Mum forced to open bank account to receive pension

wyrdskein

Hi.
My Mum has been forced to open a bank account in order to continue receiving her pension.
Does anyone know if there is any opposition or protest going on about this?
What I find annoying is that neither the post office or banks seem to know or even care about giving pensioners info about it. They all seem clueless that it is even happening.
Thanks.

molerat

I assume you mean state pension. How did she currently get her pension ? Who told her she had to do it now ? The contract with the PO card account does not end until 2021 so there should have been no rush.

RD42

You might need to explain why having to open a bank account and having a pension paid into it is a problem, it's not immediately obvious.

Marcon

RD42 wrote: »

You might need to explain why having to open a bank account and having a pension paid into it is a problem, it's not immediately obvious.

Possibly not to someone who lives in the suburbs with plenty of public/personal transport available and various banks within easy reach. Put yourself in the position of someone living miles from their nearest bank branch, whose local post office has been closed, and who is elderly and without transport....now do you get the picture?

unforeseen

In which case how would she have got her pension with the local PO closed and no transport. The money has to be put somewhere, they don't have cash delivery.

MovingForwards

Cashback at a supermarket if there are no cash points around?

PennyForThem_2

How does she pay her bills ifshe doesnothaveabank account andno post office and no transporttoget to a town?

elsien

PennyForThem wrote: »

How does she pay her bills ifshe doesnothaveabank account andno post office and no transporttoget to a town?

If you re-read the OP it does not say that there is no bank nearby or that she doesn't have transport to get to town. That was speculation on someone else's part.

Is your mum having to change from a post office current account? Plenty of info online.
https://www.postoffice.co.uk/current-accounts

bowlhead99

Marcon wrote: »

Possibly not to someone who lives in the suburbs with plenty of public/personal transport available and various banks within easy reach. Put yourself in the position of someone living miles from their nearest bank branch, whose local post office has been closed, and who is elderly and without transport....now do you get the picture?

Without a bank or post office it would be pretty annoying to receive a cheque in the post and then not be able to turn it into cash because nobody would cash it for you. The only option really is to claim you couldn't use a bank account and then use the government's 'payment exception service' to get paid vouchers that you can then turn into money at a shop that offers that facility through Paypoint.

I do sympathise with the problem of some people not having easy access to banking facilities and not having the savvy or the investment in technology to use online banking and debit cards to pay for everything. Our society is going increasingly cashless, and if you prefer to keep using cash because you can see it and understand it, but you don't have a mechanism to get hold of new cash because you're house-bound or village-bound, it must be frustrating.

I have an elderly relative who has limited mobility and getting hold of cash for herself would be quite a chore. Fortunately she does have a bank account and can have a relative set up with a mandate on her account to be able to get cash for her from time to time. And if she didn't trust a third party with a mandate on her account, she could at least use her account to write a personal cheque to a friend or relative and ask them to get her out some cash.

Still, she wouldn't actually need much cash to get through the week if she were willing to have a debit card for shopping, or to pay her gardener by direct transfer to their account rather than an envelope of cash. But to be honest, at age 100+ she is not going to try to learn how to do a 'faster payment' via phone or online banking to settle up with the gardener or window cleaner.

In my relative's case she's quite lucky that she has family and good friends and neighbours to help look after her and of course there are a great many people who don't have that, or don't want to be reliant on others. Still, for those people getting a bank account is not the end of the world, because it does open up options for doing things without cash and not losing your life's savings to a burglar or fire or whatever.

elsien wrote:

Is your mum having to change from a post office current account? Plenty of info online.
https://www.postoffice.co.uk/current-accounts

IIRC, there are also a lot of people using the post office card system which isn't a full bank account (no direct debits allowed etc) and they will have to find another solution when it ceases, but post office still have a contract with the government to run it until 2021.

wyrdskein

Hi.
Yes it's the state pension.
My Mum pays all her bills using cashpoint cards in shops, using cash.
She has never had a bank account and never used a computer or mobile phone.
She had a letter stating she had to do it within 3 months.

Judging by some of the replies a lot of people don't seem to even realise you can exist without a bank account, but she and many other pensioners still do.

The lack of help for these people is a scandal. My Mum simply doesn't understand banks, and uses cash for everything. I don't think she should be forced to change. It's really worrying her.

JGB1955

So... where does she get her cash from? Using a bank account is a safeguard for your Mum. She (quite rightly in my opinion) has no option other than to open an account....