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“The [Child Trust Fund] scheme has been closed to new entrants for over 12 years. In this time HMRC has been focusing resources on evaluating and improving existing schemes. We will continue to keep the need to evaluate old schemes under review.” So said Andrew Griffith MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury in reply to a parliamentary question from John Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. But this is not an 'old scheme' — there is currently over £1.7 billion sitting in mature accounts belonging to over 900,000 mainly low-income young adults throughout the UK who don't know anything about their good fortune! Their Child Trust Fund harvest is seeing too little action at present: but it's not too late to get it sorted, and the current focus from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee will certainly help. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero

Young adults with Child Trust Funds are personal investors, but over 40% of them don't know it. On Thursday 18th May the Public Accounts Committee met to find out more: this is the first half of their hearing following the March 2023 publication of a National Audit Office landmark report and its investigation into the Child Trust Fund scheme. Witnesses who took part were, for HM Revenue and Customs, Jim Harra and Emily Antcliffe, and for The Share Foundation, Gavin Oldham and Anthony Walker. Members of the Public Accounts Committee (all MPs) who attended were Dame Meg Hillier (chair), Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Deputy Chair), Olivia Blake, Flick Drummond, Peter Grant, Jill Mortimer and Nick Smith. The hearing ran for over an hour and a half: this is the first 48 minutes.

Young adults with Child Trust Funds are personal investors, but over 40% of them don't know it. On Thursday 18th May the Public Accounts Committee met to find out more: this is the second half of their hearing following the March 2023 publication of a National Audit Office landmark report and its investigation into the Child Trust Fund scheme. Witnesses who took part were, for HM Revenue and Customs, Jim Harra and Emily Antcliffe, and for The Share Foundation, Gavin Oldham and Anthony Walker. Members of the Public Accounts Committee (all MPs) who attended were Dame Meg Hillier (chair), Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Deputy Chair), Olivia Blake, Flick Drummond, Peter Grant, Jill Mortimer and Nick Smith. The hearing ran for over an hour and a half: this is the second 48 minutes.

Almost five times as many people will soon be paying 40% tax than in the early 1990s, when it was seen as a tax bracket reserved for the rich, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned this week. It said that fiscal drag triggered by freezing the higher rate tax threshold would pull 7.8 million people into its net by 2027. The study suggested that the threshold would have to be almost doubled from its current level, at £50,271, to almost £100,000 to return the tax band to the level intended for it. Alongside the report, came the IFS’s warning that 40% tax had stopped being the preserve of high-earning professionals and was now hitting electricians, plumbers, teachers, nurses and more. The taxman nabbing 40p of every pound earned from a pay rise rather than 20p comes at a time when workers are running to stand still, with inflation at just above 10%. So, is it time the government stopped taxing by stealth and using tools like fiscal drag – instead raising thresholds with inflation or wages? And is it time to hike the higher rate threshold and pull people back down to basic rate tax? Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the thorny issue of tax and who counts as wealthy. The debate moves on to inheritance tax – another levy designed for the very rich but now hitting the wealthy middle classes. Why is IHT so unpopular when most don’t pay it and does it need reform? Plus, how much have you lost to inflation, will you get Nationwide’s new £100 Fairer Share bung, and finally, would you buy food two years past its best before date for big savings?

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 10 times since 2022. But you probably wouldn’t notice those hikes in a traditional savings account. Dylan Lewis caught up with Robert Brokamp to discuss how banks benefit from your inertia, and how that costs you, ideas for managing cash for the next few weeks, months, and years, money market funds paying more than 4%, and the caveats to understand before utilizing those accounts, and who can benefit from I Bonds and less-liquid savings vehicles. Website mentioned: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/ Host - Dylan Lewis; Guest - Robert Brokamp

Late Monday Berkshire-Hathaway filed a 13-F with the SEC, so we're taking a closer look at what they've been buying and selling. Jim Gillies discusses Home Depot's lackluster 1st-quarter results masking an otherwise strong business, Capital One getting a boost from the Oracle of Omaha, and the surprising energy stock the Berkshire Hathaway team took a stake in. Plus, 19 minutes in, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp dip into the mailbag to answer your questions about investing, retirement, and more. Companies discussed: HD, BRK.A, BRK.B, COP, USB, BK, TSM, RH, BAC, OXY, AAPL, HPQ, ATVI, VTS. Host - Chris Hill; Guests - Jim Gillies, Alison Southwick, Robert Brokamp

Bang! Are you frightened by thunderstorms, fireworks or gunshots? And is it the bang itself, or the anticipation of it coming, which disturbs you the most? Anticipating fear may well be linked back to childhood, an embedded state of mind. So this episode introduces a new approach of resourcefulness designed to cope with such anxieties. Please be aware! - there are some sound effects built in to the programme, all designed to build in this new resilience.

Adam Cox is joined by Erin Lee, CEO of Flow Neuroscience, to discuss the issues with current treatments for depression, and how sufferers are affected. They also look at the Flow headset, how it works, and the advantages of using it over antidepressants and other treatments. https://www.flowneuroscience.com/

Adam Cox is joined by Liam Humberstone, Technical Director of Totally Wicked, to delve into the brand's innovative vape recycling scheme. Together, they explore the pressing environmental consequences of vapes without such initiatives and question whether recycling truly holds the solution to the issue of single-use vapes. www.totallywicked-eliquid.co.uk

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University says that Labour's ideas are becoming clearer, with Starmer's promise to boost housebuilding outmanoeuvring the Conservatives and setting the cat among the pigeons. He discusses whether immigration is out of control in a world where people are moving more than ever and explains why he thinks Labour will take exactly the opposite stance to the Tories. And he picks up on a largely unreported comment by Donald Trump, that America will eventually default on its debt, to highlight the battle that is looming over the future of money and the banking system.