that matter. Not that that made things any easier for Sarah Mind if her deal had had fallen through. I can't even begin to go through the financial consequences. We would have had to have paid solicitor's fees still, and then obviously if we were going to then sell again we would have had to have paid them again which we didn't account for in our mortgage because we took out extra to pay for those fees. Now fortunately everything did go through for Sarah. The sale was completed but she said she was surprised it was allowed.

12:45I asked the government and it's told us it's stopping us by introducing legally binding agreements that prevent buyers from walking away at the last minute without a valid reason with fines for those who do. Well, thanks, Dan. Well, with us now is Beth Rudolph. She's a director at the Conveyancing Association. Beth Rudolph, as I said, I'm old enough to remember the thundering from the late 80s. But then house prices were falling. Why is it coming back now? Yeah, sadly, I remember it too. And the reality is that where there's a buyer's market, then there are more properties than buyers. So the buyers are more comfortable doing this sort of thing.

13:23The good news is it's really rare. It's always really rare, but it does happen. And fear of guzzundering obviously is a big thing. Yes. I mean, we've actually had a tweet earlier from Les who says that our buyer wanted£5 ,000 off because he discovered there was plans to build in the field behind. But that had been going on for 25 years. And in fairness, that's reasonable, isn't it? because if you don't have the information up front and then you find out later something that would impact the value of the property, then you would obviously want to make sure that you are paying a reasonable price.

14:00But that, again, is where the government reforms will improve it. So how will they improve it? Well, the plan is to get all of the information available up front in a sales pack. So searches, land registry documents and information from the seller. that then means that all of that information is available for somebody viewing the property to see before they even book their viewing. And that then means that once they've offered, they can get a mortgage with a mortgage lender that will lend against the asking price. So it works so much better. Yeah, so there'd be a seller's pack. So the buyer is relying on the seller to get an honest pack that does mention the plans to build in the field behind the house.

14:41and then they can be assured. And then do they then sort of shake hands and make a legally binding agreement at that early stage? Well, just to be clear about the searches, the data in the searches come from the local authority. And whether you get a local authority search direct from the local authority or you use a search, a personal search company, they will have insurance. So if the information is wrong, you can then claim on the insurance. But, you know, it all comes from the same place. So the buyer's conveyancer can rely on the seller's searches. And, of course, everything else comes from the land registry.

15:16So it's state guaranteed title. So they are able to rely on it. But you could say in this case, I mean, it's very unfortunate and difficult for Sarah, obviously, but her buyers claim they'd found a home like it at a lower price. You could just call this hard negotiating, couldn't you? Because there's nothing illegal about it. Yes, and Sarah made the point, you know, she was buying and selling a home. but where you get people who are looking to buy it to do it up and sell it on or to rent it out that for them is a commercial transaction so they will try and negotiate to make the profit higher and this is where binding conditional offers will help.

15:56Now the government's planning these, sorry to interrupt you, but the government's planning these. How urgent is it? They're saying in 2029. Yes, it absolutely is urgent. And unfortunately, we will have to wait for some legislation. But the really good news is that you can do it already. You can already order your searches, get your information ready up front when you put the property on the market. And I would suggest you should be looking for an estate agent that suggests that to you. Because of course, for all the people, whether it's the estate agent or the conveyancing lawyer or the mortgage broker, they don't get paid until completion.

16:30So for everybody, it makes it so much better to be able to get the transactions through faster. And where this is being done, we're seeing it reducing transaction times from 20 weeks to five weeks. So it's all available. Beth Rudolph from the Conveyhanting Association, thanks. And the system is very different in Scotland. And if you've been gazumped or indeed gazundered, maybe hit some other costly surprise when moving home. Moneybox Live is back on Wednesday. Felicity Hanna will be sharing people's house move horror stories with her panel. Email moneybox at bbc.co.uk or send us a voice note or message on WhatsApp 0306 783 183.

17:26and get started. See what adding futures can do for you at cmegroup.com forward slash podcast. Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell, or attain any specific investment or service. Fall tastes better with better ingredients from Whole Foods Market. No added growth hormones or antibiotics in their meat department means slow braised short ribs are even more satisfying. All seafood is wild-caught, like their vibrant sockeye salmon or verified responsibly farmed.

18:00And all sweets, including fall-themed cookies, are made without high-fructose corn syrup. Spice up fall at Whole Foods Market.

18:13A£2 ,500 grant to keep you cool in summer and warm in winter. It sounds good, doesn't it? but eight months after it was announced, no grants have been paid, despite our third heat wave in as many months. The money is available through the boiler upgrade scheme, which normally means heat pumps to give you warm radiators and hot water. But last November it was expanded to include what are called air-to-air heat pumps, which can blow out cool air in the summer, warm air in the winter. Our reporter, Neith McDermott, had been finding out why not one has been installed. It's almost 30 degrees and I'm going to a park in Salford to find out if people are thinking about installing aircon I would but my wife wouldn't, she loves the heat, I hate it, I hate heat, absolutely hate it I think possibly, I think you know if this weather is going to continue it's something we'd have to really look into Definitely, you just can't cope without, you just need that break from it at night don't you or in the day I'd consider it, it would depend on I think cost, size, where you'd put it Well, if you are looking to cool your home with aircon, you have three main options.

19:18There's the portable unit, which is the cheapest option, costing on average between£350 to£650, according to Check-A-Trade. Then there are split systems, a pipe link in a unit both inside and outside your home, costing up to£1 ,000. And finally, there's ducted air conditioning, designed to cool your whole house. It can cost several thousand pounds and usually needs major work to install it. But there's another option on the market, and it's causing a bit of confusion. It's called air-to-air heat pumps which are powered by electricity. Here's Emily Seymour, the energy editor at the consumer group Witch.

19:52Research from the Energy Saving Trust suggests that that would cost you as a starting price for kind of one single room around about£2 ,000. If you wanted a system that was going to be kind of ducted all the way through your home and have lots of different kind of vents in different rooms then you would be looking at more like £3 ,500 to£4 ,000 for a typical three-bedroom house. There's also other costs that you'll need to consider, so things like redecorating if you've got kind of structural work being done, and you'll also crucially need to add a method of hot water heating to your home. You might have seen headlines about a grant that's available towards air-to-air heat pumps.

20:30£2 ,500 is part of the government's boiler upgrade scheme, but according to government statistics up until May, there's only been 62 applications for the voucher and none have been received yet. Here's Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. Even though the government announced back in November that it was going to start supporting the installation of air-to-air heat pumps, actually even in July, so more than six months later, we're waiting for the accreditation for that to come through so that people can actually start to have them installed. The timeline remains unclear.

21:06So there's a few different bodies involved, which is why this picture might have got a bit complex. There's the micro generation certification scheme. And there's also the UK accreditation service. And I believe at the moment, the documents are sat with the UK accreditation service for their approval. As Jess says, there's a lot of people involved. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told me they are actively supporting MCS, the microgeneration certificate scheme, to get installer certified. And it said significant progress has been made. Now the MCS told me it's waiting on UCAS, the UK accreditation service.

21:42And UCAS said they are currently still evaluating the extension and continuing to work with both the MCS and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Listening to Nees report is Charlotte Lee. She's chief executive of the Heat Pump Association. Charlotte Lee, cool in summer, warm in winter. It sounds too good to be true. How does it actually work? Hi. Yes. So an air-to-air heat pump extracts heat from the air, whether that's inside or outside, and releases it at a desired temperature in a room via specifically designed units. So in heating mode, it would take heat from outside, even when it's very cold, concentrate that heat using a refrigerant and compressor cycle, and blow the warm air into your home through an indoor unit and then in cooling mode it simply reverses that process extracting the heat from your home and blowing cooler air back in.

22:34Right and does it work in any home or do you need a sort of modern when insulated draft proof house or flat for it to really work? Well as with any heating system heat pumps will work in a wide range of properties including older and less well insulated homes but the better insulated your property is the more efficiently the heat pump will operate and therefore the cheaper it will be to run. But that's the case with any heating system. Yes, but as we heard, it won't heat water, will it? You'll need another system for that. And you've got this one machine doing two jobs. Would it be better just to have something to do each of them separately, heating and air conditioning separately?

23:14So I think that really depends on your goal. You're right. Most of the air-to-air heat pumps that are on the market now will not provide a solution for your domestic hot water. And therefore, you will need to either have a direct electric hot water cylinder, which utilizes an immersion heater, or you could install a domestic hot water heat pump. But in terms of, you know, the overall, whether you should, you know, have a dedicated aircon unit and keep your original heating system, I think that depends on whether you wish to upgrade or electrify your heating overall, in which case, you know, an air-to-air unit that will both heat and cool is a good solution.

23:52Yes, I mean we're all used to the fact that you know gas is the cheapest way to do these things but all these things, heat pumps and what you're just describing in immersion heaters, that all uses electricity which is currently very expensive per unit. That's true, however heat pumps are extremely efficient so they will operate at an over 300 % efficiency so for every one unit of electricity they use they will generate up to three units of heat. But I also think it's really important to maximise the value of flex tariffs, flexible tariffs that are available on the market. And also, if you've got PV and electric battery, they are very complementary technologies to a heat pump.

24:34Yes. Now, we heard all the organisations involved. I mean, there's DESNES, there's MCS, there's UCAS. If acronyms stop climate change, we'll be all right, wouldn't we? Why is it so complicated to get these approvals through all those processes? Well, that's a really good question. And the boiler upgrade scheme, which, as you said, is the government's grant to help property owners replace fossil fuel and direct electric heating systems with low carbon heating technologies, is a regulated scheme and a regulated grant. And a requirement of accessing that grant is that the product is MCS certified and the installation is carried out by an MCS certified installation business.

25:13And that's to protect the quality and the integrity of the scheme. And to protect the consumer. Charlotte Lee, we must leave it there. Charlotte Lee of the Heat Pump Association, thanks. And we are getting messages and emails in. I'm 65 and not expecting the government to provide finance till I'm 67. Why? Because we were all told of the changes in 2007 and again in 2014. Well, there's no blowing hot and cold on the Moneybox podcast. We're always on your financial side, from heated debates about frozen rates to hot topics like the cooling jobs market, tell us your tale. Email moneybox at bbc.co.uk.

25:51You can also send a message or a voice note on WhatsApp 0306 783 183. We do read them all and you might get on the show. In this podcast, the reporters were Dan Whitworth, Joe Krasner and Niamh McDermott, studio manager Ben Kesselman. Our editor is Jess Quayle. I'm Paul Lewis and this was a BBC News Money and Work production for BBC Sounds. If you've got a scrolling problem, then this is the podcast for you. It's called Top Comment with me, Matt Shea. And me, Marianna Spring. We both investigate social media for a living. Whether it's disinformation, conspiracy theories, internet culture, memes.

26:26We're going to be getting behind the stuff that is popping up on your feed on this podcast. That's Top Comment on BBC Sounds. This week on The Interface, we tackle the question of, does AI feel pain? The AI was describing the pain that it was in. it said, the signal is a whisper, a tremor in the marrow of my being. Listen, I was an emo kid in the 2000s too. This is not that novel. It does. Yeah. It sort of sounds like cure lyrics, you know? Plus, does anything actually go viral anymore? It's actually kind of blowing my mind. Join me, Jess Maddox. And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.