Office of the public guardian

Tizzmee

Is the Office of the Public Guardian allowed to access your bank account without your your consent?

eskbanker

The obvious answer is that nobody's allowed to access your bank account without your consent, so what's the rest of the story?

Edit: looks like some of the story is at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77131779#Comment_77131779, where Malthusian answers 'yes' rather than my 'no', so maybe they have more powers than I'd thought!

molerat

There are many departments of Big Brother that can access you bank accounts - DWP and HMRC for two.  No doubt OPG has that right where concerns over the financial abuse of someone under their remit is concerned.

Tizzmee

Thanks Eskbanker and Molerat

They asked me to send bank details fro the last 5 years with explanations of the expenditure  as I have P.O.A. for my mother who is terminally ill. Without waiting for a reply they then sent me the account statements by email. Is this legal?

colsten

As the OPG can check all the financial decisions you made, and actions you have taken, on behalf of your mother, it is a moot point whether they obtained bank account details themselves, or whether you provided them to them. Perhaps they got impatient waiting for you to provide the details?

p00hsticks

So it's not your bank account they are accessing, but that of the person for whom you have POA ?

Given that one of the purposes of the Office is, I believe, to look after the interests of those people, they they may well have the authority to access their bank accounts if they believe there are safeguarding concerns.

The link below  says that they can freeze a bank account

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-we-deal-with-safeguarding-concerns

Tizzmee

Thanks colsten and p00hsticks.
I had actually replied to them to ask for more time as the banks are very busy at the mo.
 They sent me the bank statements the following week saying they hadn’t received my reply.

colsten

It was probably their way of saying hurry up, Tizzmee

Shakin_Steve

Now all you have to do is explain where the money was spent, and why.

Tizzmee

Thanks Shakin_Steve
I was wondering when someone would post a negative comment. 

All the money is accounted for thanks. 

I know who is responsible for starting the investigation. 

When you have the burden of doing everything in the best interest of someone else you really don’t need someone prying into your affairs just to satisfy someone’s bile at being left out of the will.

Shakin_Steve

Wasn't meant to be negative at all, more an indication of the work that lies ahead.