Savings Account for someone in a care home

viccd21

Hi,

My Mum is in a care home suffering from vasculal dementia and my brother and I have recently sold her house. The money from the house sale is sitting in Mum's Virgin Money current account. My brother and I both have Power of Attorney, so I imagined that creating a savings account with Virgin would be relatively easy. However, I went into the Virgin Money branch armed with my Power of Attorney documents only to discover that I can only apply for a savings account through the post and this would involve posting the original copy of my Power of Attorney, which I am not prepared to do.

Next, I went to Santander where I was informed that I would need copies of mum's state pension containing her care home address. I obtained this and returned and was then told that I need a utility bill containing mum's address. Clearly, she is in a care home and has no utility bills.

After that, I thought I would try Nationwide where a lovely young woman was much more helpful. However, it seems there is a government list of accepted proofs of address. The only one which which fits mum's circumstances is a letter from her local doctor's surgery containing her address. This morning, I went to the doctor's and they said that this would take about a month!

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/best-banks-for-power-of-attorney/#bestbanks might be worth a read?

dcs34

If your Mum is registered on the NHS app then you might be able to generate or download a letter that contains her current address?

Alternatively would it be possible to get her Virgin Money account setup online, that way you might then be able to do an online application for a savings account on her behalf?

Hal17

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866639#Comment_81866639

From a personal experience, Virgin only allow POA accounts to be administered by telephone or post.

Keep_pedalling

If we are talking about more than £85k then you need to look at multiple banks or NS&I.

For NS&I you need to register the LPA with them before you can open an account.

https://www.nsandi.com/help/manage-money-for-others/manage-saving-for-adult

BooJewels

Charter Savings Bank will open accounts for a Donor under an LPA (but only the Attorney can access it) and only require the LPA code and their filled in form. It often seems to be the case that opening an account under an LPA is done by paper form posted in - as here with Charter.

Open a Charter Savings account under an LPA

ETA: I've now found the LPA bit for Ford Money - on this page of FAQs - scroll down to Power of Attorney - also a paper application, with various supporting docs sent in.

mebu60

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866780#Comment_81866780

If we are talking about more than £85k then you need to look at multiple banks or NS&I.

£120k.

SacredStephan

Could the care home provide a "To Whom It May Concern" letter stating that she lives there? Does she get letters from the DWP about Winter Fuel payment or Attendance Allowance?

elsien

Care home residents normally have to have their own £5 TV licence if they have a TV in their room. The home manager would usually apply for this. Would that work as any sort of proof?

Farway

Would a letter from Local Authority on voter registration be any use?

Presumably your Mum is or needs to be registered for a Postal Vote, and LAs are updating now due to recent changes in the law.