HELP! We can’t pay in our son’s prize because he has no bank account

Mrs J.W. writes: I hope you can help me, or at least warn others. My son, now aged 36, has severe autism and epilepsy. When he was a baby, his grandparents bought him a £10 premium bond, and this has now won a £25 prize. I did open a National Savings & Investments Direct Saver account in joint names, and after I explained what it was for, NS&I assured me it was fine. Now though, NS&I says its own premium bond cheque cannot be paid into this account, nor will it simply transfer the prize to this account. The cheque has to go into a bank account, and my son has none and is not capable of opening one.

WHEN you explained the problem to NS&I, you were asked to provide a medical report on your son, which would have cost far more than the £25 premium bond prize. So, you told me, since you could neither bank the cheque nor encash the bond, NS&I was effectively £35 better off at the expense of your severely disabled son.

This left me in a quandary too. I never expect banks and similar institutions to discuss a customer’s problems unless the customer gives written authority for this. But because the whole point of your letter to me is that your son is not able to manage his own affairs, I could hardly ask for your son’s signature to a letter of authority that would allow NS&I to speak to me.

With this in mind, I asked officials to consider the problem in principle. What happens, I asked, when money is invested with NS&I for a child who in adult life turns out to be unable to make decisions about it?

What can any family do if the amount of money involved is far smaller than the medical and legal bills involved in unlocking the cash? And to take an extreme example, what would NS&I do if someone in your son’s situation won the top premium bond prize of £1 million?

NS&I staff were actually more helpful than I had expected. They explained that if an investment is made for a child, it is controlled by a responsible person such as their parent until the child reaches 16. If the child is then unable to take control of the investment, NS&I will request a medical report and ask who has been legally appointed to look after the customer’s affairs.

But there is some wiggle room here. If the customer has been unable to understand such things since birth, and no major sums are involved, it is unlikely that anyone will hold a formal legal appointment to act on their behalf. And in this situation, NS&I may decide that the original responsible person can simply carry on as before.

This discretion would not go as far as applying to a high value premium bond prize, though.

Then, NS&I staff would certainly ask that the responsible adult approach the Office of the Public Guardian, the Government official with the power to appoint a ‘Deputy’ – probably the same responsible adult – to claim the prize on behalf of the bondholder and to manage it for their benefit.

So, where does this leave you and your son? Your Direct Saver account is useful for some things, including receiving the automatic transfer of premium bond prizes, but there is no counter service for depositing cheques.

I am delighted to say that after some thought NS&I staff have come up with a solution. They have decided that although your son is the bondholder, they have scrapped the cheque that was sent in his name. By the time you read this, you will have received a fresh prize cheque for £25, and this time it will be made out to you. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G 26 DB or email tony. he the ring ton@ mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.