Bank accounts any advice ?

[lou lou]

Dear All,

I have an enduring power of attorney for my mum, registered it in Dec' 2005. Didn't really do anything with it, mum was placed in a nursing home she was assessed as making a contribution of £98 PW to her care costs but was never sent the bill. Now her social services dept have started sending me the bills from April this year ( no request for backpayment so far).

Well fine, all her money has been piling up in her post office account. I have paid for anything she needed my self ( clothes toiletries etc) I'd buy her floweres and her bottle of Baileys she's fine.

Problem is her pension is paid into her post office account but the only thing you can do with the account is to draw money out in cash. Well I don't feel like drawing out hundreds of pounds in cah and trawling it down to her SS office so I have been trying to set up a bank account. Three times I've tried now. One asked for a letter from her doctor which he never sent. The last one took all the identity details, took two months to offer me an interview appointment at the end of which they said they couldn't open an account in her name because of new money laundering rules !

They say they need four forms of Identity for her. Two of which must be photo ID. Well her passport is out of date her disabled badge is out of date, she's never had a driving license, she lives in a care home so doesnt pay utility bills. They wont accept letters from SS because they are adressed to me at my adress the post office who have been damned bloody minded are still sending her statements to her old address where she hasn't lived for two years ( so much for concerns about identity theft) so I am at the end of my tether.

I spoke to someone from the DWP who said I could open a seperate bank account in my name and if I were her "appointee" then they could pay her pension into that which finally sounds like a solution but the bureocracy is really beginning to get to me.

Why do I need to be an "appointee" if I have enduring power of attorney. Becoming an "appointee means they have to come out and visit you at home, sounds easy but I live 80 miles away from my mum and work full time and they'd sure as eggs not get very much from visiting her alone. ( I get to see mum acouple of times a week in the evenings as I work not far from her care home but the DWP don't do evening visits).

I'm also concerned about opening an account in my name as I'm a 40% taxpayer and wouldn't want her money treated as mine.

Has anyone else experience of this?

One of my brothers suggests I just take her money out of the post office in cash and stuff it in a matress. LOL but I still need her to have an account for the DWP to pay her pension into.

I wish now I'd sorted this out when I first registered the power of attorney and all her ID was still in date. It's not that I didn't try but I waited for months for this doctor to write a letter, then I wrote the letter myself sent him duplicate copies with a stamp adressed envelope and he still didn't do it. It was also when my mum was very ill and they told us she was going to die so I just sort of lost the will to live when it came to her bank account.

Anyway rant over, any advice or experiences gratefully recieved.

Kind regards to all

Lou Lou

 

[Nebiroth]

It sounds as though the simplest solution is for you to become an "appointee".

AFAIK this is simply the term that Social Services use when one person becomes responsible for the benefits of another (such as pensions). It can be done even if that person does not have power of attorney although I suspect it becomes easier if this exists. It includes Social Services satisfying themselves that the appointee will be acting in the interests of the person they will represent.

I am very surprised to hear that any bank requires four forms of identification. Most banks only require two, and there is usually a fair range of document they will accept. Perhaps they are erring on the side of caution because of the circumstances.

 

[jenniferpa]

Oh how I know the photo id problems with an elderly person. You sound too exhausted to do anything about it, but if you wren't, or if at some time in the future you decide to take this issue further the Disability Rights Commission www.drc-gb.org have fought (and won) several cases that relate to this issue. With regard to setting up an acount in your name: surely it would be set up as a trustee account as you would for a minor. Perhaps the AZ help line could advise you.

I assume you tried to set up a more practical account at the post office? I have found it considerably less hassle opening new accounts with finacial institutions that have already have knowledge of my mother than brand-new ones. Having said that what sort of account is that your mother has that only allows cash withdrawals? I thought even their most basic one allowed direct debit? Does this account have a card and a pin?

Jennifer

 

[Helena]

I would open a separate account in your name (in trust for your Mother then you only need her Birth Certificate and Pension notification ) and become an appointee (yes you need this even with an EPA) then write to the Inland Revenue explaining the circumstances of the account and that you are simply an appointee for your Mother and request they treat it as her income not yours ...........theres no reason why they wont accomodate you