I am unpaid carer ( I lost carers benefit payments when I started getting my basic state pension 2 years ago) for my son who is 38 years old, he was diagnosed 10 years ago and was granted benefit payments. My wife still works 4 days a week. Recently the dhss insisted that my wife became his official mentor and this meant that his benefits would be paid into our bank account instead of his. Now the dhss are phoning and emailing asking for our financial details, they are being very vague as to why this is needed and saying that we need to go into the local job centre to show statements and generally making us feel like my wife and I are trying to rip off the system. I personally have my own health problems with my sight and brain due to mini strokes so this message probably sounds a bit confused. We could use some advice from anyone else who is experiencing this on what to do.
If your son cannot manage his own money your wife should become his DWP Appointee and then there needs to be a separate account in your wife’s name, as she is then legally responsible for the benefits, which is used solely for his benefits.
Thanks for your reply, my wife has become his apointee 2 months ago and she has a seperate acc. for his payments, I said mentor in my original post, they are asking for statements for all of our accounts for the last 4 months
Mentor is not a word normally used or relevant to benefits, despite 50 years of dealing with benefits in various ways I can’t remember it ever being used before! In what context is it being used?
sorry I mistakenly said mentor, I should have said apointee
All the Job Centres around me closed long ago!
I suggest you contact the Carers UK helpline for further advice.
we are in north wales, I thought there were no job centres either but this is what they said on the phone, we have started to record the phone calls now, we were worried that we were being scammed because they are not sending letters any more
@mrwalks12 I think you need to be careful as this could be a scam. I think @bowlingbun ‘s advice to contact the Careline is a good idea. You need to be very careful
You have misunderstood the function of a DWP Appointee (whose guidance I have already given) as opposed to someone with Power of Attorney.
That’s not true. I have been DWP Appointee for three relatives, my brain damaged son and two elderly parents. I had to apply to DWP to be Appointee, to check I was suitable. Then when that is granted, it meant I was able to manage all the benefits of the disabled person, on their behalf. Son and mum in law with dementia could not grant me POA as they lacked mental capacity. An appointee deals with benefits only, the appointee is legally responsible for the. Power of Attorney covers everything, legally the attorney can do anything and everything the person who grants the POA.
They must have capacity at the time the POA is granted.
Hopefully, the DWP agents who visited us (2023) and authorised me to be appointee got it right (not a given!) but a separate bank account wasn’t required. Mum’s pension and benefits are paid directly into my personal bank account. I do keep a spreadsheet of all income and expenses. Again, this is not required but is best practice - especially if using the appointee’s account.
I wonder if GDPR and closing branches made the opening of a separate account too onerous?