Power of attorney for Step Mum who has been scammed

Jax_gee

Looking for advice
My father died 5 years ago, my step mother has been taken into care in the last 4 months (I'm in Preston, she is in Birmingham) We are unable to visit her due to covid restrictions (no visitors at all - blood related or not) 

I was never extremely close to my father but we visited a few times a year. Their poor neighbour has overseen looking out for them over the last 10years and gone over & above for them. My stepmother is now in a care facility that the NHS is paying for for the first 3 months I am unsure what happens after that, probably look to take the house (if there is any equity left in it after finding out she & my father have been scammed for over a decade!!!)

The neighbour has opened her mail with our consent and they appear to have lost mutilple 10 of thousands of pounds!!!!!! over the last decade or so, she is also now receiving debt letters and fine, tax bills for many things. 

Am I able to freeze her bank in any way with me not being blood related. She is not likely to come out of care now unfortunately and the neighbour has no rights at all. We are working together to try & find a resolve. The neighbour has confessed to even paying some of the fines!!! I need to stop this continuing - she is now not able to manage her finances and clearly has not been able to for a while.

My father changed his will a year before he died when he was starting to lose his memory somewhat and I was down to receive the house they live in providing my stepmother could live there until she passed. My stepmother changed this so she was the sole beneficiary as I think they were in trouble and she wanted as a safety net.


I think she has blood relatives alive but we have no contact details. She has no power of attorney arranged. I am not concerned about losing the house inheritance to a certain degree but cannot bear she is still being drained of money in the condition she is in and the guilt of all the support the neighbour is havingto provide.

Is there a mitigating circumstances scenario we can ask to be implmented? What do we do?

Thanks
Jackie 



 

tacpot12

You have two routes: If she still has mental capacity to make a power of attorney, to understand the implications of what she is doing, then she can still do so, and doesn’t have to name a blood relative as her attorney.  The alternative is (if she has lost the capacity to make a post) you make an application to the court of protection for a Deputy to be appointed for her. You can ask to be the deputy, but the court may decide that a professional deputy may be better.

Given the situation you have found, I am inclined to think that you may prefer a professional deputy to take this on as Ian sure they will find it easier to sort out the debt and tax. 

elsien

Blood relatives make no odds to anything. If stepmum has capacity she can do a third party bank mandate to allow a person of her choice to access her bank accounts and pay bills with her permission. She can also make a power of attorney, but it is her choice as to who she appoints as deputy. Being in care does  not mean automatically she lacks capacity, but if she does someone will need to evidence it.

If she lacks capacity then if she is on benefits someone can apply to DWP to be an appointee for her pension.
Otherwise if she has enough assets someone will need to apply to the court of protection to be financial deputy. This takes a long time due to Covid. 

If she lacks capacity you can contact any debt providers to inform them. They may not give you any details but they should stop chasing. 
Ref the care home funding, if she’s gone from hospital into care there is likely to be a further assessment as to whether she has ongoing health needs, or whether her needs are primarily personal care. If the latter and she has property she will have to self fund. This may well mean her property being sold to pay for it. If no one in the family wishes to apply for deputyship then it is likely that the local authority will go down the solicitor route. 
There are some good fact sheets on funding care on the age uk website.

elsien

Edited to add that care homes guidelines are allowing visits and have done so for some time so any blanket no visit rule should be challenged.

What leads you to believe that she and your father were scammed, as opposed to being genuine debts and poor money management? 

Marcon

Jax_gee said:

The neighbour has opened her mail with our consent and they appear to have lost mutilple 10 of thousands of pounds!!!!!! over the last decade or so, she is also now receiving debt letters and fine, tax bills for many things. 





 

What form does this decade-long scam take? Are you sure it isn't something like an equity release scheme which has gone awry because your father and stepmother didn't make the necessary payments? What exactly are the tax bills for? Getting a tax bill normally means you've made money, not lost it or had it stolen (unless it is some sort of pension scam, in which case you both lose money and get taxed).

Please could you give more information, because based purely on what you've said, there's nothing to indicate what has been going on, or that it was indeed something untoward (rather than very poor money management).

74jax

Jax_gee said:

Looking for advice
My father died 5 years ago, my step mother has been taken into care in the last 4 months (I'm in Preston, she is in Birmingham) We are unable to visit her due to covid restrictions (no visitors at all - blood related or not) 

I was never extremely close to my father but we visited a few times a year. Their poor neighbour has overseen looking out for them over the last 10years and gone over & above for them. My stepmother is now in a care facility that the NHS is paying for for the first 3 months I am unsure what happens after that, probably look to take the house (if there is any equity left in it after finding out she & my father have been scammed for over a decade!!!)

The neighbour has opened her mail with our consent and they appear to have lost mutilple 10 of thousands of pounds!!!!!! over the last decade or so, she is also now receiving debt letters and fine, tax bills for many things. 

Am I able to freeze her bank in any way with me not being blood related. She is not likely to come out of care now unfortunately and the neighbour has no rights at all. We are working together to try & find a resolve. The neighbour has confessed to even paying some of the fines!!! I need to stop this continuing - she is now not able to manage her finances and clearly has not been able to for a while.

My father changed his will a year before he died when he was starting to lose his memory somewhat and I was down to receive the house they live in providing my stepmother could live there until she passed. My stepmother changed this so she was the sole beneficiary as I think they were in trouble and she wanted as a safety net.


I think she has blood relatives alive but we have no contact details. She has no power of attorney arranged. I am not concerned about losing the house inheritance to a certain degree but cannot bear she is still being drained of money in the condition she is in and the guilt of all the support the neighbour is havingto provide.

Is there a mitigating circumstances scenario we can ask to be implmented? What do we do?

Thanks
Jackie 



 

It's a little confusing but..... If the neighbour is now opening the mail, how do you know they have lost 10s'k decades ago. What is the mail now that makes you think this?

Firstly if you do want to do something, I would take the debt letters, look up the company and see what they are for.

If she is in a home, who is in charge of her affairs, the home? Social services? It's unusual to be told told by SS you are going to a home, collected, and and your personal life never looked at again. In 3 months time SS will be doing an assessment for her contribution, they can take over then, if not before.

Finally I'm astounded at a neighbour paying debts. You read on here all the time family not paying family out of debt, when they know all about it. A neighbour paying a bill they know nothing about or even if it is an actual bill and not a scam is worrying. Ask them to stop and maybe a quick post to them from ageuk or similar to help them not be scammed in future would be good. 

elsien

74jax said:

Jax_gee said:

Looking for advice
My father died 5 years ago, my step mother has been taken into care in the last 4 months (I'm in Preston, she is in Birmingham) We are unable to visit her due to covid restrictions (no visitors at all - blood related or not) 

I was never extremely close to my father but we visited a few times a year. Their poor neighbour has overseen looking out for them over the last 10years and gone over & above for them. My stepmother is now in a care facility that the NHS is paying for for the first 3 months I am unsure what happens after that, probably look to take the house (if there is any equity left in it after finding out she & my father have been scammed for over a decade!!!)

The neighbour has opened her mail with our consent and they appear to have lost mutilple 10 of thousands of pounds!!!!!! over the last decade or so, she is also now receiving debt letters and fine, tax bills for many things. 

Am I able to freeze her bank in any way with me not being blood related. She is not likely to come out of care now unfortunately and the neighbour has no rights at all. We are working together to try & find a resolve. The neighbour has confessed to even paying some of the fines!!! I need to stop this continuing - she is now not able to manage her finances and clearly has not been able to for a while.

My father changed his will a year before he died when he was starting to lose his memory somewhat and I was down to receive the house they live in providing my stepmother could live there until she passed. My stepmother changed this so she was the sole beneficiary as I think they were in trouble and she wanted as a safety net.


I think she has blood relatives alive but we have no contact details. She has no power of attorney arranged. I am not concerned about losing the house inheritance to a certain degree but cannot bear she is still being drained of money in the condition she is in and the guilt of all the support the neighbour is havingto provide.

Is there a mitigating circumstances scenario we can ask to be implmented? What do we do?

Thanks
Jackie 



 

It's a little confusing but..... If the neighbour is now opening the mail, how do you know they have lost 10s'k decades ago. What is the mail now that makes you think this?

Firstly if you do want to do something, I would take the debt letters, look up the company and see what they are for.

If she is in a home, who is in charge of her affairs, the home? Social services? It's unusual to be told told by SS you are going to a home, collected, and and your personal life never looked at again. In 3 months time SS will be doing an assessment for her contribution, they can take over then, if not before.

Finally I'm astounded at a neighbour paying debts. You read on here all the time family not paying family out of debt, when they know all about it. A neighbour paying a bill they know nothing about or even if it is an actual bill and not a scam is worrying. Ask them to stop and maybe a quick post to them from ageuk or similar to help them not be scammed in future would be good. 

If they are health funded, it’s not in the slightest bit unusual, unfortunately. In many cases if no-one has access to the house/mail the letters just pile up because no one knows where the person has gone. In the worst one I worked with, it had been 2 years with the person having no access to any money and nothing being done by CHC to facilitate a deputyship. The local authority tend to be more proactive but won’t get involved if the person goes to a home on a health assessment bed then stays health funded. 

74jax

elsien said:

74jax said:

Jax_gee said:

Looking for advice
My father died 5 years ago, my step mother has been taken into care in the last 4 months (I'm in Preston, she is in Birmingham) We are unable to visit her due to covid restrictions (no visitors at all - blood related or not) 

I was never extremely close to my father but we visited a few times a year. Their poor neighbour has overseen looking out for them over the last 10years and gone over & above for them. My stepmother is now in a care facility that the NHS is paying for for the first 3 months I am unsure what happens after that, probably look to take the house (if there is any equity left in it after finding out she & my father have been scammed for over a decade!!!)

The neighbour has opened her mail with our consent and they appear to have lost mutilple 10 of thousands of pounds!!!!!! over the last decade or so, she is also now receiving debt letters and fine, tax bills for many things. 

Am I able to freeze her bank in any way with me not being blood related. She is not likely to come out of care now unfortunately and the neighbour has no rights at all. We are working together to try & find a resolve. The neighbour has confessed to even paying some of the fines!!! I need to stop this continuing - she is now not able to manage her finances and clearly has not been able to for a while.

My father changed his will a year before he died when he was starting to lose his memory somewhat and I was down to receive the house they live in providing my stepmother could live there until she passed. My stepmother changed this so she was the sole beneficiary as I think they were in trouble and she wanted as a safety net.


I think she has blood relatives alive but we have no contact details. She has no power of attorney arranged. I am not concerned about losing the house inheritance to a certain degree but cannot bear she is still being drained of money in the condition she is in and the guilt of all the support the neighbour is havingto provide.

Is there a mitigating circumstances scenario we can ask to be implmented? What do we do?

Thanks
Jackie 



 

It's a little confusing but..... If the neighbour is now opening the mail, how do you know they have lost 10s'k decades ago. What is the mail now that makes you think this?

Firstly if you do want to do something, I would take the debt letters, look up the company and see what they are for.

If she is in a home, who is in charge of her affairs, the home? Social services? It's unusual to be told told by SS you are going to a home, collected, and and your personal life never looked at again. In 3 months time SS will be doing an assessment for her contribution, they can take over then, if not before.

Finally I'm astounded at a neighbour paying debts. You read on here all the time family not paying family out of debt, when they know all about it. A neighbour paying a bill they know nothing about or even if it is an actual bill and not a scam is worrying. Ask them to stop and maybe a quick post to them from ageuk or similar to help them not be scammed in future would be good. 

If they are health funded, it’s not in the slightest bit unusual, unfortunately. In many cases if no-one has access to the house/mail the letters just pile up because no one knows where the person has gone. In the worst one I worked with, it had been 2 years with the person having no access to any money and nothing being done by CHC to facilitate a deputyship. The local authority tend to be more proactive but won’t involved if the person goes to a home on a health assessment bed then stays health funded. 

Sorry I think I read it wrong. Yes I agree with you, but I read it as after 3 months an assessment was being done. In which case if the LA have any way at all of getting out of paying they would do so. But on reading it again maybe I'm wrong. 

elsien

There will be an assessment. All I’m saying is it doesn’t follow that someone will then be proactive in following up on the personal affairs. 

Jax_gee

Thank you all for your advice, it is really helpful!!
We know about the scams as they've told us about them! They've bought Chinese wine, apartments that do not exist, land, they sold my father Bugatti for £300k and that's all gone, they have property somewhere that does exist and are paying ground rent even though no-one is in there. We don't have all the facts on anything just the snippets of info they have told us and the neighbour about and also what we've seen in the post. My Stepmother does not like anyone interfering which is the problem, again we are not that close so difficult to push the situation. She isn't grateful to the neighbour either!! This is the worst part, he & his wife are wanting to move but feels committed as they is all she has! I think it is time to step in as it is affecting their lives and unfair on them.

When my father died we tried to convince my step mother to move up near to us but she refused saying she's lived in Birmingham and wants to stay local but has spent the last 5 years stuck in her kitchen, visited by carers a few times a day and not leaving the house! The is loads of things that have 'gone missing' from the house too :-(

It has not been confirmed that she will reside in care indefinitely, this is our assumption based on talking to the neighbour. I'll be pushing for a visit to her now and getting some control, she will resist against this I am guessing but its in everyone's best interest 

Jax_gee

Another question sorry guys!
If her financials were just .......left what would happen then? If she passes would the state just sell the house and pay off all debts that way? I cannot see her agreeing to us picking this up for her and the fee's for becoming a deputy are high, we are not wealthy by any means and cannot afford and I also expect there could be no money left after sorting things to pay for the fees?