16th birthday this week.

xylophone

Also a debit card or cheque book was issued when they reached 11

I can't imagine that an eleven year old would be issued with a cheque book but an atm card is a possibility and indicates that the money must belong to the children?

Which again raises the question of why tax is being paid (unless your children earn/earned enough to pay tax).

What happened when your daughter turned 16?

And why would the grandparents put money into a child's account if they needed money for themselves?

Masomnia

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Looks you have a communication problem with the GPs, letthemeatcake. You probably didn't need me to figure that out, but there might still be some value to me saying that I imagine your son would feel so much better if that problem didn't exist, and it seems you need to be reminded of that.

Most people probably won't judge their happiness by how much money they could swing from their grand parents. Most young people would just expect, and correctly so, that their parents and their grandparents are there to support them regardless. Mum or Dad trying to squeeze out some money from the Grandparents may not be immediately obvious to the youngsters but it will eventually be, and the youngsters aren't likely to give credit to either of the fighting fractions.

Mind you, some people / their parents went to war over their inheritance. I can't think of any war that was worth the sacrifices it demanded. Think about your son, not yourself. Genuinely.

I think you're being rather harsh on the OP on this one.

There was someone in the Arms recently who got stung for a fair amount of money because of child savings that were inadvertently not counted. I think it was similar to this, in that the grandparents had the savings in the grandchild's name, but they weren't counted as part of the parent's assets. The authorities didn't prosecute because they believed it was a genuine mistake, but the money still had to be paid back. I'll try and find the post later.

So I think the OP is right to be concerned. A bill for overpaid benefits landing on your doorstep in a couple of year's time is not what you want.

ManofLeisure_2

Letthemeatcake, you state that your son is disabled, but obviously not the nature of the disabilty. It is not known therfore as to whether or not your son would be able to 'manage' his own financial affairs. I wonder if this is why everything is so vague - that the grandparents are protecting his interests (no dis-respect to you intended). They may have taken advice to protect any money, saved by themselves, on behalf of your son.
It seems rather disconcerting that you are not able to have a straightforward conversation with the grandparents to find out what the truth of the matter actually is.

Consumerist

Masomnia wrote: »

. . . the grandparents had the savings in the grandchild's name, but they weren't counted as part of the parent's assets.

In this case, however, it's not even established that any account exists. It is simply impossible for a grandchild or parent of that grandchild to be held responsible for what is effectively a rumour.

N1AK

letthemeatcake wrote: »

My Son turns 16 this week. I know his Grandparents have saved for him but have no details about the account and they are evasive if I ask. Will the company/bank/building society write to him and make him aware of the account ad how will they know his correct address as everything is in the GP's names? Will they write to his Grandparents first as I'm sure they will not pass any information on willingly.

You don't know how much money there is, whether it is actually in his name etc. It isn't something you need to worry about. It isn't going to come back and bite him in the future. In the extremely unlikely event that it is in his name and the government wants to know about it you can tell them exactly what you're telling us. He will not be denied anything because of this money, at least until he is given it, so stop worrying about it.