I have a client who is terminally ill with metastatic cancer - weeks left. She is in hospital some distance from home and although she has mental capacity she struggles to speak.
She and her husband have separate bank accounts with one of the big UK banks. She is still being paid (quite well) and has been advised she'll be better off if she dies 'in harness' rather than seeking ill-health retirement.
Husband needs access to the cash in the account which includes salary as above and also child benefit for their daughter (16) and her Personal Independence Payment which is approx £170/week.
No LPA/EPA; they didn't get it place in time.
He visited the bank yesterday (he is their customer too) seeking help.
IMHO he should have been sat down and talked through the options of which a third party mandate looks best. Instead he was given a 'computer says no' lecture on client confidentiality and told that the bank could do nothing without speaking to his wife. The fact she cannot speak cut no ice.
I've sent him the mandate form and a link to the bank's guidance and hopefully he can get that sorted.
I'm left fuming at the insensitivity of the bank/staff. However that's tempered, so far as the staff member is concerned, by the fact that I suspect a role that once carried discretion is now run off a script.
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Bank Totally Insensitive and Unhelpful new
Bank Totally Insensitive and Unhelpful new
