Question time: Will new ISA rules ruin my wedding savings? | Martin, you helped me find love! | Can I fix on a prepay meter?

**Martin Lewis** (0:00)
We need you, we need you to be part of our team. Say, I am eligible for child benefit, but I want to be paid nothing, because that can help her earn national insurance credits.

**Katie** (0:10)
I just wanted to get some clarification, but also some advice.

**Matt** (0:13)
Can Martin Lewis please open his brackets if he's going to close them?

**Martin Lewis** (0:17)
Ben and Barry with a badge at some point in the future.
Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. I don't really, I know. This is our Question Time episode, where you are Esquire's extremely savvy questioners get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, if I claim marriage tax allowance, will I have to do a tax return? Will the Chancellor's new ISA rules ruin my marriage savings? If you don't have any national insurance contribution years, do you still get a state pension? My dad's on a prepayment meter. Is there anything he can do to cut the rate? And we finish with a success. Yes, you help my finances, and you help me find love. It's worth to listen that one. Play the theme tune.
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Question Time Podcast. Yes, it's where you get to ask me a question on anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets.
And joining me for the Question Time Podcast is the one, the only, Professor Dr. Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire, the curator of questions himself. Add a round of applause when you edit it, Matt. Hello, mate.

**Matt** (1:51)
Hello.

**Martin Lewis** (1:51)
How are you?

**Matt** (1:52)
Yeah, I'm all right.

**Martin Lewis** (1:53)
I got the doctor in the right place this week.

**Matt** (1:54)
You got the doctor. You didn't put the Lord in though.

**Martin Lewis** (1:59)
I think Lord was a one-off to working you back.

**Matt** (2:01)
Right.

**Martin Lewis** (2:02)
I don't think you've earned Lord yet.

**Matt** (2:04)
Okay, not yet. One day.

**Martin Lewis** (2:06)
And it's interesting because we have to be very on this podcast. I'm delighted to hear that we are becoming the Pedants Podcast of choice. And I say this in a nice way. The pedantry we get is good, positive, encouraging, joining the club pedantry. But I even got it from my daughter.
Really? Yeah, who noted last week that I had apparently gone the podcast where you can ask me anything and everything within reason, close brackets.

**Matt** (2:39)
You didn't open your brackets.

**Martin Lewis** (2:40)
And I hadn't opened my brackets.

**Matt** (2:41)
And she noticed that.

**Martin Lewis** (2:42)
She noticed and she wanted to point out to me that I couldn't close a bracket because I hadn't opened a bracket. And then she did ask, which I thought was very nice because she's wonderful. She said, is it a problem, daddy?
I was like, it's not.

**Matt** (2:55)
It's not.

**Martin Lewis** (2:56)
People are not going to mind that I didn't open my brackets.

**Matt** (2:59)
I haven't seen actually. I haven't looked in the emails yet to see if anyone's complained.

**Martin Lewis** (3:02)
Anyone else noted my lack of bracket precision?

**Matt** (3:05)
Can Martin Lewis please close his, open his brackets if he's going to close them? That's what the email will say.

**Martin Lewis** (3:10)
If not, what is he closing the bracket to? Does the close bracket apply all the way back until the previous opening brackets on two podcasts ago?

**Matt** (3:17)
Yes.

**Martin Lewis** (3:17)
So that the entire two podcast content is within a bracket.

**Matt** (3:21)
Oh, but it's very nice that she's listened to the podcast.

**Martin Lewis** (3:23)
She loves the podcast. She listens to the Question Time podcast every week. It's really great. What I love is it's prompting, because I want her to understand. I don't want her to follow in my footsteps, but I want her to understand how money works, because obviously when people meet her, they say to her, oh, you must know everything about ISAs and things like that. You can imagine the pressure.
And she's 13
And she does have a pretty good knowledge. But actually, since she started listening to Question Time, I'm getting a lot more money questions about what does this mean and how does this work on the back of her listening to Question Time. So it's absolutely wonderful for me, alongside the other thing that I'm trying to do with at the moment, which is to explain the difference between the executor, the legislature and the judiciary, which I really wanted to understand how separation of powers works. I'm like an old Minnie Montesquieu for anyone who knows that reference. We should probably move on at that point, although I do need to say something else.