Dealing with Debts of someone in care with Alzheimer's

animox

Hi, I have a friend that has Alzheimer's and other health issues that means he is now in a full care nursing home.
He has an old 900 debt with barclaycard that he has beening paying the minimum on for years.
He and his wife are now in no real position to continue the payments some of their pension and benifits have been reduced to take account of the care.
Before I write to Barclaycard has anyone had a similar situation, I have no idea what barclaycard would do with this debt.
He's wife I believe does have power of attorney.

any advice appreciated.

Gettingtherequickly

I previously had to write to them as a 3rd party (but without authority) and have got to say, they were wonderful. I needed to know what our mutual client needed to do once I had explained the situation, but also said that I appreciated the Data Protection Act issues. I don't know whether this was a direct factor, but a more senior manager phoned me to say that there are times when the Act needs to be thrown out the window, as we are ultimately dealing with human beings and she had decided this was to be the case here. Anyway, they actually wrote off the debt, which came as a huge surprise.

Not sure how you will manage with his wife having power of attorney, but you have nothing to lose by writing and explaining the situation and as the amount is relatively small, who know what the outcome will be?

animox

Thank you for comment/advice I will pass it on and hope for a sensible outcome.

Tixy

Hi

There is a template letter on national debtline that you could use which asks if the creditor will write off the debt which might be useful to you. And I would think was worth a try in this situatoin.
If they won't agree to do that then I would suggest instead they go down the route of just offering a £1 token payment per month (again do this by letter with some details about the situation).

If wife has enduring power of attorney is she in a position/capable of writing the letter? (or to sign the letter you write).