Day to day finances

[camkam]

I live 200 miles from my 91 year old mum who is awaiting a memory clinic assessment, and her pension is currently paid into a post office pension account which is not a proper bank account, you can't have any standing orders or direct debits or pay anything other than pension into it. Her bank account is in the centre of town and she doesn't go into town any more. If I get the LPA through I could arrange direct debits for her bills but if I change the pension so that it's paid into her bank she can only draw cash from the post office using a bank card and it's going to confuse her if I take away her pension card and give her a bank card. Of course she doesn't see that there's a problem but every time she gets a bill it's a major cause for concern because she gets confused about whether or not she's paid it. Does anyone else have similar probems or have any suggestions please?

 

[Shedrech]

Hi camkam - welcome to TP
I don't have experience of PO accounts - others may know more ...
Have a chat with someone at a large PO, they may be able to suggest something your mum could do - I agree that getting main bills onto SO or DD will help a lot.

 

[skaface]

What I did with mum was transfer all her utilities on to one and put my name on her account - I did it for everything except phone which she had already transferred to a supplier I'd never heard of and is tied into a two year contract - once she's out of contract, I will transfer the phone over to the same supplier. So now for gas and electric I can phone up if I need to and speak to them on her behalf.

I am a distributor for a utilities company (the one I transferred mum's gas and electric to) and they do everything to transfer the supply for new customers so there were no problems - they also do a cashback card which automatically tops up if it falls below a certain amount. I have a sibling card for that account with my name on it so I can do her shopping legally (i.e. I'm not using her debit card to do the shopping).

I also squirrel her monthly banks statements away when I spot them so I can check to make sure bill payments are going out - underhand I know but it's better than the inevitable row that will ensue if I start questioning her as she doesn't respond well to direct questions.

I struggle to get my mum into town to visit her bank - I had to take her in in March to get a summary of her finances for Social Services and it was a nightmare.

 

[camkam]

Hi camkam - welcome to TP
I don't have experience of PO accounts - others may know more ...
Have a chat with someone at a large PO, they may be able to suggest something your mum could do - I agree that getting main bills onto SO or DD will help a lot.

Hi Shedrech, thank you I'll do that. I think the problem is that whatever I do, the only way Mum is going to be able to get any cash at all is by going to a cash till and the one at the post office is familiar to her, but I don't now how I'll manage to get her to understand that a bank card will replace her pension card. It's very difficult to explain anything to her as she just doesn't grasp things any more!

 

[camkam]

What I did with mum was transfer all her utilities on to one and put my name on her account - I did it for everything except phone which she had already transferred to a supplier I'd never heard of and is tied into a two year contract - once she's out of contract, I will transfer the phone over to the same supplier. So now for gas and electric I can phone up if I need to and speak to them on her behalf.

I am a distributor for a utilities company (the one I transferred mum's gas and electric to) and they do everything to transfer the supply for new customers so there were no problems - they also do a cashback card which automatically tops up if it falls below a certain amount. I have a sibling card for that account with my name on it so I can do her shopping legally (i.e. I'm not using her debit card to do the shopping).

I also squirrel her monthly banks statements away when I spot them so I can check to make sure bill payments are going out - underhand I know but it's better than the inevitable row that will ensue if I start questioning her as she doesn't respond well to direct questions.

I struggle to get my mum into town to visit her bank - I had to take her in in March to get a summary of her finances for Social Services and it was a nightmare.

I know what you mean about the rows, we tried to look for her benefits confirmation letter last week - I've never seen so much paperwork, she has stuff going back to 2003 and when I suggested taking it away to shred it she went crazy! She also has a plastic carrier bag full of used window envelopes and I wasn't allowed to throw that away either!

 

[Quilty]

Could you move her pension payment to a bank account and make a standing order or dorect debit TO the post office account for her own use? Then you can pay the bills via the bank and she sees no dufference.

 

[camkam]

Could you move her pension payment to a bank account and make a standing order or dorect debit TO the post office account for her own use? Then you can pay the bills via the bank and she sees no dufference.

No I asked at the post office, you can't make standing orders or direct debits in or out of the post office Card Account, it's useless, only the pension can be paid in and cash drawn out.