Nationwide Bank Account Freezing

Keep_pedalling

If, as it sounds, this money was a joint asset I am afraid none of your father’s share should have been gifted, your mother is free to gift her own assets but not her husband’s.

Ideally as his attorney you should keep his savings in separate accounts.

smasham007

Keep_pedalling said:

Ideally as his attorney you should keep his savings in separate accounts.

Really! I always thought if ur married then what’s his is hers & what’s hers is his. My dad was old school though & said it was all his!

General_Grant

Keep_pedalling said:

If, as it sounds, this money was a joint asset I am afraid none of your father’s share should have been gifted, your mother is free to gift her own assets but not her husband’s.

Ideally as his attorney you should keep his savings in separate accounts.

I believe that banks normally accept that money in a joint account belongs to both and can be spent by either party, not on a 50:50 basis.

MattMattMattUK

smashem196 said:

Thanks for all your comments so far people 👍 even though I feel a bit of a numpty now!
My mum has full mental capacity. My dad does not & I run their acc for them both, as mum has no interest in banking. It was her wish to gift & I just followed her instruction.

If the PoA has been activated, granting you control of their banking affairs then the general position is that has happened because they lack capacity.

smashem196 said:

I’ve obviously being very naive about the role of a POA & not felt the need to read up on my obligations. I have gone about this thinking it is ok to send a large amount of money to anyone as long as it has my parents blessing & at least one of them has mental capacity to confirm it. As I am merely carrying out their instruction.

I would really urge you to read up on the PoA, it is something to be taken seriously and you really do need to understand what you are doing.

smashem196 said:

Now if both my parents had no mental capacity then I would understand alarm bells ringing, if I started moving large amounts of their money around to accounts other than theirs. 
If I didn’t have POA & my mum had wrote out a cheque for this amount to be paid direct to me would that have been acceptable or is something going to crop up there. MattMattMattUK  you said about having a solicitor draw up a capacity document. Is that not a POA, which I already have or is it something to prove one or more of my parents have mental capacity & if so how long does one of them last? 

The issue is with the PoA active for both your parents the presumption is that they lack capacity, therefore to be able to gift the money a solicitor would need to confirm, via consultation with a doctor (GP is usually fine) that your mother still has capacity and is legally of sound mind. They would need to confirm that you were not abusing your position. It would normally need to be on a case by case basis for gifting, unless it states something along the lines of "£X every Y period", but the issue with that is deprivation of funds, as others have said. As the assets are joint that also further complicates things. 

Are you using the PoA in relation to any other parts of your parents lives? 

MattMattMattUK

General_Grant said:

Keep_pedalling said:

If, as it sounds, this money was a joint asset I am afraid none of your father’s share should have been gifted, your mother is free to gift her own assets but not her husband’s.

Ideally as his attorney you should keep his savings in separate accounts.

I believe that banks normally accept that money in a joint account belongs to both and can be spent by either party, not on a 50:50 basis.

In general yes, but things can be complicated when deprivation of assets could occur, if one parent had to go into care and were looking for funding for example. 

Breadwinner

Just saw your post. Similar thing just happened to friend of mine. I transferred money to her, wrong amount and then told her to send it back. She did and Natwest stopped it and won't return the money until they have investigated. It's utterly ridiculous. I've transferred money to parents, friends, relatives and they have done the same, not with natwest, and never had this problem. First time for my friend with Natwest and we've discovered what a terrible bank they are and how they treat their customers like criminals. Pity I didn't remember sooner that concerns had been raised in the media about accounts being closed for no reason at Natwest in the past, before my friend opened an account with them.

smasham007

MattMattMattUK said:

Are you using the PoA in relation to any other parts of your parents lives? 

No not at the moment 

smasham007

Another thought has entered my head while this review is going on our frozen acc’s. Could I open another acc for them with a different bank & have their pensions payed into it without it affecting the review. This would mean they aren’t financially compromised while this investigation is going on & would give some relief to my parents…………& me 🙏………or would this look as though I’m up to something 🤷‍♂️

toby3210

I haven't been able to log into my nationwide for a month, total joke. It's because I changed phone number and it's not letting me in without a card reader. I've called them at least 5 times in the past 3-4 weeks to change the number. I've passed all the security checks and they ask me to try to log back in the next day. When I do, my number's not there. So frustrating. Can't access anything.

smasham007

toby3210 said:

I haven't been able to log into my nationwide for a month, total joke. It's because I changed phone number and it's not letting me in without a card reader. I've called them at least 5 times in the past 3-4 weeks to change the number. I've passed all the security checks and they ask me to try to log back in the next day. When I do, my number's not there. So frustrating. Can't access anything.

Well I’m a victim of my own ignorance & lack of knowledge about what my responsibilities actually are when appointed as POA. I was asked to be a POA in 2006. I registered it in 2024 & then just managed my parents banking needs with no problem. It’s only when my mum decided to gift me this bond money that the s**t has hit the fan & unfortunately the only person to blame for this mess is me, because I didn’t read up on what I could & couldn’t do. I will say as a layman, after reading up on the responsibilities of a POA(albeit a bit late)I still wasn’t confident of exactly what I can & can’t do, hence why I’m on here, which is a great place for help. My kids have POA on our property & finance & I can guarantee they will not have a clue about what they can & can’t do, but rest assured I will enlighten them