JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Baroness Altmann is right again

When it comes to beating for consumers, no one currently sitting in the Houses of Parliament is a more effective voice than Baroness Altmann.

Whether it’s fighting against workers who lost their pensions in the early 2000s (see our cover story) or requiring banks to pay depositors a decent interest rate, Altmann always puts the consumer first.

Last weekend she (quite rightly) berated over-50s specialist Saga for waiving a deal to provide physical copies of her monthly magazine to customers with a lifetime subscription.

Saga wants to charge those who prefer to continue receiving a paper copy rather than accessing the magazine in electronic form through an app. Excessive. A deal is a deal.

Baroness Altmann has now turned her attention to the personal savings deduction which currently allows basic and higher rate taxpayers to shield £1,000 and £500 respectively of interest from tax each year.

She believes surcharges need to be ramped higher to reflect the series of rate hikes since December 2021.

As my colleague Jessica Beard expertly reported three days ago in The Mail On Sunday’s Wealth & Personal Finance section, a taxpayer with a base rate and money in a well-paid account can now only use the allowance to protect just over £20,000 in savings .

By contrast, when the personal savings deduction was introduced in 2016, a basic rate taxpayer could protect nearly £69,000 in savings (in a top-paying account) before tax became an issue.

Baroness Altmann says it’s time the surcharge was increased so savers are rewarded rather than punished for their caution.

She’s absolutely right – anything less just isn’t cricket.

Heat pump hell

A big thank you to all those readers who have contacted me in recent days to vent about the mega hype surrounding heat pumps. I love it when you’re as angry as I am about a particular problem.

Your grumpiness about the way these green heating systems are shoved down our throats like a foul-tasting cough medicine is understandable.

It is also confirmed by work recently completed by consumer watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

It believes that some companies selling green heating systems – mainly heat pumps – mislead people into buying products that are not suitable. The CMA is now threatening enforcement action against serial offenders.

There are few topics that have engaged you more this year than heat pumps.

Stories of misery are on the rise, whether it’s pumps not providing enough heat when it’s needed most (the dead of winter); systems that make more noise than Concorde’s sonic boom ever did; false claims about potential savings on energy bills; and ongoing maintenance issues.

Why the government (and Labor for that matter) seems so determined to promote heat pumps as the best thing since sliced ​​bread has me scratching my head for answers.

For most homeowners, especially those who happen to live in a poorly insulated home or don’t have enough outdoor space for a heat pump, they’re a non-starter.

As for the government’s threats to fine boiler manufacturers that fail to meet strict quotas for heat pump production and their installation, well, it all smacks of Big Brother.

In any case, insist on improving the insulation of our homes and reducing our energy consumption. But please don’t force expensive and unreliable heat pumps on us.

Fraud scandal

Financial scams are the bane of our lives – and at least for now these odious scam artists seem to have the upper hand as they use social media to ensnare us.

Hopefully, the scammers will be defeated in time as more resources are deployed to fight them, shut them down and, where possible, prosecute the criminals involved.

We love to hear from readers who have been targeted by scammers. Send us a message at moneymail@dailymail.co.uk

jeff.prestridge@dailymail.co.uk