Money blog: 'Apple charger' trick exposed; Vodafone taking on Musk; state pension top-up deadline relaxed (2025)

Today marks the start of Free Wills Month - so if you've been putting off sorting one out, this could be the time to do it.

The initiative has been running since 2005 and allows people to get a solicitor-drafted will for free.

More than 20 charities are working with local solicitors across the country to offer the service for free.

Here's everything you need to know.

Who can take part?

Anyone aged 55 and over can sign up to the scheme - but it's important to note that not all areas of the country are taking part. Here's where is:

What charities are involved?

The charities will pay for a limited number of willsto encourage more people to leave charitable gifts in their legacies.

While there is no obligation for you to leave a gift to the charity if you use the service, it is likely that you will be asked.

The charities taking part are:

How do you sign up?

All you have to do is call one of the participating solicitors listed on herebefore 5pm on Monday 31 March.

Make sure you mention the Free Wills Month programme.

Appointments are limited and can fill up quickly, so it's better to call sooner rather than later to avoid missing out.

If you're not sure if your area is taking part, you can put your details into the Free Wills Month website to check.

If not, they should be during the October edition of the scheme.

Asda has scrapped bonuses for more than 10,000 managers after a year of falling sales, according to reports.

The struggling supermarket's market share shrank to 12.6% in 2024, ending the year with its worst Christmas performance in a decade.

Staff were told that they will not be rewarded with planned payouts due to the retailer's performance, according to The Telegraph.

Managers tend to get bonuses in the first three months of the year, with around 14,000 receiving the pay award last year.

While Asda isn't expected to post its result for the last financial year for a few weeks, industry data from Kantar suggests its sales have dropped 5.2% in the three months to January.

Asda declined to issue a comment to Money.

The government has slightly relaxed the 5 April deadline to top up your state pension.

Anyone with less than 35 qualifying years - years when they were paid or been credited with NI contributions - do not qualify for the full state pension.

Usually, people can pay voluntary top-ups for the past six years, but the last government opened this up so contributions can be filled in all the way back to 6 April 2006.

To cope with a rush of last-minute inquiries, the government has launched a "call back" system.

The provision means that as long as people log an inquiry with the Future Pension Centre before 5 April, they will be able to make payments after the deadline.

The form will be available on the contact the Future Pension Centre page on GOV.UK.

We've been reading your responses to our piece on British Airways last week - which named the company the worst of 19 airlines for long-haul flights.

You can read the report here...

Some of you shared your bad experiences with BA...

We returned on BA business class on 28 January, an hour into the flight the cabin lights failed, the in-flight entertainment failed, our seats would not recline into flat beds, the cabin was so dark you could not see what you were eating. Still waiting for a response from BA.

Angela

They have no respect for their passengers. They treat everybody badly when there's delays, which happens far too often. Overpriced and very poor quality compared to others. This has been coming!

BA GoldFlyer

Why does BA think the customer survey is wrong? I recently travelled long haul - 11 hours. Food was very disappointing and staff disengaged!

Joe

We recently chose to fly back from Singapore on BA Business Class. It was the worst flight we have taken for years! The crew were tetchy and unpleasant. We went over 11hrs between meal service - dinner to breakfast, no flexibility to offer food/snacks.

J Archer

Others suggested the problems ran deep...

BA have provided a poor service to passengers for several years now - cancelled/delayed flights, non-existent customer service etc. A perfect example of a once great airline reduced to being beaten for service by almost all of its competitors.

AdamsP

Some said that, while their experiences were fine, the price tag was not...

I have just flown with BA from Heathrow to Rio. The flight was fine. However, I was disgusted that , In order to pre-reserve my seat preference, I would have had to fork out an extra £120 (£60 each way)! There is no excuse for this greed. How can BA justify this?

Tim

But others were dismayed at the findings...

I have just returned from New York flying BA. The flight left on time both ways. The interior of the aircraft was like new. The cabin crew were thoughtful kind and very helpful. The food was greatly improved and better than a lot of other airlines. I will always fly BA.

Universal Traveller

A BA spokesperson said the research, which was carried out by consumer website Which?, was "entirely at odds with comments from the hundreds of thousands of customers who we know do travel with British Airways and then tell us about their experience".

They added: "There is always room for improvement and we know we don't always get things right, but we're proud of the progress we're making and will continue to focus on delivering the best possible service for our customers."

Luxury Italian fashion brand Prada is moving closer to buying its smaller rival Versace, according to reports.

Bloomberg News and the Financial Times have suggested the group has agreed a price of nearly €1.5bn (£1.3bn) to buy the iconic label from upmarket fashion group Capri Holdings.

Prada and Capri - also owner of brands including Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors - could finalise an agreement in March, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

But this doesn't mean that it's a done deal - timing and values could still change and there is a risk discussions could fall apart.

Numerous fashion companies are potentially interested in buying Versace, Prada's owner Miuccia Prada said last week.

Money has contacted Prada and Capri Holdings for comment.

Vodafone has launched a rival project to Elon Musk's Starlink as it pledges to eliminate areas without any mobile signal.

The telecoms giant has announced the start of a new satellite mobile service that all allow customers to make or receive calls, browse the interest and use online message services without having signal.

Working with satellite company AST SpaceMobile, the pair said they want to create a service that will "provide 100% geographic coverage in every part of Europe".

With a plan to launch later this year, the service will work with normal 4G and 5G phones without needing any extra equipment.

"There will always be areas, including the sea or particularly remote points of the Earth, that will not be reached by a mobile signal," Margherita Della Valle, the chief executive of Vodafone, was quoted as saying in The Telegraph.

"Well, that's all going to go away now - there won't be any more not-spots after this year's launch."

Billionaires Musk and Jeff Bezos have both launched their own projects to develop satellite mobile and broadband services.

Starlink and Bezos's Project Kuiper have already launched thousands of satellites into Earth's low orbit.

While the hospitality sector has been struggling, Gordon Ramsay's business is growing.

The chef has just opened two restaurants, a bar and a cookery school in the tallest building in the City of London in a project that cost him more than £20m.

He's also secured a 15-year lease on the former Le Gavroche site in Mayfair to open a restaurant there with chef Matt Abe.

So how has he been able to do it?

While the projects have faced "tough running costs", he told the Evening Standard that his group has got "smarter" about managing them.

He said his business was shifting its operations to diminish the front of house in fast casual restaurants to online ordering.

"The generation now don't want to talk and order," he said.

"We're faced with tough running costs, because of increased labour costs, because of the increased National Insurance contributions. Now Labour have made it even more difficult, so we have to raise our game and be smarter."

Ramsay said some of the extra costs have been a long time coming because the industry has been "underpaid for a long time".

"Chefs, sommeliers, maitre d's, mixologists … they're like athletes, they want it, they're in demand. You need to understand their worth," he added.

Fraudsters are adding metal weights to fake Apple chargers to trick consumers who think they are holding a genuine product, an investigation by the company and a charity has found.

Apple and Electrical Safety First opened up 22 counterfeit power adapters and found 68% had metal weights inside.

The charity warned the additional weights increased the risk of short-circuiting, which could lead to electric shocks and fire.

Luke Osborne, deputy technical director at Electrical Safety First, said: "Criminal counterfeiters are doing everything they can to trick shoppers into thinking they've bagged a bargain, developing their tactics to avoid suspicion.

"Some of these new tactics are increasing the risk of electric shock and fire to the buyer including adding in metal weights to give the impression the adapter feels like a legitimate product.

Young women are now earning more than their male counterparts, data from the Centre for Social Justice thinktank shows.

Full-time working women aged 16 to 24 earned £26,500 in 2023, while men in the same age range earned £24,300.

The CSJ said a "crisis" facing boys and men is behind the change.

"What we have uncovered is stark. Boys are struggling in education, more likely to take their own lives, less likely to get into stable work, and far more likely to be caught up in crime," its chief executive Andy Cook said in the Lost Boysreport.

"The numbers don't lie - something has shifted, and we cannot ignore it any longer. It's not just about Andrew Tate or online influencers; they are the symptoms, not the cause.

"The deeper truth is that too many boys are growing up without the guidance, discipline, and purpose they need to thrive."

Since 2020, the number of men aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training has increased by 40%, compared to 7% for women.

"For those young men who are in work, the much-vaunted gender pay gap has been reversed. Young men are now out-earned by their female peers, including among the university educated," the report said.

Despite the CSJ's claims, another report has suggested that the UK is now at its lowest ranking for workplace equality in a decade.

The Women in Work Index, produced by advisory firm PwC, said the UK has fallen to 18th place in the ranking of the world's largest economies.