Mum forced to open bank account to receive pension

Triumph13

If you stick your head in the sand and refuse to learn how to operate a bank account or an ATM for decades, then I'm afraid I find it hard to have sympathy when you say 'but I'm too old to learn now'.

nigelbb

wyrdskein wrote: »

Hi.
Now they are saying banking services might be withdrawn from the Post Office so she will be forced to go to the bank to withdraw money, which is much further than the post and will probably close anyway.

What makes you think the Post Office is going to withdraw banking services? Barclays for some reason have opted out but 28 other UK banks have just signed up to a new deal with the Post Office that continues to allows their customers free access to everyday banking services. The fact that customers can still use the Post Office like a bank for withdrawing cash, paying in checks, paying bills etc allows the banks to close their increasingly redundant branches & gives a counter service for the new challenger banks that have no branches.

haras_nosirrah

I guess this is a lesson to us all to learn to use technology when it comes out or get left behind.
Atm machines have been making people's lives easier for 47 years so hardly new technology.

Sea_Shell

How long has your mum been on her own? Widowed, divorced? Did her husband (your Dad?) do everything for them money wise, so she's never HAD to deal with banking when she was younger. Just wondering how she's found herself in this situation.

It seems very odd for someone who's only 75 not to have a bank account. It's not like they're some new "fangle" invention.

I presume she's fully embraced other "modern technology", which has become commonplace during her lifetime, automatic washing machine, central heating?? As from my experience the former is more complicated to get to grips with than a bank account!!!;)

seven-day-weekend

wyrdskein wrote: »

Hi.
Thanks for your replies.
We have made it as easy as possible for her and basically done everything so she didn't have to. The scandal is that she wasn't helped in any way by either the DWP, or the Post Office, and when we asked them about it they just looked at us blankly like they didn't have a clue what we were talking about. It's a big deal for her.
Now they are saying banking services might be withdrawn from the Post Office so she will be forced to go to the bank to withdraw money, which is much further than the post and will probably close anyway.
She will not use a cash machine, but insists on going to the counter to withdraw. Yes we can do it for her but she is proudly independent and doesn't want us to.
She is 75.

So she is only a few years older than me. No reason why she can't use a bank Account. Why don't you help her with her Bank Account? Why don't you introduce her to cashback if there is a store that does this nearer than the Bank?

Just help her to get used to it, don't treat her like an old woman who is incapable of understanding.

Brodiebobs

I was a bit confused reading this about the withdrawl of post office services, i thought it was the opposite and in effect the post office is becoming a multi-bank branch.

A basic bank account would be no different to a post office account I believe, she would still be able to withdraw cash and pay bills in the PO branch- no necessity to online bank if she doesn't want to.

Davy_Jones_II

wyrdskein wrote: »

Hi.
Thanks for your replies.
We have made it as easy as possible for her and basically done everything so she didn't have to. The scandal is that she wasn't helped in any way by either the DWP, or the Post Office, and when we asked them about it they just looked at us blankly like they didn't have a clue what we were talking about. It's a big deal for her...

..She is 75.

They are probably wondering why on Earth someone in good mental health and with a competent family would expect the state to help with basics such as this.

It’s not what a lot of people (me included) view as normal adult behaviour. The state is there if I fall on hard times, it provides a heaths service, infrastructure and the rule of law, but it’s not there to tell me how to open a bank account, cook my dinner, buy a car, book a holiday, or any of the other things that as an adult I can be assumed to be able to manage.

Again, she has you, why do you need the state to help?

BarryBlue

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

I guess this is a lesson to us all to learn to use technology when it comes out or get left behind.
Atm machines have been making people's lives easier for 47 years so hardly new technology.

I know a chap who has resolutely refused to use an ATM through all those years. He is in his late 60s, a graduate, retired from a responsible career, yet is so eccentric that he is still living in the 60s. He is actually getting worse over the years in resistance to change.

He has ATMs near his home, but instead takes a bus into town to his own bank branch and writes cheques for cash withdrawal. He will not pay bills by direct debit as he 'doesn't trust the system', even though the DD Guarantee has been explained many times. His bills are paid by post using cheques and he refuses to change energy suppliers or even get a cheaper tariff.

I don't think this type of behaviour is down to lack of understanding or capability. It is simply a refusal to embrace any sort of progress or change, and is actually quite sad to see.

MallyGirl

and a waste of money

atush

BarryBlue wrote: »

I know a chap who has resolutely refused to use an ATM through all those years. He is in his late 60s, a graduate, retired from a responsible career, yet is so eccentric that he is still living in the 60s. He is actually getting worse over the years in resistance to change.

He has ATMs near his home, but instead takes a bus into town to his own bank branch and writes cheques for cash withdrawal. He will not pay bills by direct debit as he 'doesn't trust the system', even though the DD Guarantee has been explained many times. His bills are paid by post using cheques and he refuses to change energy suppliers or even get a cheaper tariff.

I don't think this type of behaviour is down to lack of understanding or capability. It is simply a refusal to embrace any sort of progress or change, and is actually quite sad to see.

It is possibly a mental health condition.