A reader writes, “I have just lost 70 per cent of my final-salary pension entitlement because my solvent employer has wound up the scheme (with Tony Blair’s blessing).”

This is awful but by no means rare. The number of final-salary pension schemes has shrunk dramatically in recent years.

Employers say they are simply too expensive to operate, because they pay pensions based on members’ final earnings, rather than the pension fund’s investment performance.

Even if the fund does badly, the employer still has to cough up at the agreed rate – and this can be financially crippling.

Of course, this is no comfort at all to anyone who has paid in for years, expecting a decent pension when they retire.

The only thing to do now is to consult an independent financial adviser who specialises in pension provision and start salting away whatever you can afford to minimise your retirement shortfall.

I’m so sorry not to be able to say anything more positive.

And while on the subject of the greedy and often incompetent giant service providers who have us at their mercy (see Halifax’s “no more Mr Nice Guy” below) …

The Times reported this morning that back in February British Gas cancelled the direct debit payments of 45,000 of its gas and electricity customers.

You might think the reason we’re hearing about this so long after the event is that British Gas dealt with the problem quietly and efficiently, and then managed to keep a lid on it.

But no. It appears that no one at the power provider realised there was a problem until now.

As a result, customers caught up in the billing fiasco haven’t been charged for the past four months and will have to pay extra – the deficit averages around £300 per household – until British Gas has recouped the £12 million deficit.

Which goes to show that while direct debits might be convenient, they’re not foolproof – so keep a close eye on them.

Mortgage giant Halifax has found that sneaky money making schemes don’t always pay.

The UK’s biggest mortgage lender has revealed that its share of the new mortgages market slumped to 8 per cent in the first six months of the year, compared to a 20 per cent share of outstanding home loans.

It admits this is partly because it backtracked on its policy of offering new customers better deals than existing ones.

But - surprise, surprise - upping its rates for newbies didn’t help it retain existing customers or attract new ones, so Halifax has gone back to its old ways of offering the latter better rates and terms.

Could it be that customers are getting wise to the fact that the big banks don’t necessarily offer the best deals, whether you’re an existing customer or a new one?

With mortgages, as with all other financial services, it pays to shop around.

If, like me, you’re a BT broadband customer, you may be slightly puzzled by what turned up in the post this morning.

The letter I received actually appears to be offering something for nothing – in fact, less than nothing.

It says I can pay £2 less a month and make internet and phone call savings plus have a free “hub phone” and “home hub”, whatever they are. (Yes, I know I should have been paying attention to the adverts with that nice bloke from Love Actually).

I’ve read the letter twice and still haven’t spotted the catch.

Can it be that BT is cutting prices in a bid to retain customers? Or is something more sinister going on?

If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Half of all Britons are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Apparently, a third of us are financial fantasists who believe that a higher salary, loan, windfall or inheritance – rather than sound planning – will solve all our monetary worries.

And around another one in six blithely admit they don’t give their situation any thought at all.

Excuse me for a minute while I tear out what’s left of my prematurely white hair…

When savings provider National Savings & Investments asked people to complete the sentence “I don’t worry about my current financial situation because…” the answers were predictably horrifying.

Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said: “I expect to be earning more in the future”.

Five per cent replied: “I expect to always be able to borrow what I need” and 4 per cent went for: “I expect to receive a windfall or inheritance”.

Another 15 per cent say they simply didn’t bother to think about their finances.

And when NS&I asked people whether they had made any financial plans for their future, 55 per cent said no.

Only 11 per cent said they had a detailed plan and the rest said it was “vague” or they were “working” on it.

Dax Harkins, senior savings strategist at NS&I, points out: “There’s never any guarantee that people will earn more as they get older, so it’s really important that people start their financial planning and start saving as early as possible.”

Talk about stating the obvious – anyone who doesn’t realise that deserves to have their credit and debit cards confiscated.

Direct Line attacks the price comparison websites in its latest TV advert – but leading site Confused.com has hit back.

Direct Line wants to convince customers they won’t get such a good deal if they use these sites to shop for car insurance.

And it claims many don’t realise price comparison sites don’t list all possible policies and that they make money out of every one bought through them.

That may be so, but they still make consumers’ lives much easier by offering a one-stop shop where they can view a wide range of options and, by doing so, save large amounts of cash.

The system may not be perfect, but it’s far better than the alternative offered by Direct Line: buying direct from it.

Confused.com managing director Debbie Williams responds: ‘This looks like an act of desperation from an increasingly uncompetitive Direct Line.

‘It’s a shame it won’t allow its quotes to be compared through independent price comparison sites like Confused.com.

‘But there may be a reason – our initial research suggests that nine times out of ten of Direct Line’s quotes wouldn’t feature in our top five cheapest prices. And in some cases, Direct Line doesn’t even make the top ten.’

So who will I be going to in future for my insurance? As far as I’m concerned, the comparison sites win hands down.

The personal details of 62,000 Bank of Scotland mortgage holders have vanished in the post.

Apparently the computer disc containing their names, addresses, dates of birth and account numbers was on its way to a credit reference agency – but never arrived.

The bank, part of the giant HBOS group, says, ‘There is no suggestion that the disc was stolen’, adding that it seems to have been ‘mislaid’.

That’s some small consolation, I suppose, coming as it does a couple of months after a briefcase containing the mortgage details of 13,000 customers of sister company Halifax was stolen from an employee’s car.

And then, of course, there was the time that an HBOS banking customer who asked for a copy of her statement received the names, sort codes and account numbers of 75,000 other account holders instead.

It’s good to know our confidential data is in such safe hands.

I received a question today regarding capital gains on a property sale.

My correspondent said, ‘A married couple can both claim the full capital gains allowance each against profit from sale, as indeed can so-called civil partners. Does the same apply to couples in joint ownership of a property?’

In a nutshell, yes.

Capital gains tax is due on the sale of properties other than your main home, and each individual has an annual tax-free allowance. This is currently £9,200.

Say you made a £100,000 profit (after deducting allowable purchase, renovation and sale costs) on an investment property which you owned equally, you would each have made £50,000.

Assuming you haven’t used your annual allowance for anything else, you can set this against your share of the gain, leaving you each with a taxable profit of £40,800.

The rate you pay on this will depend on your individual tax bands.

For example, if once your gain has been added to your income for the year, the total is within your personal allowance, you will be taxed at 10 per cent on the gain, costing you £4,080.

If the total is within the lower or basic rate bands, the tax rate will be 20 per cent – making it £8,160.

If the gain takes you into the higher rate band, you’ll pay at 40 per cent on this part of it.

And if you are already a 40 per cent taxpayer, you will pay this rate on the whole gain, giving a bill of £16,320.

However, depending on how long you’ve owned the property, you may be eligible for taper relief, which will reduce your capital gain and, therefore, your liability.

Revenue & Customs has a helpful leaflet on taper relief, which also explains what is and isn’t an allowable cost.

Do you know how much you’re being charged each time you dial an 0870 number?

Thought not.

Consumers’ organisation Which? says most people don’t realise how badly they’re being ripped off when they call this code.

Organisations that use 0845, 0844 and the even more expensive 0870 and 0871 numbers get to share the profits with the phone service provider, so it’s in their interests to keep you on the line for as long as possible.

No wonder these ‘revenue sharing’ numbers are so popular with so-called customer service departments and helplines provided by everyone from broadband and power companies to government agencies.

Some banks, including Alliance & Leicester and Lloyds TSB, even use 0870 lines to offer advice to customers with debt problems.

A ten-minute daytime call from a BT landline to a standard geographically-based number (these begin 01 or 02) could cost as little as 3p, but the same call could be about 80p to an 0870 number.

And that soon adds up to a very tidy profit.

The Department for Work and Pensions has admitted it made £268,000 last year from 0845 hotlines to advise people on low incomes about benefit and winter fuel payments.

Which? editor Neil Fowler says: ‘Revenue sharing is a stealth tax of the worst kind.

‘Tales of customers hanging on for ages at huge expense when they are trying to place an order – or even make a complaint – are numerous.’

But there is a way to avoid the ‘revenue sharing’ rip off.

Whenever you need to dial a firm that gives out an 0845, 0844, 0870 or 0871 number, simply log on to website Say No to 0870 to find a geographically-based alternative that charges standard rates.

I’m appalled. Apparently, half of all mortgage seekers have no idea what’s been happening recently with interest rates.

According to mortgages site MortgageSorter.co.uk, a horrifying 48 per cent of its users didn’t realise rates went up last month.

The Bank of England has made four base rate increases since last August – adding around £90 a month to the cost of a £150,000 variable rate repayment loan – and it’s due to announce its latest decision on Thursday.

How can so many people who are about to commit to the biggest debt of their lives have absolutely no idea about what’s been happening to interest costs?

When the site asked “How has the recent rate rise affected you?”, exactly 50 per cent said they were “very” or “a little” concerned about the impact on their mortgage payments.

But 48 per cent said they “didn’t realise there was a rate rise” , while the remaining 2 per cent said they “didn’t know” how it would affect them.

Yet, as MortgageSorter founder Edward Parry points out: “Over the course of a 25-year £150,000 repayment mortgage, even a single 0.25 percentage point rise could cost them £6,750.

“And the four rises we’ve had recently could add £27,000 to their interest bill – that’s something no one can afford to ignore.”

He goes on to say: “But if borrowers aren’t clear on how much a mortgage could cost them, how can they be sure they’re making the right loan choices?”

Quite.