Disabled daughter now an adult ... legal and financials

eddyinfreehold

I am interested to hear from other people in the same position as myself and my wife. Basic family position....married couple, 3 children born in mid 1990s. Singleton then twins. Twins born 12 weeks early and diagnosed with CP. Medical issues of a serious nature for first 6 years of twins life, all now resolved. Eldest child at University (final year) plus one of the twins (second year). Second twin has significant physical difficulties, is a wheelchair user, also has continence & mental health problems. On a bright note the second twin has excellent language skills and is easily understood. The twin has received DLA from the age of about 6 at the highest level, we were 'threatened' with a PIPS experiment many years ago but it has never emerged and DLA is still the way. The family holds a blue badge and part of the DLA goes towards a Motability vehicle. Mother has worked full time all the way through this and I have received CA and been self employed at the same time, keeping my salary below the CA threshold and acting as a carer primarily.

RIGHT

The twin on DLA has recently become an adult. It is a moot point and very marginal whether the twin has 'full mental capacity' . I am certain, having gone through the process with my father, that the twin would not be capable of instigating or putting in place a LPA so that if events took a turn for the worse we as parents or the twin's siblings could fire it up. I don't think that approaching the Court of Protection is either an affordable or appropriate way to go yet. The contacts we have with Social Services are pretty happy with the twin's capability at present but we are having to deal with larger and larger sums of money accumulated since birth as gifts and the twin's new Adult Care Social Package. The latter is dealt with through an agency but CA, DLA and additional benefits are paid as they have always been into parents' joint current account and savings into a building society account. It is time now to move to a current account for the twin but we have reservations about things like pin numbers (would give them away willy nilly), signatures (unreplicable) and so forth, plus maintaining an honest and traceable account of all financial transactions independant of mother and father.

Any experience or advice please?

Thank you

elsien

Some building societies/banks used to offer passbook accounts for people with disabilities who couldn't safely manage debit cards or run a current account. We used to use them for people with learning disabilities at the care home I ran. The person was the signatory (one person's signature was just a scribble) and the account was just in their name but there was a note on the book to say they'd need someone with them when managing the account.
This was several years ago now, but Nationwide were very helpful. The downside was no direct debits or cheque book so having to get a counter cheque for all payments. The difficulty with current accounts was demonstrating understanding of direct debits and overdrafts, which they didn't have.
Also wondering if a basic bank account would be less likely to be turned down?

Edited to add - the passbook account would normally have limits on number of cheques and minimum amounts, but these were waived for customers with disabilities. You might need to try different banks to see what they offer, but ask about the rules for vulnerable customers as these may be more flexible

eddyinfreehold

Thank you, we will look into the Nationwide, we have a local branch...

saving-mad

Hi, :hello: just wanted to say good luck with it all, we too have a 20 year old 26 weeker with CP, a part time wheelchair user, massive sleeper (12+ hours a day) and also at uni. Had DLA since she was 3, got her first mobility car 17 months ago, now reassessed and doesn't qualify to think the car will be gone soon