Managing a joint bank account LPA - problems

[Grancan1313]

My step mother is finally being investigated by the OPG for co mingling of funds as they say and other issues with money transfers.
My father is incapacitated and has no capacity the home / gp have confirmed to the OPG.
The issue here is she has been living on al the income in this income which is mainly my fathers accept a small payment of hers. She has transferred a lot over to her daughter and made thousands in cash withdrawals. It has come to light that he has never received his finance assessment for his contribution from July 19. This is going to render a large backdated invoice however adult safeguarding told me if it’s a joint account it’s half hers. This seems odd as she has paid all bills and lived out of this and has not saved my fathers money for his own use or care fees
Basically speaking when the invoice comes he has no income left over despite a sizeable income and no savings left apart from recent house proceeds
So can she use joint account as wishes what are rules ?? Thanks all

 

[Louise7]

Hello @Grancan1313 When the financial assessment is carried out this is based on your dad's income only. In terms of savings, it is standard for these to be deemed to be 50/50 in the case of a couple. I mentioned in one of your previous threads that it would be a good idea to set up an account in your father's name only to ensure that his income/savings are kept separate from his partner's now that he is in a home. As joint financial attorney you are able to do this yourself, without requiring permission from his wife. Your dad's income and half the proceeds of the house sale could then be paid into that account avoiding any future problems.

 

[Grancan1313]

Hello @Grancan1313 When the financial assessment is carried out this is based on your dad's income only. In terms of savings, it is standard for these to be deemed to be 50/50 in the case of a couple. I mentioned in one of your previous threads that it would be a good idea to set up an account in your father's name only to ensure that his income/savings are kept separate from his partner's now that he is in a home. As joint financial attorney you are able to do this yourself, without requiring permission from his wife. Your dad's income and half the proceeds of the house sale could then be paid into that account avoiding any future problems.

Hi Louise yes thanks for the reply. His wife is not speaking with me at all so it is too complicated for me to set up an account in his own name. His savings are in own name. However is she able to spend the joint account as she wishes ?

 

[canary]

His wife is not speaking with me at all so it is too complicated for me to set up an account in his own name.

You dont have to speak to her - you can just do it using POA.

 

[Grancan1313]

You dont have to speak to her - you can just do it using POA.

Not as straight forward. I don’t have any ID apart from lpa for him. The registered address on savings at nationwide is hers I cannot change this and revert it to me. My hands are tied really

 

[canary]

You dont need ID for him, you only need 2 lots of ID for you and the POA.
Even bank employees get confused about this, so book an appointment with the manager and open up a new account - it doesnt even have to be at the same bank. All the details will be sent to you as POA, not his address. This will be true of his savings account, so even though you cannot change his address, as POA you will get all correspondence. Then you can contact Pension departments DWP etc and get his income transferred to this new account.