No help with dementia from Barclays

dawyldthing

if I was you I would get his wife to write another letter along with a photocopy of the passports in question (in case they start questionning if its their account), including the national insurance numbers, date of birth and any account numbers plus the most recent address Barclays knows them living at along with the forms they claim to have not received to you to then be posted by the special delivery service from the royal mail so they can't claim they haven't received it. Then include that you want it looking into by (give them 7 days) and say if they don't get back in contact threaten them with legal proceedings. Is there no chance there is a lawyer in France that can write the same thing out in English?

I hope it all gets sorted.

cottager

FLAPJACK wrote: »

Call the BBC tomorrow and get all this told to Radio 4's "MONEYBOX"

Worth a go in this highly frustrating and distressing situation, if they'd run with it.

There's also the "Dear Margaret" section of the Daily Mail's Money Mail, which is online at the This Is Money site. It's a regular feature where several different queries and complaints are covered per article (not evident from the overall headings, which only apply to the first story highlighted in each article). See this list of results:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Margaret+Stone
to browse through and get a flavour of the very wide-ranging issues raised and tackled, major and minor.

Not a Mail reader and it's not a route I've ever tried myself, but reading online through many of the tales and results, it seems if they took up the cudgels they could cut through a lot of red tape, get to the right people and provide some real assistance, though it's clear various cases have taken some time to resolve.

Most stories seem to have a positive outcome, but it obviously depends on the detail of individual cases and the circumstances, as some of the issues are not resolved satisfactorily, despite the intervention -- reasons are given for these, which Margaret may or may not agree with.

Instructions copied from one of the pages:
Write to Dear Margaret, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, London W8 5TT or email [EMAIL="m.stone@dailymail.co.uk"]m.stone@dailymail.co.uk[/EMAIL] -- please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Margaret Stone. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.

Another one expands somewhat:
When writing to or e-mailing Margaret Stone, don't forget to include your address (e-mailers often omit this vital information), policy numbers etc and relevant dates. Then you must include a separate letter or attachment giving the organisation about which you are complaining permission to discuss your affairs with her. The letter should state: 'I, [your name], give permission to [company name] to speak to Margaret Stone, or any other Money Mail representative, about my problems concerning your company.' Without such a letter, it is impossible for her to pursue your complaint, as the Data Protection Act prevents the company speaking to her without your written permission.

FLAPJACK wrote: »

I was taken aback by a "schoolgirl" laughingly suggesting that i use my fathers ATM card to access his money from his account "Lets face it ..he won't realise, he's unzipped now" was told.

Appalling.

oldcarpenter

Update on Mrs H, today she saw her French solicitor who has decided a UK solicitor must also be instructed to comply with Barclay’s requirements. Apparently the French courts follow the progress of any order it makes in these circumstances and has given a date for this; I suspect the Judge will not be happy. I have tried every suggestion given on this forum but was most surprised with no response from the Barclays Benevolent Charity. However aware Principals and law should never meet, I have spoken to my own solicitor who wants to instruct leading Counsel for an opinion, on which he believes Barclays are in Contempt of Court for unreasonable obstruction to access the account.

oldcarpenter

Update, the tide may be changing although Barclay’s have sunk to new depths with their treatment of Mrs H. Barclay’s Pension people in Dorset had been informed by a solicitor, myself and Mrs H on many occasions Peter was terminally ill and was unable to sign any paper work. It seems every year the pensioner has to sign a slip of paper stating they are still alive, although this had been received Mrs H could not sign it and informed Barclay’s they should speak to the care home where Peter is. Last week a letter was sent informing Mrs H that Peter’s pension was stopped altogether and she would not even have part of it sent to France because they had no knowledge if he was still alive. How sick can you get? Mrs H telephoned me in a suicidal state, I managed to calm things down and arranged a loan with my bank and transferred £5,000 to her however Barclay’s three days later wrote to Mrs H saying the pension had been paid. That’s one for the FOS for me. I hope to be in a position to hand all legal documents to Barclay’s next week regarding access to the account. Yesterday Mrs H received correspondence from the Unite Union regarding Peter’s renewal of his subscription, unbeknown to Mrs H Peter seems to still be a member so today I have asked them to look into this matter. Another thank you to peterbaker for suggesting this back on 4 July.

Penniesmakepounds

oldcarpenter wrote: »

Update, the tide may be changing although Barclay’s have sunk to new depths with their treatment of Mrs H. Barclay’s Pension people in Dorset had been informed by a solicitor, myself and Mrs H on many occasions Peter was terminally ill and was unable to sign any paper work. It seems every year the pensioner has to sign a slip of paper stating they are still alive, although this had been received Mrs H could not sign it and informed Barclay’s they should speak to the care home where Peter is. Last week a letter was sent informing Mrs H that Peter’s pension was stopped altogether and she would not even have part of it sent to France because they had no knowledge if he was still alive. How sick can you get? Mrs H telephoned me in a suicidal state, I managed to calm things down and arranged a loan with my bank and transferred £5,000 to her however Barclay’s three days later wrote to Mrs H saying the pension had been paid. That’s one for the FOS for me. I hope to be in a position to hand all legal documents to Barclay’s next week regarding access to the account. Yesterday Mrs H received correspondence from the Unite Union regarding Peter’s renewal of his subscription, unbeknown to Mrs H Peter seems to still be a member so today I have asked them to look into this matter. Another thank you to peterbaker for suggesting this back on 4 July.

You may be able to get help/support from Alzheimer's Society. They have great experience with these sorts of issues. http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200365

oldcarpenter

Barclays have finally complied with the French Court Order giving Mrs H access to her husbands bank account and pension which will only enable her to pay the £18,000 hospital care costs to date for Peter and her French solicitor. Their circumstances are unfortunately not unique when unexpected care costs arrive, the best laid retirement plans will go astray. I would like to thank the French hospital for the dedicated care given to Peter over the past year that has been a great help to Mrs H together with her French solicitor who helped, each not sure when and if they would be paid. Why has it taken 12 weeks to sort out what should have taken 12 minutes by someone in Barclays with some authority ? and I have been right to the top. It has cost me over £10,000 helping Mrs H, I have been treated with suspicion of my motive by Barclays in helping Mrs H. My actions are nothing special that countless friends and family have done or are doing under similar circumstances. I may be a rough old diamond, not Bob Diamond but I have something that Barclays do not know the meaning of, loyalty. On this subject unfortunately the Unite Union never bothered to answer my letter dated 1 September 2011 regarding Barclays treatment and distress caused to Mr and Mrs H, Peter being a union card member. Would Mr and Mrs H have acted the same if I were in Peters’ shoe’s? Probably not.

atush

Of course Unite will not help you as Peter can no longer vote. All they care about are the big salaries and gold plated pensions they hold. ASwell as trying to slate the current govt.

So glad things are now sorted out.

But can Mrs H afford to keep Peterin a french hospital? Has he been moved t the equiv of a convalescent/care home? Would he be better off moved to the UK and they rent out their French home?

But really gald the immediate things are now sorted, and glad you have helped others think of a plan in just such an emergency.

oldcarpenter

I have made a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service on behalf of Mr and Mrs H, together with a separate claim for my £5,000 I loaned them when Barclays informed Mrs H the pension was suspended. Due to 6 weeks delay caused giving wrong instructions to Mrs H from Barclays Legal Unit, the French Court at the final hearing could only be informed Barclays had granted Mrs H full control. It later became clear there was insufficient funds to repay my loan, which now means new court applications and solicitors costs must be made to raise money on their home to repay me because Peter is under a court of protection order. This would have been a formality at the final hearing with no extra costs. Mrs H has no money for this, the fault is with Barclays and they should be made to pay these costs.
This is the Adjudicator Sian Galloway findings at the FOS
My complaint
You have asked us to consider your claim for damages. This service is only able to consider complaints brought to us by customers or potential customers of the financial business complained about. In my opinion, this means we are unable to consider whether Barclays should reasonably be required to reimburse you for the costs you have incurred.
Mr and Mrs H complaint
I have considered whether or not Barclays has acted reasonably when dealing with Mrs H request for the order to be registered on Mr H account. Having done so, it is with regret that I have to tell you I do not believe Barclays has acted unreasonably.

atush

As was mentionned back in July, you should contact moneybox or the newpapers such as the time or telegraph consumer champions.

oldcarpenter

Hi, update that may help someone frustrated with the time in resolving a complaint to Barclays. I couldn’t understand why the Adjudicator found for Barclays, although reading the reasons I agreed with her. I made a third party data request to Barclays to establish my version of the facts because they did not match Barclays, it arrived after the 40 days but only one day before day of court action threatened by me. Barclays promised the telephone calls will follow on CD. I pray they arrive soon because the Adjudicator has already extended time 3 times and may not anymore. I see on the data request writing to Mr Diamond , seems to speed up complaints because all emails in Barclays are headed,- Subject; URGENT BOB DIAMOND COMPLAINT and Subject; HIGH BOB DIAMOND COMPLAINT. Whereas the complaint written on my behalf by Barclays for urgent information ten months ago is still being looked into I guess!