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BBC Radio 4’s Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 21 January, 2006, at 1204 GMT.

The programme will be repeated on Sunday, 22 January, 2006, at 2102 GMT.

Share prices in New York plunged by 2 per cent last night, the worst fall for nearly three years.

The slump followed chaos on the Tokyo stock exchange on Wednesday which closed early to stop further slides.

Tokyo stabilised later in the week, but London reflected New York’s fall on Friday afternoon.

Are further falls likely and will this have an impact on UK pensions and investments?

We spoke to Justin Urquhart Stewart of stockbrokers Seven Investment Management

Further information:

Child Trust Fund

The first Child Trust Fund vouchers, worth 250, were sent out by HM Revenue & Customs just over one year ago.

Vouchers were sent to parents or carers of children born from 1 September 2002.

Yet almost 1 million vouchers still haven’t been invested.

If after 1 year, vouchers have not been spent, the Government will invest them at random in one of 11 stakeholder accounts.

So parents who want to make the investment decision themselves need to act quickly.

We spoke to:

Miles Bingham, marketing director at Family Investments.
Anna Bowes, savings and investments manager, Chase de Vere Financial Solutions plc.
Don McCamley of the Schoolteachers Friendly Society.

Further information:

Post Office Card Accounts

Post Office Card Accounts replaced the old system of booklets and cash over the counter.

The Government has announced that from 2010 it will no longer fund Post Office Card Accounts.

Over 4 million people, who use the accounts to access pensions and benefits, will be affected.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters is concerned that the change will lead to the closure of thousands of branches.

We spoke to:

Parliamentary Under Secretary (Commons) James Plaskitt MP.
Colin Baker, General Secretary, National Federation of SubPostmasters.

Further information:

Pensions

Some older style pensions can leave surviving spouses facing financial hardship.

We all hope to enjoy many years of retirement whenever we decide to cash in our pensions.

Sadly, not all of us make it to retirement age and that can have serious for our spouses or partners.

Many older pension schemes only promise to repay the you paid in and not the full value of the actual fund if you die .

And that can leave surviving spouses, both men and women, ten of thousands of pounds worse off.

Bob Howard reported:

Further information:

Norwich Union with-profit announcement

Norwich Union are one of the first insurers to make their with-profit announcement.

Norwich Union announced this week that its with-profit fund has achieved an overall annual return of 17.5% before tax.

Money Box asked what this means for Norwich Union customers, and what other with-profit policy holders can expect as the annual round of announcements begins.

We spoke to:

John Lister, chief actuary Norwich Union.
Janet Walford, Editor of Money Management.

Further information: