Our son is 33 and has severe learning difficulties and no capacity. He lives with us at home and will do as long as possible. We are now having issues with his bank account as they won’t issue a new card unless he asks for it, but he is non verbal. They also said he needs a mobile phone linked to his account and he obviously doesn’t have one. We have been told that if we had power of attorney or court of protection, we can deal with everything (as we have always done). It looks like it will have to be court of protection due to him having no capacity, but there seems to be lots of costs related to this. Has anyone any advice on this please? We were also told that this might restrict his account even further. We just don’t need this additional stress, especially as we have been managing everything perfectly well for him for the last 33 years.
Are you his DWP Appointee?
If so, you need to open an account to manage his money in YOUR name, as you are legally responsible for the benefit money. It’s a real shame DWP don’t give better advice at the time of setting up appointeeship.
Yes I am his DWP appointee and have a different account in my name for this, but I have now been told that it has to have my son’s name on the account too. I tried to add his name straight away but the bank won’t add his name as he has no capacity and have again said that we need court of protection to do this.
The account I previously mentioned is a savings account for money he gets for his birthday and Christmas etc. we have been saving this for a sensory room, but now can’t access the money.
The bank are wrong. Not sure where I have all the details at the moment.
They have a duty to make reasonable adjustments, talk to the Equality Commission.
The money is paid to you, your name is on the correspondence from DWP.
Just be careful talking about a savings account so you don’t fall foul of the maximum amount of savings before benefits are reduced.
I’ve had a number of issues with HSBC. Each time they’ve mucked up, I’ve turned the conversation so they’ve accepted that the standard of service is less than I had a right to expect, and it’s taken my time to sort out, and then I ask for £100 compensation. When they say they can’t do that, I ask them to refer it to a manager who can. It works.
One week of a holiday in Crete was entirely funded by this sort of compensation!
Hi @Coxy65 I suggest you contact the Court of Protection about the issue for advice on what to do. You’re right about Deputyship being more complicated and more expensive, but if you can prove your son is on benefits, they waive the fee. Solicitor’s fees if you use them are a different kettle of fish though.
If you contact the Equality Commission they have a booklet which covers the issues you are talking about, how banks should make reasonable adjustments, I just don’t know where mine is right now.
I am glad that Bowlingbun dived into this one with her extensive experience in these matters. However I should like to offer an outlying view.
I can understand that the bank is concerned about security, especially over the matter of the replacement card, and perhaps it does not have a “procedure” to handle this in these unusual circumstances.
But why on earth is it insisting on linking a mobile phone to his account - whatever that means? How would this help the situation?
I am very selective over the “apps” I add to my smartphone, believing that most of them are of limited use and some are compromising of security. However one app that I did add was for my banking accounts. I must admit it makes enquiries and transactions easier that visiting the bank’s regular web site. A useful feature is the ability to pay in cheques without the need to visit a bank branch. It even scans the back of the cheque, which I sign in the old-fashioned manner. This improves the chance of my cheque being cleared if there is a slight mismatch between the name the cheque is payable to and my bank’s record of my name.
Of course, once I had added this app to my phone, I set up a password for the whole phone, to prevent unauthorized access.
So I am puzzled why the bank wants the account linked to a mobile phone, when to my thinking, this could compromise security. Any ideas, anyone?
Also, given the difficulties, I think Coxy could well consider finding if another bank would be more amenable in providing a suitable bank account.
Thank you everyone. The reason they wanted to link a mobile phone, was to enable us to use online banking. It’s all’s set up, but there is no mobile linked to the account and they want to send a security code to a mobile for added security. Without this we are unable to use it.
I don’t like anything to do with my mobile phone as with arthritic fingers it’s a struggle, give me a full size keyboard every time. That said, the “double verification process” is really good and gives lots of protection. Probably the thing mine gets used for most now, even if I have to charge it before answering! (I’m still trying to train myself to keep it charged at all times.)