How can I limit my father's access to money?

[Munisha]

My father has Alzheimer's, lives alone and is still relatively independent. We've discovered that he is withdrawing £200-£300 from cashpoints several times a week and generally living way beyond his means, largely by eating well in restaurants! I live far away and can't think how to control his access to money so that he has a constant trickle but not more. His bank (Nationwide) is unable to cap his withdrawals.

Any bright ideas? Friends come in most days, and can help by taking his cash off him and giving him only a little, but having so much cash in the first place makes him vulnerable to theft and fraud and it's not really fair on them. And it makes it impossible to start using volunteers and careworkers.

 

[Noorza]

Do you have Power of Attorney for your father? Does he still have the capacity to give it to you if not?

 

[lin1]

Hi
If you have LPA {lasting power of Attorney) or deputyship (apologies if you know this, Deputyship is for a person who no longer has the capacity to grant an LPA) for your Dad you may be able to arrange for Dad to have a card that only lets him have access to a small amount of money.
Though this will cause problems when he tries to pay for his meal that he has already eaten.
Sorry got to go
Hopefully you will receive more ideas from others people here

 

[Norfolkgirl]

My father has Alzheimer's, lives alone and is still relatively independent. We've discovered that he is withdrawing £200-£300 from cashpoints several times a week and generally living way beyond his means, largely by eating well in restaurants! I live far away and can't think how to control his access to money so that he has a constant trickle but not more. His bank (Nationwide) is unable to cap his withdrawals.

Any bright ideas? Friends come in most days, and can help by taking his cash off him and giving him only a little, but having so much cash in the first place makes him vulnerable to theft and fraud and it's not really fair on them. And it makes it impossible to start using volunteers and careworkers.

I'd be concerned about the friends. Forgive me if I'm wrong but is there any possibility the friends could be siphoning the cash themselves? Going down the LPA route would be better as long as there is no-one else in your family likely to want to take control of him for their benefit, not your father's.

 

[creativesarah]

I have a pay as you go debit card you top it up like you would for a mobile phone I still feel in control but I can only spend what is on it
there are lots of different types eg Post Office, Orange, breadcard.
Martins money saving tips has a lot of useful info about them

sarah

 

[Delphie]

My mum was just the same. She drew out money several times a week, hid loads, carried loads around, showed it to people on occasion... But there was nothing I could do until I got a deputyship. Even with that in place, and wanting to preserve as much independence as possible, the bank said that it couldn't help by setting a minimum limit or preventing her from going overdrawn if I kept the account lean. I'm still sure that's nonsense and that they could've done more but I had enough battles on my hands to take this one on too. So it was a question of letting her carry on or allowing her no access. I had to choose the latter as with the deputyship in place I was responsible.

I ended up concocting stories about problems with the bank and giving her a weekly amount but while things did get a bit better for a while it wasn't an ideal situation because she didn't remember getting money from me, often felt short of cash, often accused me of stealing her pension etc. And that's how things carried on until she went into care.

Sorry to be of no help but I wanted to share how difficult this issue can be. If the person is judged to have capacity then the official line is that it's their cash. My mum planned to withdraw several grand to post in a brown envelope to someone she knew, way past the point of being able to address an envelope, and the bank still said it's her cash so she can do what she likes. So I'm afraid the deputyship was the only option in our case

 

[Noorza]

It was a major battle for us as unscrupulous family members had her totally befuddled. In the end, after much heartbreak, even having PoA for 20 years, I have one account with PoA for her income and bills, and she has another for her spending money that she has control over.

This way her income is safe, her bills are safe but she has independence. I had to get accounts at two banks to make this work but for now it's fine.