events

December 1, 2019

Win One of EIGHT Marks and Spencer Hampers in the Great UKMB Festive Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else events, food, competitions 3 Comments

Today I have another great giveaway to share with you.

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of EIGHT Christmas Afternoon Treats with Flowers M&S hampers. That means eight lucky winners will receive a hamper in time for Christmas!

These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. The full contents are as follows:

Christmas afternoon treats
Swiss chocolate extra smooth milk chocolate truffles (205g)
Pure origin Assam teabags (125g/50 bags)
Classic recipe top iced bar Christmas cake (450g)
The Collection Berry medley soft set jam (42g)
The Collection Bitter Seville orange marmalade (42g)
All butter shortbread fingers (28g) x 3
A beautiful bouquet of flowers

In the event of supply difficulties, or with discontinued products, M&S say they reserve the right to offer alternative goods or packaging of equal quality and value. Full information about the hamper and its contents can be found on the M&S website.

Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Emma Drew (who is co-ordinating this event). Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂

Meet the Bloggers Taking Part

The bloggers taking part in this festive giveaway are:

The Prizes

As mentioned above, there are eight Christmas Afternoon Treats with Flowers M&S hampers up for grabs, worth £50 each.

If the hamper is no longer available when the winners are drawn then the winners will be offered an alternative hamper from M&S worth £50 each.

Enter to Win

To enter simply complete any or all of the Rafflecopter entry widget options below.

The competition closes at midnight on 14th December 2019. If the hamper selected is sold out then we will offer an alternative M&S hamper worth £50. You can see the widget for the full terms and conditions of this giveaway.

There are plenty of ways to enter this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
One small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.

Once again, good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

November 3, 2019

Win a Virginia Hayward Hamper in the UK Bloggers 2019 Christmas Giveaway

Nick Everything Else events, competitions 2 Comments

Today I have a great festive giveaway to share with you.

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Bloggers to put together a giveaway of FIVE Virginia Hayward ‘The Magic of Christmas’ Hampers

These hampers sell for £65 apiece on the Virginia Hayward website. The full contents are as follows:

Barfield Bakery Mince Pies x 4
Cambrook Christmas Nuts 80g
Farmhouse Biscuits Regency Salted Caramel Biscuits 150g
Gold Crown Decorative 4 inch Square Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel & Fudge Pieces
Gold Crown Christmas Pudding 350g
Grandma Wild’s Mini Bites for Sharing Mature Cheddar 100g
Great British Crisp Company Cornish Sea Salt & Luxury Peppers Crisps 150g
Joe & Seph’s Brandy Butter Popcorn 80g
Linden Lady Decorative Chocolate Covered Marshmallows 140g
Shaws Caramelised Red Onion Chutney with Balsamic 195g
Sugar n Spice Choc Chip Cookie Bites 140g
The Secret Truffletier White Chocolate Truffles 55g
Zonin Prosecco Brut DOC Italy 75cl 11% vol
Black Wire Basket

If you need to know about any possible allergens in the contents, full information can be found via the Virginia Hayward website (click on the PDF link on the site).

Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Laura Light who is co-ordinating this event – big thanks to Laura!.

Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂

This Christmas, some of the UK Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win five Virginia Hayward The Magic of Christmas Hampers. Five lucky winners will win a Christmas hamper delivered before Christmas. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.

Who are the Bloggers Behind the Giveaway?

The UK Bloggers are a group of bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in the UK who are passionate about helping you to improve your life. We are a mix of lifestyle, parenting, food and money bloggers. Whether you want to make more money, find recipes, read about parenting or other lifestyle topics, we are your people. Here’s who we are:

The Prizes

You can win one of five Virginia Hayward The Magic Of Christmas Hampers.

The Rules

The giveaway is open until midnight on 17th November 2019, when the five winners will be chosen.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Winners will be contacted by email from laura@savings4savvymums.co.uk

Should the Christmas hampers be out of stock then a suitable replacement will be found.

How to Enter

Please note that this giveaway works differently from the otherwise similar UKMB giveaways I have featured on this blog.

You can get two entries by clicking on the links in the Rafflecopter widget below. One is to visit my Facebook page and the other is to follow Pounds and Sense blog on Twitter.

You can then get (many) more entries by clicking through the links above – or below – to my fellow UK bloggers, all of whom have their own posts about the Giveaway with their own Rafflecopter widgets.

After the closing date all entries will be put together and five winners will be chosen at random. I hope that’s all clear, but let me know if not!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quick Links!

To save you a bit of time finding the other posts in this giveaway, I have listed below all the bloggers who have published a 2019 Christmas Giveaway post, with a ‘deep link’ straight to the post in question. You can work your way through the list below and enter via the widget in each post. All links should open in a separate tab.

Make Money Without a Job

Mind Over Money Matters

Side Hustle Directory

Daily Deals Blog

Chilling With Lucas

Tammymum

Big Family Organised Chaos

Midlands Traveller

I Always Believed in Futures

Looking After Your Pennies

Accidental Hipster Mum

Mummy Saver Money Maker

Christmas Magic and Markets

For the Family

The Money Saving Mum

Family Travel With Ellie

Two Plus Dogs

At Home and Online

Adventures of a Yorkshire Mum

The Willow Tree

One final small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Laura will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.

Good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

September 6, 2019

How to Apply for a Postal Vote

Nick Everything Else events 0 Comments

For better or worse, Britain will have a General Election on Thursday 12th December 2019.

I have seen several articles (e.g. this one in The Guardian) urging young people to register so they can cast their vote when the time comes. Of course, it is right that in any democracy as many eligible people as possible register and turn out to vote. However, it is just as essential that older people also have their say.

As Pounds and Sense is aimed primarily at over-fifties, I therefore wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you to apply now for a postal vote if this might help you exercise your democratic right to vote.

Having a postal vote means that if ill health, frailty or disability prevent you getting to a polling station, you still have the opportunity to express your political preference. Likewise, you won’t have to worry about obstacles such as bad weather or a lack of transport on the day to get to the polling station.

In England, Scotland and Wales (though not Northern Ireland – see below) you do not have to give any reason for wanting a postal vote and one should be granted to you automatically if you apply.

I assume that most readers of this blog will have registered to vote in elections already, but if by chance you haven’t, here’s a link to the relevant website. You must register by 11:59 pm on 26 November to vote in the General Election on 12 December.

How to Apply

To get a postal vote for the forthcoming election, you must apply before:

5pm on 26 November if you live in England, Scotland or Wales
5pm on 21 November if you live in Northern Ireland

Assuming you are already registered to vote, you can contact the electoral registration office of your local authority and ask them to send you the necessary application form. Or, even simpler, just visit the Your Vote Matters website. Here you can download the application form as a PDF. You’ll need to print it, complete it, sign it, and send it back to your local authority.

The good news is that the form is just a single page (plus a page of explanatory notes). You are required to enter the following details on it:

Your full name
Your postal address (where you are registered to vote)
Your email address and phone number (these are optional but provide a way for the council to contact you in the event of any queries)
The address you want your ballot paper to be sent to if it’s different from your registered address (you have to provide a reason for this).

In addition, you have to indicate whether you want a permanent postal vote (which I would recommend) or if you only want it for a certain period or for a specific election or referendum.

Finally, you have to enter your date of birth on the form and sign it in black ink within the box provided. You also have to enter the date you are applying at the foot of the form (don’t forget this, as it’s quite easy to overlook).

Where to Send Your Application

The form has to be sent to the electoral registration officer for your local authority. If you use the Your Vote Matters website, there is a search box to locate this (see screen capture below). Just enter your postcode on the site and it will show you the address to send it.

And that’s really all there is to it. Once your application has been processed, you will be registered to vote by post in future elections and referendums. A few weeks beforehand (in my experience) you should receive a voting pack, including a ballot form and a reply-paid envelope in which to return it. You will need to send it back so it arrives by 10 pm on election day. If it arrives later than this, your vote won’t be counted.

Be aware that if you have applied to vote by post, you cannot vote in person at a polling station. However, on election day you can return your postal vote to any polling station in your local authority area (before 10pm) or to the Returning Officer at your local council (before they close) if you don’t want to post it or it’s too late to post it.

One other thing is that – as mentioned above – the situation regarding postal voting is slightly different in Northern Ireland. When applying for a postal vote here, you have to provide a valid reason as to why you cannot attend in person. This could be because of illness, disability, holiday or work arrangements. In certain circumstances you can apply for an indefinite postal or proxy vote. Application forms for an absent vote form are available from the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland

Closing Thoughts

The next government, whatever its political hue, will have to address a range of issues that are of great importance to older people. Foremost among these is the cost of long-term care (and who will bear it), but there are many other areas of concern, including pensions and benefits, the NHS, public transport, housing, law and order, and the argument over whether over-75s should continue to receive free TV licences. And then of course there is Brexit, a subject about which many older people have strong views (though personally I just want it resolved one way or the other, so that the deep divide it has created in British society has some chance to heal).

So it really is important to ensure that nothing prevents you casting your vote when the time comes. Registering for a postal vote is one way to ensure that ill-health, frailty or disability do not rob you of the opportunity to exercise your democratic right.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

August 16, 2019

Infographic: Are You a Victim of Pension Mis-Selling?

Nick Pensions & Benefits events, pensions, infographic, benefits 0 Comments

Today I have an eye-opening infographic for you from my friends at Edinburgh IFA about pension mis-selling.

If you watch the TV news, you may be aware that there has been a spate of stories in recent months about pension mis-selling.

In particular, some people have been persuaded to transfer valuable final salary pensions to unsuitable, often high risk, investment schemes, potentially putting their future income and security at risk. Of course, the advisers concerned typically pocket large sums in commission for this.

There is, however, some hope for victims of pension mis-selling, as the government has set up a compensation fund to help them. Here is the infographic with further information.

Thank you to Edinburgh IFA for their detailed and informative infographic.

If you think you (or a friend/relative) may have been mis-sold a pension or badly advised about a pension transfer, then – as the graphic says – you may be eligible for compensation from a £120 million fund set up for this purpose by the government. You can make a claim to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The FSCS only looks at complaints if an organisation has entered liquidation or administration. If – as is more likely – the organisation you wish to complain about is still trading, you will need to apply to the FOS.

You do need to act quickly, as if you are going to complain there is a time limit of six years from when the product was sold to you, or three years from when you noticed that you had been mis-sold – whichever is the later.

If you wish to complain about being mis-sold a pension, the first step is to contact the adviser (or SIPP provider) in question. They are obliged by law to have a complaints procedure and respond within eight weeks. If they don’t respond, or you are unhappy with their response, you can then file a complaint with the FOS. If they agree that you were badly advised, they can award you compensation of up to £150,000. More detailed information about the complaints procedure is available on the Edinburgh IFA website.

If you don’t feel confident going to the Pensions Ombudsman yourself, you can use a claims adviser. Edinburgh IFA say they are happy to put anyone in this position in touch with an independent financial adviser (IFA) in their area who will provide initial advice free and without obligation. Despite the company name, they offer a nationwide service (not just Edinburgh!).

Or if you don’t want to use them, any IFA specialising in pensions should also be able to help you. The website Unbiased.co.uk can locate suitable independent financial advisers in your area for you.

Either way, if you think you have been a victim of pension mis-selling, don’t bury your head in the sand. Compensation may be available if you act now. In any event, it costs nothing to find out more.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

August 1, 2019

Win a Marks and Spencer Hamper in the Great UKMB Summer Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else competitions, events, food 2 Comments

Today I have another great giveaway to share with you.

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of FIVE Marks & Spencer ‘Afternoon Tea with Flowers’ Hampers.

These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. The full contents are as follows:

Pure origin Assam teabags (125g/50 bags)
British raspberry soft set jam (113g)
British strawberry soft set jam (113g)
All butter shortbread fingers (28g/pack of 2) x 3
Cherry and sultana bar cake (520g)
Swiss chocolate extra smooth milk chocolate truffles (62g/pack of 5)
19 x Mixed pink roses
Two Reusable gift boxes

In the event of supply difficulties, or with discontinued products, M&S say they reserve the right to offer alternative goods or packaging of equal quality and value. If you need to know about any possible allergens in the contents, full information can be found on the M&S website.

There is a also a runner-up prize of one M&S You’re the Bees Knees Gift Bag, worth £20.

Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Emma Drew (who is co-ordinating this event). Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂

This summer, some of the UK Money Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win one of six great prizes from Marks and Spencer. We have five hampers worth £50 each plus one £20 gift bag to give away. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.

Who are the bloggers behind this giveaway?

The UK Money Bloggers are a group of bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in the UK who are passionate about helping you to improve your finances. Whether you want to make more money, spend less, understand investing or pay off debts, we all contribute something unique to the community. Here’s who we are:

The prizes

We are giving away six prizes in total.

You can win one of five M&S ‘Afternoon Tea with Flowers’ hampers worth £50 each, or the runner-up prize of a £20 M&S ‘You’re the Bees Knees’ gift bag.

The rules

The giveaway is open until midnight on 31st August 2019, when the winners will be chosen.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Winners will be contacted by email from hello@emmadrew.info

How to enter

You can enter by completing as many of the Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you would like. You can also enter daily by tweeting from the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.

Once again, good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!

Listed on Loquax.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

April 18, 2019

Guest Post: You Must Claim PPI before August 2019

Nick Saving Money events, sponsored post, insurance 0 Comments

There are under five months left for consumers to reclaim Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). 29th August 2019 is the official cut-off date for all people to submit PPI claims to their banks. This date was chosen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to encourage those who have not yet made claims to do so.

Since the announcement of the deadline nearly two years ago, thousands of people have made successful PPI claims. With the deadline approaching, if you haven’t yet submitted a claim, you must act now before August.

Do You Have a PPI policy?

The first thing to establish is whether you had a PPI policy. Most PPI policies were sold in the 1990s alongside mortgages, loans and credit cards, but some successful cases date back to the 1980s. As a general rule, the older the policy, the harder it can be to prove you were mis-sold PPI.

You may remember being mis-sold a policy. If this is the case, you will need to find the old paperwork with evidence of this. If you can’t remember whether you had a policy, old statements and documents should be able to highlight if this is the case.

On the paperwork, PPI may be listed under a few different names. Here are just a selection of the other names for PPI (this list is not exhaustive):

Accident, Sickness and Unemployment (ASU)
Account cover
Loan protection
Payment cover

If you can’t remember whether you had a PPI policy or you can’t locate the paperwork, there are a couple of ways to find out. You can either contact the bank or lender and ask if they have a record of any PPI policies attached to your previous accounts, or you can use the services of a PPI claims company.

There is no guarantee that the bank will have a record of previous PPI policies, but if they do confirm a policy, you can then submit a PPI claim. Alternatively, a claims company can investigate any old accounts and seek to identify policies on your behalf.

Claim PPI before August

Once you find evidence of your PPI policy, it’s time to make a claim. Again, there are two different ways to submit a PPI claim. You can make a claim yourself by contacting the bank or lender that mis-sold you the policy or ask a reputable PPI claims company to do it for you.

Whether you submit a claim yourself or use a PPI claims company, you must explain how the policy was mis-sold to you. Here are just a few ways that policies were mis-sold to customers:

You were told it was compulsory with your credit card, loan or mortgage purchase
You weren’t told about the policy — it was added automatically and without your knowledge and consent
The terms and conditions were not explained — this includes not being asked about medical conditions and employment
You were promised a lower price if you bought the PPI policy

If any of these apply to you, you could be eligible for a refund. You may also be eligible for a refund if you were charged a high level of commission. Due to a landmark PPI case, individuals can claim PPI if a policy had over 50% commission and this was not disclosed — even if you knowingly bought a PPI policy. This is known as the Plevin rule and means thousands’ more people can make PPI claims.

Some banks allow you to claim PPI online by submitting a form (though you may need to also send evidence with your application). For others, you will need to write a letter and complete any relevant paperwork. Once the bank has acknowledged your claim, it should respond with an outcome within eight weeks. However, be aware that some cases can take longer, especially if they’re older or more complex.

The alternative option is to use the services of a PPI claims company. Some essential details will be required for them to act on your behalf, but they will handle all communication with the bank. If you don’t have the time or don’t want to deal with the process yourself, it can be beneficial using a claims company. Always check the fees involved and read the terms and conditions.

What if Your Claim Is Rejected?

If your claim is successful, you’ll receive notification from the bank and receive the payment shortly afterwards. If, however, the bank rejects your claim, but you think that the decision is wrong, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS will independently review your PPI case and either uphold the decision made by the bank or decide that you are due the PPI refund. It’s important to be aware that PPI claims at the FOS can take up to two years to be resolved due to a severe backlog.

Whether you remember having PPI or not, now is the time to check. In four months, you will no longer have the chance to reclaim PPI. Act now before it’s too late.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored guest post on behalf of Canary Claims.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

April 1, 2019

Win a Marks & Spencer Easter Hamper in the UKMB Easter Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions

Today I have another great giveaway to share with you. I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of not one, not two, but three Marks & Spencer Easter Hampers.

These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. They contain an assortment of Easter goodies, beautifully presented in a stylish dark brown hamper. The full contents are as follows:

Assam tea (25g/10 bags)
Caramel eggs (120g)
Simnel cake bar (400g)
Cheeky chicks (120g/pack of 6)
Mini luxury hot cross buns (325g/pack of 9)
Hide and seek egg hunt bag (135g)
British strawberry soft set jam (113g)
Chicky choccy speckled eggs (100g)
8 Easter biscuits (200g)
Bubbly bunny (23g) x 4
Presented in a dark-stained wicker hamper with brown faux-leather handle and straps

This Easter, some of the UK Money Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win one of three M&S Easter hampers. Three lucky winners will win an Easter hamper delivered before Easter. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.

Who are the bloggers behind the giveaway?

The prizes

You can win one of three Easter Family Hampers from M&S.

The rules

The giveaway is open until midnight on 14th April 2019, when the winners will be chosen.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Winners will be contacted by email from hello@emmadrew.info

Should the Easter hampers be out of stock then a suitable replacement will be found.

How to enter

You can enter by completing as many of the Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you would like. You can also enter daily by tweeting from the Rafflecopter widget.

Comment with your best money saving tip to unlock more entry options.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Listed on Loquax.

Comments are now closed on this post.

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March 29, 2019

SnapIt Glasses Repair Kit Review and Giveaway

Nick Everything Else events, sponsored post, competitions 0 Comments

All of us who wear glasses know how annoying it is when one of the small screws that hold the frames or arms in place comes loose and falls out.

Even assuming you can find the tiny screw, reinserting it is no joke, especially if your eyesight isn’t great (which of course is likely to be the case if you need glasses!).

So I was delighted to receive a free review copy of the SnapIt Glasses Repair Kit, pictured below.

The clever thing about this inexpensive kit is that it includes screws with a long ‘tail’ that are easy to insert into the spectacle frame. You then tighten the screw and snap off the protruding tail (hence the name, of course) for a perfect quick repair.

Here’s a step by step illustration of the process. Please excuse the fact that I used an old pair of glasses for this demonstration, so they aren’t exactly in pristine condition!

As you can see, I’m repairing an arm which has come loose. The first step is to insert the screw into the appropriate hole in the frame. You get five different screw sizes to choose from. The long tail on the screw makes doing this a doddle.

Next you use the little screwdriver provided in the kit to screw it in. Here’s a picture with a 20p coin beside it to give you an idea of the size.

It takes just a few moments to tighten the screw, so it looks like this.

Finally you just snap off the tail (easy again). Hey presto, a perfect repair!

Giveaway

As you can tell, I was very impressed with the SnapIt Glasses Repair Kit, so I was delighted to be offered one to give away to my readers. To enter the competition, just follow the steps on the Gleam form below. The more ways you enter, the better your chances of winning!

Win A Snapit Glasses Repair Kit #17

Terms and Conditions

Competition ends on 18th April 2019
All entrants must be over the age of 18 years
The prize will be sent directly to the winner
No cash alternative will be offered
Open to UK residents only
One random winner will be chosen
If your entries are found to be false all of your entries will be void and deleted
Your details will be used to contact you if you are the winner of the competition
The prize winner’s details will be passed on to the prize provider in order for your prize to be sent

Good luck in the giveaway. If you have any comments or questions about this article, as always, please post them below.

And if you are a company or agency interested in running a giveaway like this on Pounds and Sense, please do drop me a line.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf on SnapIt, who were kind enough to provide a kit to me free of charge and are also providing the prize in my giveaway.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

February 11, 2019

Blue Monday Competition – The Winner!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions 4 Comments

Updated 15 February 2019

In this post last month I set out a contest/giveaway to win six packets of the new Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits. To enter, you simply had to comment on the post in question, saying why Bahlsen biscuits cheer you up.

For whatever reason there weren’t as many entries to this competition as my previous one. In fact only five people had entered by the closing date of Friday 1st February.

Still, those biscuits won’t eat themselves, so I used the random number generator at Random.org to pick the winner. Unfortunately the original winner failed to come forward, so in accordance with the rules set out in my original post I have gone back to Random.org to select another winner. I am therefore pleased to confirm that this was entry number 3 from Sally Jenkins (who is, coincidentally, a friend and near-neighbour of mine). Congratulations, Sally!

Thank you to everyone who entered, and commiserations to the entrants who didn’t win this time. A particular mention for Nicola, who came up with the best rhyme, and for the eventual winner, Sally Jenkins, who clearly went to some effort to create a catchy slogan. In this competition the winner was selected at random according to the rules set out in my original post, but I did appreciate the effort you both made with these entries!

You can, of course, buy delicious Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits in Waitrose and Sainsbury’s supermarkets (and at the online store Amazon).

And finally, thanks again to Bahlsen Biscuits for sponsoring this contest. Watch out for more contests and giveaways on Pounds and Sense soon!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

February 8, 2019

Earn Some Extra Cash Writing for Newsjack!

Nick Making Money events, writing 2 Comments

Today I want to share an unusual opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash. It should appeal particularly if you are:

interested in writing
have a good sense of humour (especially the satirical type)
are interested in the news stories and issues of today

The BBC’s satirical radio comedy show Newsjack is back for a new run. They describe is as, ‘The scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public’ and anyone is welcome to submit short topical sketches and one-liners for it.

This is primarily an opportunity for UK residents, though if you live outside the UK (and understand the British sense of humour!) there is nothing to stop you submitting work as well.

Submissions are open now, with a weekly deadline of noon on Mondays for sketches and noon on Tuesday for one-liners. Last submissions for this series are Tuesday 12th March 2019.

More information, including the format for submitting work and downloadable templates you can use, can be found on the Newsjack website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1hDdvFLfWClPHW7zT3sq01S/submit-a-sketch. You can also view example sketches and one-liners on this page.

And there are more tips on writing for Newsjack in this BBC Blog post from 2015.

This is, as mentioned, a paying opportunity. Payments are as follows:

£45.50 per minute for sketches
£22.75 per 30 seconds for sketches
£22.75 per one-liner

They say this fee will take in all rights for the work on a non-exclusive basis (so no repeat fees, unfortunately!).

Obviously there will be a lot of competition, so it’s important to study the guidelines carefully and listen to the show itself (it’s broadcast at 11 pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra). Although it’s primarily a bit of fun with a chance to earn some cash and have your work (and name) broadcast on national radio, this can also be a good entry-level opportunity for anyone hoping to get into radio comedy writing. If you consistently submit work that gets noticed, you may be invited to join the show’s team of commissioned writers, which in turn will present all sorts of further networking opportunities.

It’s also an opportunity I have a soft spot for, as many years ago I had a number of sketches and one-liners accepted by the long-running predecessor of Newsjack, Weekending. I was invited to meet the show’s producer and was sounded out about joining the writing team, but in the end decided against as it would have meant relocating to London.

Good luck if you decide to try submitting work to Newsjack. Please do leave a comment below if you are successful!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

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