How do you manage bills for someone else?

bigpappa

I need to manage the bills for my mother, the payments will come through her account as normal but I will be negotating/managing contracts for

Gas, Electric, Water, Broadband, Mobile Phone, Council Tax, TV Licensing etc

So how do I do this formally so any queries and issues are managed by me but the use and payments are by my mum.

middlewife

You will need to contact the individual providers to see whether they will permit you to be a second account holder with a letter of authority from your mother, or whether they will require you to have power of attorney, there isn't a standard operating system. Does your mother have capacity to make decisions?

bigpappa

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946472#Comment_81946472

Yes she can make decisions, it's just that she left everything to my dad to sort out, so now I am doing that - mainly just making sure shes on the best plans, service options - rather than overpaying.

Brie

Yes get her to add your name to her accounts. Phone them up, have her go through security and then state that she wants your name added to her accounts to make things easier. It might help to talk to the vulnerable customer team - if they have one.

To add to that I suggest you get her to sign a generic letter of authority stating "I, <mom>, give authority to <bigpoppa> to act on everything to do with my accounts on my behalf." Signed, dated, her address. Scan a copy and send off to everyone she deals with.

Banks won't necessarily accept this so you may need to get them to agree with her that you can have third party authority which will mean that you get a debit card and can get online access to her accounts to pay her bills etc. Basically you can do anything you do with your own account except close it down. This will require an appointment with you and mom at the bank (most difficult bit perhaps) along with all the relevant ID. I used my passport and driver's licence which was fine for NatWest.

And start getting power of attorney set up for both finance and health. It's an easy DIY process that costs about £90 for each of those. Obviously these things need to be done now while she has capacity rather than waiting until she really can't do or agree to anything herself.

RAS

At that level, you need to sit with her on the computer and work with her to change accounts and payments. So she can answer questions if needed.

Going forward, you might want to talk to her about Power of Attorney. Can be set up on-line for about £80 each.

Start keeping a log of accounts, passwords etc.

bigpappa

Thanks - going forward how would you then negoatiate new contracts with new providers? Just do it online?

jaybeetoo

Why don’t you get a Power of Attorney. It will make life a lot easier.

elsien

Does Mum not want to learn to do some of this herself and be more independent?
I can see why she might want help with things that negotiate, but stuff like water rates, council tax and TV licence are really not that difficult - the bill is what it is - there’s no negotiating to be done.

Ms_Chocaholic

Three of the things you mention can't be negotiated - Council Tax, TV Licensing and Water save for getting her the 25% reduction on CT if she now lives alone.

In terms of the others - how old is she? Can you teach her how to do these herself. Maybe it's time to set up a LPA in case she loses capacity in the future.

BridgetTheCat

I deal with things for my parents in a variety of ways. They are afraid to do things online so I do a lot of that for them.

I have access to their bank accounts via LPAs but mum still largely operates these in person unless the weather is bad and she can’t go out.

I also have a secondary current account in my name in which mum deposits funds.

Utilities - the bills are in their names but I if mum can’t get to the bank she tells me how much and I pay them by bank transfer.

Broadband & Mobile Phones - these are in my name and paid by direct debit from the secondary account

Council Tax - mum handles this herself

TV Licensing - dad is blind so they get a free tv licence. I was able to arrange this for them online just by putting my email as the contact

Blue badge and passport renewals - I could do these online by uploading the relevant documents and putting my email as the contact. No questions asked.

Groceries - I do their weekly shop online using my own Sainsbury’s account and have it delivered to their address

Not sure if any of that is helpful!

Jowwie

My challenging mother did not want anyone to have LPA for her. She did not trust anyone even though we were trying our hardest to help her. I was able to do most of the above via post. I would write letters for such as setting up direct debit, mother would sign them if she agreed. Each month she permitted me to check through her bank statements to check payments had gone out and the balance was fine. All of this was a bit more effort than having LPA but it worked and respected her wishes.

When her health deteriorated and she went into care the direct debts continued and I just kept checking bank statements. If she had lived for a long time in care I would have needed to apply for deputyship via the court of protection. This would have cost more than LPA and been more time consuming. The application process would also have resulted in a family member being notified of her condition which again is something she did not want to happen.