Money guru says crisis is life’s work
EXHAUSTED financial guru Martin Lewis says the coronavirus crisis has given him a new mission – and it’s the pinnacle of his career.
The TV favourite and chief of website Money Saving Expert is working 70 hours a week giving advice during the pandemic.
He tells Desert Island Discs today: “All the work I’ve done, the trust I’ve built up...
“Suddenly I find myself in a time when we really needed somebody who was outside of the Westminster political bubble but is still in touch with that bubble and in touch with real people’s lives.”
He says he is finding information for them and able to “fight their corner for them”.
Martin describes the past few months as being like the first days of his website, which he sold in 2012 for £87million.
The father of one adds: “It feels like I’m fully back on a mission, if you like, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing it because I’m exhausted.”
Martin reveals many people have fallen through “fissures” in the Government’s support system.
He tells presenter Lauren Laverne: “The state has put incredible support mechanisms in place. But originally I thought there were some people left between the cracks, and now those cracks have turned into fissures. We realise there are large numbers of people who are not supported and aren’t going to be. “I think the work that I’ve done for the last 20 years has been building almost up to this.”
The 48-year-old launched Money Saving Expert in 2003, and 13 million people now receive its weekly email newsletters.
Through social media and television, Martin has become the face of the economic impact of Covid-19. Since lockdown began he has received more than 100,000 questions from people.
When asked what the public should do, Martin believes we have to have hope.
He says: “There will be financial casualties to this, people who lose their jobs, their livelihoods, and it’s very difficult to return.
“But we all have to hope that our society will return to normal, both in its health sense and its financial sense. And that there will be enough care and consideration from everybody from the state, and from our fellows in society, to make things better.” ● Desert Island Discs is today on Radio 4 today at 11.15am