Free cash (up to £600), freebies, state pension and inheritance tax too!

Martin Lewis (0:02)

These are my five need-to-knows about inheritance tax. It's worth just me running through the best buys.

Adrian Chiles (0:07)

Free cash.

Martin Lewis (0:08)

Free cash!

Adrian Chiles (0:09)

Yes.

Martin Lewis (0:09)

So we've gone from a triple lock, we haven't gone to a double lock, we've gone to a 2.5 times lock. There's a lot more I's to dot and T's to cross, but this is your big picture. Have I made sense?

Adrian Chiles (0:18)

You have made sense.

Martin Lewis (0:20)

Hello, I'm Martin Lewis, and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Big Topic episode, where each week we lead on one main subject to help you save. Now usually most of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Chiles, but there's also bonus money-saving tips and tricks just for you lucky lucky podcast listeners.

And today's episode, well, I'm calling it Free Cash, Freebies, and The State Pension. Though we'll be starting with a quick back-to-basics guide to inheritance tax. Then it's on to the first of the free cash. There are lots of banks right now willing to pay you up to 600 quid to switch to them. I'll go through all the practicals, how it works, the pros and cons, the accounts, the impact on your credit score, and more. Then on to how to be a cash back king or queen by combining cash back credit cards, cash back websites, and a cash back mobile app. And Mastermind this week is an important one. It's all about how the changes to the state pension triple lock will actually work.

Play the theme tune.

Adrian Chiles (1:39)

What do you make of the big story today about, it turns out we hardly eat any peas anymore? I'm absolutely shattered by it, I am.

Martin Lewis (1:46)

Oh, well, I don't want to pee on that story, but I certainly do eat a lot of peas. My daughter and I We... have big bags of frozen peas and sweet corn. So it's a combination. It's not necessarily peas by the self, but frozen peas and sweet corn. And we have them, you know, it's always if we're having something that isn't the healthiest, it's like, let's have a bowl of peas and sweet corn alongside a big, you know, proper full. I love peas. They're one of the best green vegetables out there.

Adrian Chiles (2:07)

And you're both giving me anything as well.

Martin Lewis (2:08)

Well, the thing is, when I was a kid, I didn't like green veg, but the one green veg I would eat was peas. They're sort of, they don't, they're not. Now, I love my broccoli and my spinach and all that. But when I was a child, broccoli and spinach, but peas, no, peas, they're the peas niche. Sorry.

Adrian Chiles (2:23)

The, I mean, it's rich, it's rich territory for ponies.

Martin Lewis (2:28)

Yes, I've just got one.

Adrian Chiles (2:28)

I know you love a pond, don't you? I mean, David's got the best one so far, and that's not an invitation. The competition's now closed, okay? David's won. He says, this topic deserves a podcast.

Martin Lewis (2:39)

Oh, oh, I like that.

Adrian Chiles (2:41)

That's good. I knew you'd...

Martin Lewis (2:43)

That was very clever. I wish I'd write stuff like that.

Adrian Chiles (2:45)

I knew you'd like that. Any other business, or shall we... No, it's...

Martin Lewis (2:50)

I've had a really busy morning because I've just launched a very big new initiative that unfortunately, due to compliance reasons, because I am not actually allowed to mention on this show, but I did it on Five Live Breakfast this morning, and it's absolutely everywhere. And it's a really big new thing. Maybe people take a look at my social media or something because I can't say what it is.

Adrian Chiles (3:07)

Does it contribute to the Martin Lewis Retirement Fund?

Martin Lewis (3:10)

It is absolutely not. In fact, it's actually the opposite. It must be £175,000, so there we go. All right.

Adrian Chiles (3:16)

I'll look forward to finding out more about that. Inheritance tax has been in the news this week. Explain what's been announced.

Martin Lewis (3:27)

Well, what's been announced is, effectively, the conservative policy would be that if you give your house to your main descendants, that will be totally tax free, and it won't come in your inheritance tax allowance, and also upping the generalized limits too. So it's probably useful, because I think that all sounds very good, and I don't want to get engaged in the debate of whether it's good or not. You know, it all depends how you want to shift the money around. But I think inheritance tax is perhaps one of the most fundamentally misunderstood taxes out there.