QUESTION TIME: Will payrise mean I lose child benefit? I’m on tracker mortgage should I fix? How do I become you?

Martin Lewis (0:02)

It's worth the tide, it's not necessarily worth doing, but it's definitely worth the time to explore it.

Anne (0:06)

It's better to see it with a warm hand than with a cold one.

Martin Lewis (0:09)

I've just thought of an analogy, I'm not sure I should choose it. I've got to do it anyway, because it's coming to my head. Really, really interesting question. Surely the highlight, everybody is waiting for.

Simon (0:17)

The show has been building to this, hasn't it?

Martin Lewis (0:21)

Hello, and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode, where you are asquires, extremely savvy questioners, get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything within reason. And this week, you ask me, I'm worried a pay rise means I'll lose Child Benefit. Will salary sacrifice help? If I'm on a cheap tracker mortgage, is it still worth looking for a fix right now? A DNA firm just auto-renewed my subscription. At twice the cost, do I have a right to cancel? Then we've got a lovely success from Anne, a multiple success from a new convert to the ways of money saving. And finally, a student asked me what she needs to do to have my job. Play the theme tune.

Hello, and welcome to this question time episode of the podcast. Yes, this is the one where you get to ask me questions on anything and everything, open brackets, within reason. And we have got an upgrade this week, because there is no curator of questions. Instead, we are graced with the presence of PPS himself, podcast producer Simon, a man with more fans than a Calcutta office building in July that does not have aircon.

Simon, how are you?

Simon (2:01)

Well, I'm excellent. I feel a million dollars after that.

Martin Lewis (2:04)

Did you like that build up?

Simon (2:05)

Yeah, really pumped up my tyres.

Martin Lewis (2:07)

Matt gets all his titles, but I can't give you titles.

Simon (2:10)

You give me sincerity, don't you? You meant every word of that, didn't you?

Martin Lewis (2:13)

Every single drip and drop and syllable and vowel was completely sincere.

Simon (2:19)

Oh, wonderful. And because you know I'm always a faithful, I've got a PPS to play to you at the end that I think you're going to really enjoy.

Martin Lewis (2:27)

Okay, well, obviously getting traitor vibes coming in on that one. For those who don't know, who've not heard PPS do it before, podcast producer Simon, because he's called PPS, he has to do, my challenge to him, he's always got to do a post script. He has to come up with something different, novel and original at the end of the podcast. So that's what his PPS is.

Simon (2:45)

Yeah, so it's definitely worth staying tuned for.

Martin Lewis (2:47)

Definitely. If you're here just for the information, you might want to turn off earlier after we've done the question. But anyway, yeah. All right, you've set the bar. We know where we need to go. But I think now is time that we actually do what we're here for the Question Time Podcast and answer some questions.

So what's your first one? I'm hoping it's a read and we're all in normal format.

Simon (3:08)

Yes. I thought we would start with one about salary sacrifice.

Martin Lewis (3:12)

Okay.

Simon (3:12)

Hi, Eminem. I recently gained a significant promotion in April, taking my annual salary up by £16,000.

Martin Lewis (3:19)

Congratulations. Lovely.

Simon (3:21)

Prior to me gaining that promotion, I had started the process of getting an EV car through work on the salary sacrifice scheme that subsequently arrived in June.

Martin Lewis (3:29)

Okay. So let me just explain to anybody listening in case you don't know. A salary sacrifice scheme is where effectively you pay for something through work and they reduce your salary to do it, but then give you so you get the calf, but you have a lower salary. And effectively as you got a lower salary, you're not paying tax and national insurance on your income, and you're just getting the benefit that you would get. Let's carry on. That's a very rough explainer.

Simon (3:51)

I'm the primary earner and my wife works part time in a minimum wage job. She claims Child Benefit for our two children, but I'm now concerned about hitting the higher earner Child Benefit threshold.

Two parts to my question. Does my salary sacrifice EV payment reduce my income for Child Benefit threshold as I believe? And secondly, as my car payment started later in the year, if they do count, I may still tip over. Therefore, am I able to increase my pension contributions to ensure my taxable pay remains under 60,000 pounds? Many thanks, Andrew.