The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
‘How I won back £10m for Telegraph readers … but there are still more victims to help’
‘My adult daughter has moved home – I’m so fed up I’m moving out’
Dear Readers
Ihave two pieces of news which I’m excited to share with you. The first is that the Katie Morley Investigates column has reached a significant milestone: in the four years I have been running this page it has won back £10m for Telegraph readers. The total, which averages £ 2.5m a year (not including the year I took as maternity leave), includes money raised, retrieved, located or written off by companies. And during 2021, when I was away, Sally Hamilton did a wonderful job helping you all, winning back a further £2m.
Indeed, £10m might seem like a lot, but I’ll tell you something frightening: it’s a tiny minnow in the vast sea of financial losses incurred by victims of greedy and incompetent companies. The scale of the loss and injustice is enormous, and seems to be growing.
My inbox and mailbag provide a glimpse into the wild side of banking, shopping, utility bills, insurance, and holidays gone wrong. Whether it’s a flood of emails about a new type of banking scam, or a wave of complaints about fake stamps, as I first reported last year, consumer champions like me often spot trends as they happen.
And just when I think I’ve seen it all before, something happens that shocks me to the core.
I’ve seen some diabolical behaviour by companies over the years. And, of course, those cases involving large, life- changing sums of money tend to stick with me.
In 2022 I won back £829,000 for a Barclays customer who was scammed while under the influence of a drug designed to treat Parkinson’s disease. To this day it is my biggest ever win. After years of ignoring her, I forced Barclays to take it seriously and eventually convinced it to refund the full amount. For the woman, who was by then severely disabled, it meant the difference between affording care into her old age and living hand to mouth. Two years later she still takes the time to check in and let me know how she’s getting on, which is heartwarming.
But it’s not always the cases involving huge sums of money that are most memorable. Sometimes it’s the sheer bad attitude of firms that really gets under my skin.
For example, the time when Brewers Fayre fined a couple £ 2 when a wife who ordered a cold breakfast had a bite of her husband’s sausage (part of his more expensive hot breakfast).
Or the time when mobility scooter provider, Green Power, took so long to refund a faulty scooter, the customer’s wife had died and he had suffered a stroke by the time the matter was resolved. I want to thank you all sincerely for putting your trust in me as your consumer champion. Many of you come to me for help with problems about companies, but often what else is going on in your lives at the time is where the real story lies.
You’ve let me in on some of your most personal situations including bitter divorces, terminal illness diagnoses, and I’ve even unveiled several cheating partners over the years.
It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be allowed to help you in some small way during your most challenging times, and look forward to continuing to do so, hopefully, for a long time to come.
But now, this brings me nicely on to my second update. In addition to being your Consumer Champion, I am now officially The Telegraph’s financial agony aunt, as my new weekly podcast, Money Confidential, has now launched. In the first episode I tackle the topic of adult children living at home. Free rent, washing done by mum, and the Disney Plus channel on tap. For many this sounds like a dream domestic set-up, but for Mark (not his real name), providing this for his adult daughter and her brood has somewhat backfired.
Mark told me he thought his daughter moving home was going to be a temporary arrangement, and that paying rent and bills was agreed upfront.
However, fast- forward several months and his ground rules have fallen by the wayside, and there’s no sign of them moving out.
He says it is so cushy there that they don’t want to leave.
Mark’s so fed-up with his daily life at home that he’s decided to permanently move out and travel hundreds of miles every few weeks to visit them. A drastic solution, some might say, but Mark seems remarkably cheery about it. On a cold and rainy day in March, I visited him in his soon-to-be bachelor pad in Croydon, which he showed me around.
There seemed to be a mixture of joy and sadness over the move.
Mark was quick to point out how excited he was to get a new car, read books and go boozing with his old mates but described how his family viewed him as a “grumpy old man”, despite him paying all the bills in the house in Devon.
Mark told me he is from a generation of people who have a different mentality to the younger, “snowflake” generation. He worked his way up from nothing to earn a six-figure salary in his prime years, and says he “would have gone to war for this country”. He doesn’t seem to think most younger people would, though. That said, he admits he may have created a rod for his own back over his daughter’s attitude to money, as she has always known mum and dad will be there to pick up the pieces if things go wrong. Things haven’t always been easy financially with three children to pay for, and she’s struggled with debt for a long time.
However, Mark now feels he may have done enough now and says he is looking forward to “going Ski- ing” ( Spending the Kids’ Inheritance) on the things he has always wanted to do.
He longs for his daughter to financially stand on her own two feet, but isn’t sure how to make this happen at this stage. It feels late in the day, as she’s already middle-aged.
You can listen to Mark’s story in full on the first episode of Money Confidential, which is now available to listen to on Spotify and Apple.
Released every Wednesday, Money Confidential is a place for you to share the everyday money problems which are affecting your life and relationships. Those who come on will receive expert guidance and discuss tangible solutions with experts in their field, as well as Telegraph columnists offering their tuppence.
This week we are tackling the issue of adult children living at home; a growing phenomenon because of the soaring cost of housing, with one in five households now including an adult child.
It can work brilliantly for some families, but for others like Mark, the situation can cause toe- curling financial disagreements.
On the episode we also hear from leading financial adviser Lisa Conway-Hughes, who provides practical tips to not only Mark and his daughter, but anyone facing difficult money conversations as a result of being part of a multi-generational household.
We are also joined by Telegraph columnist Michael Deacon, who has approved a rather unconventional method of getting adult children to leave home.
What do you think? Would you move back in with your parents or in-laws, or let your adult children live at home?
And let me know what do you think of Mark’s situation? Do you have any pearls of wisdom for him?
Send me an email or a voice note to moneyconfidential@telegraph.co.uk with your thoughts.
Send your questions
Email Katie Morley at: kminvestigates@telegraph.co.uk
You can also write to Katie at: Telegraph Money The Daily Telegraph 111 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 0DT
Do not send original documents. Please include an address, phone number and separate notes addressed to all organisations authorising them to talk to Katie.
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