Grandparent has a large amount of cash

Kfent111

Gotcha, thanks all

McKneff

sounds like her and hubby have been committing fraud for a number of years

Try and convince her to bank it, imagine what would happen if her house caught fire

Things like that do happen

Savvy_Sue

McKneff wrote: »

sounds like her and hubby have been committing fraud for a number of years

Hang on, the OP has said they think grandparents had state pensions only. We've suggested checking whether any means tested benefits were being claimed, for example pension credit, but we don't at this stage know if they were or not.

McKneff wrote: »

Try and convince her to bank it, imagine what would happen if her house caught fire

That is sound advice.

McKneff wrote: »

Things like that do happen

And there are conmen operating who will target elderly victims who keep a stash of cash in the house.

[Deleted User]

Does she not need to buy anything for her old age? What is her age? A new comfy bed, a bathroom to make life easier, a re-designed garden that she can manage and enjoy. You won`t know yet op but older people get lots of aches and pains together with being able to do less for themselves. You seem to care about grandma, so how about encouraging her to spend it on herself. Many would rather filter the money away rather than spend it on her, I don`t believe you are one of those. Look around where she lives but with open eyes

lessonlearned

I agree with Kitty here. Now that Grandma is on her own, she might actually need all sorts of little extras to help her, if not now then certainly when she gets older.

Encourage her to spend some of it and make her home "future proof" and easier to manage. A few thousand spent on home improvements and labour saving equipment now may help her to retain her independence for longer.

I also understand that bank notes are due to change next year to special "plasticised" ones. Not sure of the exact timescales. I think it's the £5 note in May and £10s in August. Watch out for that.

I do believe in keeping a reasonable sum of cash and small valuables like jewellery for emergencies (a legacy of my mother's wartime experiences under the German Occupation). I do however keep it all in a fireproof safe.

It is a fact that many older people do keep dollops of cash at home, especially on the continent. A lot of them remember WW2 and have little faith in banks.

Keeping cash at home doesn't necessarily mean that someone is dishonest or committing fraud.

Kfent111

kittie wrote: »

Does she not need to buy anything for her old age? What is her age? A new comfy bed, a bathroom to make life easier, a re-designed garden that she can manage and enjoy. You won`t know yet op but older people get lots of aches and pains together with being able to do less for themselves. You seem to care about grandma, so how about encouraging her to spend it on herself. Many would rather filter the money away rather than spend it on her, I don`t believe you are one of those. Look around where she lives but with open eyes

She's almost 90 and doing pretty well other than a few aches and pains/not being able to walk very far. She doesn't seem to want much to do with the money anymore (she's trying to ask my mum to look after it for her).

She's not been able to go on holidays for the last couple of years due to my grandad's health. We want to take her away as much as possible while she's still fit enough. We took her to Devon as a family just after my grandad passed and my mum is taking her away again soon.

The house they own is really dated and could have loads of money spent on improving it, but I really don't think she would be interested in this. She already has a flat, manageable garden and they've got a bathroom with good access already. I'd love for her to move into a bungalow a bit closer to us, but she would think it would be too much fuss doing anything like that. Plus, all of grandad's memories are in their house so I doubt she'd go for this idea.

I think that the main thing she would like is family time. We've already said (before we knew about this money) that we need to take her on holidays as much as we're able to. So I think a small chunk can be spent on doing this.

Kfent111

lessonlearned wrote: »

I also understand that bank notes are due to change next year to special "plasticised" ones. Not sure of the exact timescales. I think it's the £5 note in May and £10s in August. Watch out for that.

I do believe in keeping a reasonable sum of cash and small valuables like jewellery for emergencies (a legacy of my mother's wartime experiences under the German Occupation). I do however keep it all in a fireproof safe.

It is a fact that many older people do keep dollops of cash at home, especially on the continent. A lot of them remember WW2 and have little faith in banks.

Keeping cash at home doesn't necessarily mean that someone is dishonest or committing fraud.

Thank for the tip re notes changing again!

We've also thought about getting a fireproof safe just for the time being while we figure out what she wants to do with it.

Checked today and it's only state pension that she gets.