How can I help my mentalily ill mum get out of this bank charges circle?

emmgem

I am dealing with it!!! I have been dealing with it for 30 years!!! I only wanted to know if anyone had successfully had any joy from the banks in this sort of situation, so thanks but no thanks for your help.!

tcr_3

You don't have to get a solicitor or power of attorney.

You can apply to the DWP to be your Mother's appointee. The pension people will send a visiting officer out to see you & your Mum, to find out what the problems have been, ascertain if she's unfit to deal with her own financial affairs & to find out if you're an appropriate person to be appointed.

If granted appointeeship, all her benefits will be payable to you, not her. And all her DWP mail will come to you, not her. That means you can have her benefits paid to your account, you can pay her bills from that & anything left over you can withdraw as cash to give to her, ensuring she has her ciggies and a bit of her own money to play with. It won't matter if she's not happy with that arrangement, it'll be done for her own good.

It won't cost you anything to apply for appointeeship. You need to contact the Pension Centre which looks after her money & start the ball rolling.

emmgem

Thanks TCR I already get her post from the DLA , what about her debts though? would I be liable if they weren't paid back?

goldfish61

Just thinking - if you were your mother's appointee would this cause more problems as she may resent this intervention?

As already suggested, it may be useful to discuss this issue with the community mental health services for further advice as this must be a common problem. Would the psychiatrist maybe need to formally assess if your mother is incapable of managing her finances?

There may also be a Carer's Service locally who could offer support regarding this.

Hope you manage to get things sorted soon.

tcr_3

emmgem wrote: »

Thanks TCR I already get her post from the DLA , what about her debts though? would I be liable if they weren't paid back?

I doubt it. People with severe mental health problems aren't liable for any credit agreements they enter into, mainly because they didn't understand what they were signing up for.

I know a girl with schizophrenia, she regularly signs up for catalogues, mobile phone contracts etc. Her parents have a letter from her Community Psychiatric Nurse which states she's unfit to handle her own finances, they just copy that off to the catalogue & mobile phone companies, they've managed to get all the debts written off. But they've also had to return all the mobile phones, all the catalogue goods ... it's been a huge problem for them.

emmgem

We have already had this problem with a loan which she got out from the bank, by simply signed and sent back, the money appeared in her account and was spent within 6 months leaving her with repayments every month. I wish I had known about this as her parents paid it off for her. I think I will get in contact with the community mental health team it may help us to quash some of these bank charges.

[Deleted User]

I thought I had cracked this situation by going with her to open another account for spends, and arranging a weekly DD from the account where the benefits are paid. When I did this I asked the bank to put a note on it that she has mental difficulties and that they do not extend any overdraft facilities to her. (which they ignored) She now has overdraft facilities totalling £1000 and is nearly £200 over this.

Personally I would write to the head office of the bank explaining this and request that they refund the £1200,you never know they may just do it

dmg24

tcr wrote: »

I doubt it. People with severe mental health problems aren't liable for any credit agreements they enter into, mainly because they didn't understand what they were signing up for.

Establishing capacity is far more complex than that. Of those admitted for inpatient mental healthcare, around 40% have capacity, so someone who only receives LRC and who is capable of living alone is very unlikely to be deemed incapable. It should also be noted that making reckless decisions does not amount to incapacity in itself, far from it.

dmg24

woodbine wrote: »

I thought I had cracked this situation by going with her to open another account for spends, and arranging a weekly DD from the account where the benefits are paid. When I did this I asked the bank to put a note on it that she has mental difficulties and that they do not extend any overdraft facilities to her. (which they ignored) She now has overdraft facilities totalling £1000 and is nearly £200 over this.

Personally I would write to the head office of the bank explaining this and request that they refund the £1200,you never know they may just do it

The problem is that the OP has no right to instruct the bank. I agree it is worth a try, but there is certainly no obligation for them to do so.

themull1

Unless you have power of attourney, the bank will do nothing, they can't put things on her file. Why dont you get a doctors letter, send it to the bank, and see if she gets a refund, take chequebook away, become power of attourney and give her an allowance out of her benefits.