Easy-access savings for elderly 8 November 2022 at 5:03PM in Savings & investments 15 replies 528 views

Lemon2

Hello, 

I wonder if anyone can offer me some advice on behalf of my grandmother.

She is 90 years old and recently released some equity (approx £25k) from her property in order pay for the carers who come in to help her daily.

What we want to do is to have that money in a separate account and have a standing order (or similar) so that each month, her current account is topped up with an amount from her equity release.  

That means her current account will not have too much money in it so she cannot run into any problems.

But should we do this from a regular savings account?  Is it even worth it, given her age - or should we just put it in a separate current account?  Or is there something else we haven't thought of?

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Albermarle

Normally you can not arrange regular payments from a savings account, but someone else may know something different.
Certainly you could open a current account and she could give you the £25K, and then you arrange a regular direct debit/payment to her current account. That presumes of course that she will be aware of what she is doing and can trust you, and some other member of the family would not object. I only say that because families and money do not always mix very well. 
If she is paying for own care, there is no issue with her giving her money away, regarding social services.

Eco_Miser

Please note that Regular Savings Account is a technical term for an account into which small , typically £25-£500, amounts are saved regularly, ie monthly.

You are probably thinking of an Easy-Access Savings Account.

@Albermarle I didn't see any suggestion that the grandmother would be giving any money away, just that it would be kept in a different account, possibly a current account if savings accounts don't have the facility to transfer money automatically.  I believe some of them do, and for others it's simple to log in and manually transfer to the nominated current account.

xylophone

Does your grandmother use the internet?

Or could you or another family member help her to set up  an account with   eg Marcus and make her current account the nominated account for withdrawals?

She could then just make a withdrawal once a month for the amount required to pay her carer.

Brie

I assume the concern is that Grandma may be scammed or a carer commit fraud to gain access to her funds.  And thus having a small amount shifted to her current account so that she maintains some control over her day to day finances. 

My suggestion is that some trusted individual (you, your parent, or?) have a joint account with Grandma with the £25k in it and the trusted individual could shift the required amount each month.  The problem with this is that when Grandma dies the balance that remains is said to belong to the trusted individual and is not part of Grandma's estate.  An alternative is to have Grandma set up a savings account and grant the trusted individual third party authority thus allowing them to shift the monthly amount within the rules of the bank.  Access either way could be online to make life easy.  We had both these set ups with MiL's accounts with me as RTA with one bank and OH joint with another.  

Should there be any question from the local authority at some point of the ownership of the money it can be made clear particularly if you keep records of the source and the trusted individual is always only using it for G's benefit.  

All of which begs the question - why is she doing equity release rather than asking the LA to fund some of the care?  Possibly she wants to pick her carers?  And is she also claiming attendance allowance?  Not a means tested benefit so there's no reason why she shouldn't.

eskbanker

Lemon2 said:

What we want to do is to have that money in a separate account

Do you, or anyone else, have Lasting Power of Attorney for her?  While this is often associated with losing mental capacity, etc, it can be useful for those who are less mobile and/or who are unlikely to be able to cope with online banking and so on, so this would allow someone to operate an account while the money clearly remains hers....

Albermarle

Eco_Miser said:

Please note that Regular Savings Account is a technical term for an account into which small , typically £25-£500, amounts are saved regularly, ie monthly.

You are probably thinking of an Easy-Access Savings Account.

@Albermarle I didn't see any suggestion that the grandmother would be giving any money away, just that it would be kept in a different account, possibly a current account if savings accounts don't have the facility to transfer money automatically.  I believe some of them do, and for others it's simple to log in and manually transfer to the nominated current account.

I was assuming ( as was another poster) that they were worried she might get scammed, and therefore having access to a large sum of money, whether in two accounts or one was not desirable. One solution would be for a trusted relative to operate an account for them in their own name.
It was just a suggestion, along with the different ones others have made.

Lemon2

Albermarle said:

Normally you can not arrange regular payments from a savings account, but someone else may know something different.
Certainly you could open a current account and she could give you the £25K, and then you arrange a regular direct debit/payment to her current account. That presumes of course that she will be aware of what she is doing and can trust you, and some other member of the family would not object. I only say that because families and money do not always mix very well. 
If she is paying for own care, there is no issue with her giving her money away, regarding social services.

Thanks for this!  I wouldn't want to put it into an account under my name for the reason you said - so that there can be no objections from anyone else!  But perhaps a separate current account with a different bank (in her name) or an easy access savings account is our best option.

Lemon2

Eco_Miser said:

Please note that Regular Savings Account is a technical term for an account into which small , typically £25-£500, amounts are saved regularly, ie monthly.

You are probably thinking of an Easy-Access Savings Account.

@Albermarle I didn't see any suggestion that the grandmother would be giving any money away, just that it would be kept in a different account, possibly a current account if savings accounts don't have the facility to transfer money automatically.  I believe some of them do, and for others it's simple to log in and manually transfer to the nominated current account.

Ah, yes - thank you - I do mean an Easy Access Savings Account!  It looks to me like some Easy Access Savings Accounts do allow quick, easy transfers - so perhaps we ought to do that once a month instead of a standing order from a current account.  
Thank you for your reply, it was appreciated.

Lemon2

xylophone said:

Does your grandmother use the internet?

Or could you or another family member help her to set up  an account with   eg Marcus and make her current account the nominated account for withdrawals?

She could then just make a withdrawal once a month for the amount required to pay her carer.

She doesn't but I do!  I will look into this further - thanks for your advice

Rheumatoid

I opened a Marcus account for my 85 year old mum and after a few times showing how to use it and make deposits / withdrawals she loves it. It is so simple to operate. She now renews her bonuses by herself and is delighted to see what interest she gets every month on £70k previously held in an HSBC ISA paying 0.5%!