Current account help please

Beenie

My mother is in early stages dementia. She has a current account with the TSB, and I think her pension must be paid into here (either that or the PO, I don't know for sure).

She moved house a couple of years ago and didn't advise the bank at the time. She has now either lost or used all the cheques in her cheque book, and doesn't know her account number.

I will be going to see her to help get her affairs sorted out (too late for POA) and my question is this: what will the bank need to see when my mother turns up at the counter (accompanied by me), with no account number, probably a different address to the one on her banking records, and an out-of-date bank card for which she has forgotten the PIN in any case.

jonesMUFCforever

Some kind of ID - letters from DWP confirming her pension would be a start.
They might have a signature on their database but if you mother has dementia she might struggle to sign.

eskbanker

Probably worth completing (or at least reading) their change of address form in advance as that'll presumably be the starting point for the dialogue, before sorting out new cheque book and PIN (that would typically be sent by post).

Presumably if her TSB account has been effectively unusable in the absence of cheque book and PIN, she must have been living off money elsewhere so her pension is probably going to another account - at the risk of asking the obvious, does she have any paperwork/correspondence from PO, TSB, etc, in the house? Which other parties won't have been informed of her new address?

If it's too late for POA, how do you envisage things working sustainably after your intervention?

alanq

Beenie wrote: »

My mother is in early stages dementia. ...(too late for POA)

That seems like a contradiction. If mother can be assessed to have sufficient capacity to understand what she is agreeing to she can authorise a POA. Or are you saying that the time that it would take to obtain an POA would be too long for Mum's immediate needs?

https://www.bba.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BBA_Guidance_for_Consumers_booklet.pdf

Robin9

Beenie - also gas/elec/phone/council tax/insurances/DWP/works pension ?

Also when talking to TSB - add your signature to her account. Hopefully somewhere in her house is an old cheque stub/ statement

POA using downloaded forms for Finance £87

Anthorn

Details of her pension and details of the bank account it is paid into will be held by the Dept. for Work and Pensions (D.W.P.). Initially, it's just a matter of telephoning the D.W.P. and then answering security questions to get the info or make changes to it. The problem is that the D.W.P. deals directly with pensioners and no-one else unless they have an authorisation to a third party on file.

Banks have a duty to reconnect account holders with their defunct accounts so providing some ID can be provided you shouldn't have any difficulties.

However I wonder about her pension going into her bank account for the last two years presumably with no withdrawals for living expenses.

Beenie

I live at the opposite end of the country to my mother. I visit as often as I can afford. She is always a little bit worse each time, and has had an assessment by the local mental health team. She was pronounced not a danger to herself, capable of living independently, but somewhat confused and forgetful (and I was of course warned that this would get worse).

As far as money goes, her pension must in that case be at the Post Office, because she clearly is feeding herself and paying for newspapers and cigs.

I will download the change of address form. That is useful and will give us a head start. I can't talk to my mother prior to our visit because she decided months ago to remove her telephone.

eskbanker

Beenie wrote: »

I can't talk to my mother prior to our visit because she decided months ago to remove her telephone.

I don't suppose you really need it pointing out to you but that's a pretty high-risk action for her to take if you're the only family she has (implicitly, if nobody's closer to help) - I'm guessing she doesn't use the internet or a mobile phone, but would strongly recommend you (re-)establish some means of communicating over long distances if she's deteriorating. Does she have any local friends or neighbours that you could (both) liaise through if landline/email/mobile aren't viable?

xylophone

Does your mother need another assessment?

If she is judged incapable of managing her own financial affairs then you will need to investigate PoA.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2858763/My-father-dementia-late-lasting-power-attorney.html

alanq

Beenie wrote: »

I can't talk to my mother prior to our visit because she decided months ago to remove her telephone.

Was that for financial reasons or because she was being besieged by cold callers? If the latter then there is technology to block all but approved numbers. (Did she make the decision herself or was she persuaded? There are evil people who seek to isolate vulnerable people in order to be able to exploit them.)

There are phones designed for people with dementia. For example
https://shop.alzheimers.org.uk/daily-living-aids/Telephones%20and%20call%20blockers

Is someone assisting her? In some parts of the country repeat prescriptions have to be ordered by phone and this system is expected to be rolled out to cover wider areas.

Beenie

She made her own mind up about the phone. She kept threatening it for months before she actually asked for the disconnection.

Her reasoning was that the only person she spoke to was me, it wasn't worth paying the monthly charge (TalkTalk were charging her for broadband when she hasn't got a computer, and 30p a minute for calls, no freebies) and so she cut herself off. When I complained about it, she said that we could write to each other - which we do.