Carol's story
Carol’s mum is 91 and was diagnosed with dementia three years ago.
After her father, who was her mum’s main carer, sadly passed away last year her mum’s condition significantly worsened, resulting in her needing to rely on residential care. It was at this point that Carol started to struggle to manage her mum’s financial affairs.
Carol was listed as her mum’s appointee, which means that according to the Department of Work & Pensions as well as the local authority she is officially authorised to be able to manage her finances.
Carol tried to approach the bank to order a card so she could pay the fees for her mum’s care, they had no idea what permissions being an appointee gave her and had to Google it! The bank eventually told Carol that she would only be issued a card if her mum’s account balance was reduced to a specific amount.
She heard, through the organisation, about the Dementia Law Clinic and arranged a Skype appointment with our solicitor to discuss her worries. Carol made the following comments on the service, “Straight away, he put me at my ease. He talked me through all the options, and recommended that I go for a deputyship, rather than power of attorney.
“Without the law clinic, I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do. I’d probably have applied for power of attorney, which would have cost quite a lot of money and taken a long time to sort out. The deputyship won’t cost anything, and the law clinic did all the work for me.”
Carol has now been able to resolve this situation and she is able to care for her mum rather than worrying about the complications handling her affairs.
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