can banks do this with benefit money

peter999

There's no way round.

Either you:
-arrange a small overdraft or
-get your mum to take out a fixed amount (less than whole amount) leaving some money in to cover direct debits or
-cancel direct debits.

I think most of us know how tricky it can be operating around a Zero balance,
predicting when direct debits MAY hit, when payments MAY go in,
trying to avoid any overdraft charges.

It's very tricky.

If your mum is not a big spender & you can get her to take out a a smaller fixed amount,
I'd arrange a small overdraft, as it's very useful having bills paid by direct debit.

Then you know you won't be hit by outrageous charges & bills are automatically paid.
You just keep an eye every so often, once you know the routine of when bills hit the account & when your mum withdraws money.

Also best to arrange for direct debits to hit over 1-2 week period, so you don't have to constantly check account balance. After the 1-2 week period you know no other DDs are due until next month.

Keeps it simple for you.

peter999

AndyR_3

I'm not sure an overdraft would actually help though - say she had a £50 overdraft, the cash machine would tell her she had an extra £50 to spend, so she'd then maybe draw that out too, and the DDs would still bounce. I think, although DDs are convenient, cancelling them may be the best option. She could pay her bills in cash over the bank counter - she'd be able to withdraw whatever she wanted, then go to the counter and pay the bills, and whatever cash she had left she could spend.

Scarlett1

AndyR wrote:

I'm not sure an overdraft would actually help though - say she had a £50 overdraft, the cash machine would tell her she had an extra £50 to spend, so she'd then maybe draw that out too, and the DDs would still bounce. I think, although DDs are convenient, cancelling them may be the best option. She could pay her bills in cash over the bank counter - she'd be able to withdraw whatever she wanted, then go to the counter and pay the bills, and whatever cash she had left she could spend.

yes thats the best solution, and Im sure you will help your mum with this aswell

tiamaria

Could you not draw out money on your mum's behalf on a weekly basis ( I imagine you have a good relationship), or maybe you could open a joint account.

also, I'm pretty sure there's official ways of you having control over her finances if she has mental health problems

Savvy_Sue

tiamaria wrote:

also, I'm pretty sure there's official ways of you having control over her finances if she has mental health problems

It's called a Power of Attorney. Could be the way to go if mum is really not coping with money. Although having two bank accounts, one for bills and one for cash, might also solve the problem, especially if she didn't have a cashpoint card for the 'bills' account!

Before scrapping the DDs, you need to consider whether she'd get her act together to go out and PAY bills. I know I wouldn't ...