Helping a vulnerable relative - where do I start?

elsien

Wanna_Bee_Free said:

What did you mean by this is where her will come in handy?

That was a mistype type courtesy of Siri. I’ve corrected it now.
It took me 12 months to get my mother to do an LPA from when we first started talking about it, so I feel your pain. It helps if you stress that you won’t be taking over his finances and anything you do must be with his agreement and consent until he lose his capacity, (if he ever does, which he may not.)
In the meantime, would he agree to a third-party bank mandate which would formalise who can help with his banking. It’s only effective while he has capacity but it can be handy where people have physical health issues. 

with regards to the universal credit, I would suggest popping over to the benefits board. that sort of stuff is outside of my knowledge. 

Wanna_Bee_Free

elsien said:

Wanna_Bee_Free said:

What did you mean by this is where her will come in handy?

That was a mistype type courtesy of Siri. I’ve corrected it now.
It took me 12 months to get my mother to do an LPA from when we first started talking about it, so I feel your pain. It helps if you stress that you won’t be taking over his finances and anything you do must be with his agreement and consent until he lose his capacity, (if he ever does, which he may not.)
In the meantime, would he agree to a third-party bank mandate which would formalise who can help with his banking. It’s only effective while he has capacity but it can be handy where people have physical health issues. 

with regards to the universal credit, I would suggest popping over to the benefits board. that sort of stuff is outside of my knowledge. 

Thanks ever so much for your moral support and very sensible comments elsien, I am going to take the approach you recommend re one or both LPAs for my father on Sunday if it is calm enough but otherwise later in the week. The third-party bank mandate might help short-term too. He can say no again but at least I have tried to get it sorted.

I think I will try to get little sis to do the universal credit application anyway even if my father's savings reduce it as that is almost an argument for the rules thinking he should help her out by that amount but no more. Although this may only make sense in my tortured head! After 3 years of being a secondary carer I am no longer a clear thinker.
 

Wanna_Bee_Free

Revised plan for Sunday
OH to continue trying to fix nightmare email account

With little sis
1. Help little sis apply for Universal Credit
2 Help little sis to log in bank account that mortgage payment and others have bounced from and confirm overdraft amount, charges etc make a list of declined payments and start to fill in her SOA and list her debts
3. Ignore her two credit cards for now. She pays manually each month so no DD to cancel.

With father
Discuss LPA and third party bank mandate if calm enough atmosphere to think

Plan for Monday with father and little sis is to visit father's bank in person. Same bank as one of little sis two accounts. Try and get clear on what is happening and why. Issues as I understand them:
1. First cheque father wrote in 3 years not honoured
2. cashpoint card locked after 3 incorrect PIN attempts
3. fob to access accounts has not arrived through the post after a lot longer than 10 working days.
4. Set up third party bank mandate

born_again

I would ask bank about 3rd party mandate on fathers account. Given the length of time for POA.

Brie

born_again said:

I would ask bank about 3rd party mandate on fathers account. Given the length of time for POA.

I was about to suggest the same.  Getting 3PA means that you or OH could have a debit card for the account, have online access to assist with paying any bills, be able to take money out of a ATM.  All with the bank's knowledge and so all legit.  Some people get around this by simply taking over the individual's account but that is considered fraud by the bank's so not a good idea.  (this is different than sitting there at a computer with dad and you doing the typing)

The bank will need all of your ID and need to interview the account holder with you present so they can be sure that it's not a fraudulent take over of the account but something the account holder knows is in their best interest.  My MiL had me as 3PA on her NatWest account and one of their reps actually came to the hospital that MiL was in at the time to sort out the paperwork.  I provided MiL's bank cards and passport as well as my own and my driver's licence as ID.  This was a few years back but I believe it's the same now.  Best to ring the bank and enquire.

in_need_of_direction

Your father and sister will be treated separately for uc purposes.  Also your sister may be eligible for help with council tax

ManyWays

yes your sister can claim UC in her name, and also council tax support. Her father will be classed as a non-dependant  - this is an adult you lives in the same house who is neither a partner or a tenant. 

The benefits system assumes they should contribute to the household bills, so it reduces her Council Tax Reduction / Universal Credit housing costs by a set amount – this reduction is called the "non-dependant deduction". I don't know how it affects SMI (Support with Mortgage Interest), it may be best for her to talk to her local Citizens Advice about this and benefits more generally

So far as I know, her fathers savings have no impact on her UC claim. 

Wanna_Bee_Free

Thanks born-again, Brie, ManyWays & in-need_of_direction. Really appreciate all your replies.

Helpful to know we need to all take lots of ID and bank cards on Monday and I've found and printed out the 7 page form for HSBC 3PA so my father  can read it through on Sunday and think about it before we go to the bank on Monday. I guess my sister can choose to do the same if she wants to get me involved more too.

Great to know about my father's savings most likely not affecting her UC claim and thanks for all the help on the lingo, this is a whole new world to me. Support with Mortgage Interest, Non dependant deduction etc.

Council tax would make a big difference too I am planning to try and get her to go with me to Citizens Advice once we are clearer on the situation (Sunday?) and have an SOA of sorts as a starting point. Thursday next week might be possible or the following week if she can't log-in and we have to call a lot of places to reset her email address.

I will need to take my passport, driving licence and cards etc with me on Monday, thanks hadn't really registered that..

elsien

Just in case you weren’t aware, any council tax support is applied for from the local authority and not via DWP. It varies between areas so you’ll need to look it up on the website of which other council they live under. 

Wanna_Bee_Free

Thanks Elsien, that is useful. And presumably she can apply separately to UC so can look at that on Sunday too, energy levels permitting.