STRAIGHT TO THE POINT
I ORDERED a pizza using the food delivery app Deliveroo on my smartphone late one night. It didn’t arrive until 11am the next day, but Deliveroo refuses to refund me. This seems outrageous.
T. P., London. You ordered the pizza after the restaurant had closed, which is why it arrived the next day. Deliveroo says you would have been alerted to the fact it would not arrive that night three times during the ordering process.
It says it allows customers to make orders when the restaurant is closed so it can pre-order food for the next day. as a gesture of goodwill, it has agreed to refund you in this instance. BLACKROCK switched my pension pot into a set of different investment funds against my wishes. This has caused my nest-egg to shrink by around £1,200. Can you help?
V. M., Belfast. Blackrock admits it transferred your money into different funds in error. Your money has now been put back into the original funds and it has ensured you are no worse off than you would have been if the switch hadn’t taken place.
On top of that, it has offered you £1,200 as a goodwill gesture, which you have accepted. I READ that, when someone dies, banks will release some money without the next of kin needing to apply for probate.
I know that each bank has its own limit, but is this per account or per bank?
A. S., via email. THE limit applies to the total amount of money held with the bank across all accounts.
For example, Lloyds will allow you to withdraw £50,000 without needing to apply for probate. If a loved one had £30,000 in a current account and £30,000 in a savings account, you’d need to apply for probate because the total is over £50,000. But if you had £25,000 in each, you wouldn’t. MY WIFE is 60 and due to receive her state pension in five years’ time. She’s retired and has a workplace pension.
Does she need to continue making National Insurance contributions? D. C., Birmingham. On Top of her workplace pension, your wife should also receive the £155.65 flat-rate state pension when she reaches 65.
But to get this in full, she must have made 35 years of full NI contributions.
To check if she is missing any years, visit gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record or call 0300 200 3500. If there is a gap in her record, she can buy a top-up known as a class 3 contribution by calling 0345 600 4270. Each year costs around £700.