‘My bed-bound brother can’t pay care home fees without visiting Lloyds branch’

QI am trying to resolve a banking issue for my 89-year-old brotherin- law. He has advanced Parkinson’s disease and has moved into a nursing home in Exeter because his no longer able to cope at home.

He needs to pay the care home fees and deposit, but his bank, Lloyds, has told me that it needs to validate his ID and signature before it can register his new address and allow transactions via his account. It told me that, because its staff cannot visit customers in their own homes, my brother-inlaw must present himself in his nearest bank branch.

This will be very difficult because of his age and frailty. Some days he is not well enough to sit in a wheelchair, meaning he would need to be taken into the branch on a stretcher.

It is difficult to contemplate the indignity and discomfort such a journey would cause him, and I just don’t think it’s feasible.

His indebtedness to his nursing home increases every week because he cannot pay them, despite a substantial cash balance on his bank account following the sale of his family home last year. He is very alarmed by this.

I really hope you can tell me that this impasse can be resolved without the need for a stretcher.

– JS, via email

Dear Reader

AI was so sorry to hear about the difficulties your brother-in-law was experiencing, which seemed to be compounding stress on top of an already difficult transition into a care home. I felt I couldn’t stand by and watch you struggle to haul your frail brother-in-law into a bank branch, but then it became an impossibility anyway, because you broke one of your feet in an accident, rendering you immobile without crutches.

I agreed to do what I could to sort this banking issue out with minimal hassle for you all.

Following my involvement, Lloyds updated your brother-in-law’s address on its records, and also sent a new signature mandate to him at the care home. He signed this and you took it down to his local Lloyds branch, so he didn’t have to leave the comfort of his residential care home. You say the staff in the branch were wonderful, which I have passed back to Lloyds.

The change of address was a huge relief, of course, but you were still worried about the first direct debit payment to the care home going through, which with the initial deposit and first month’s rent of £7,000, was going to come to £23,000 in total. Happily you let me know this did go through without a hitch, meaning subsequent monthly payments should too, as long as the account contains sufficient funds.

A Lloyds spokesman said: “We would like to reassure that the customer is getting appropriate support.

“His personal circumstances are being taken into consideration and the scenario that Ms S shared is not something that needs to happen.”

However, your brother-in-law’s case highlights why setting up lasting power of attorney arrangements ahead of time is so vital for money management as people age. Had you or another relative or trusted person been authorised to handle his affairs, all this stress could have been avoided. However, I know it’s not always that simple and sometimes there isn’t an obvious person to choose.

You are now talking to your brotherin-law about power of attorney, which is sensible. However, if he loses mental capacity he will lose his chance to apply. In the event of this happening, anyone wishing to act on his behalf would need to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a “deputy”. This can be costly and long-winded, so much better to enact a power of attorney while you still can. Best of luck with it all.

‘Christmas tree now looks like a monster – I want a new one’ Dear Katie

QSix years ago I spent £ 175 on a “most realistic” pre-lit Christmas tree from Balsam Hill, an American faux Christmas tree retailer. One of the main reasons I spent so much on it was because it came with a 10-year foliage warranty, giving me peace of mind that if it broke it would be replaced. Last December when I took the tree out of its box, I noticed one of the upper branches had snapped, making it look rather sad. By this point I’d had the tree for five years so I was well within the warranty period. Balsam Hill checked my claim over the phone, agreed to the 10-year warranty applied, and offered to send me a replacement top part of the tree.

As Balsam Hill is a seasonal business I only received the replacement part in November this year, which was fine, as I only needed it in time for Christmas.

However, when I put it up, I noticed that the new part did not match the colour of the original tree. Its branches were lighter in colour and the LED lights had a green tinge to them, unlike the rest of the lights on the lower sections. The tree now looks awful, and bears little resemblance to the premium “realistic” looking faux tree I originally bought. I contacted Balsam Hill’s support team again to ask that they urgently rectify this. I was met with an increasingly evasive and ever- changing response, denying that my tree was ever under the 10-year warranty at all. – RW, via email

Dear Reader

ADespite happily sending out a replacement top section for your tree under your 10-year warranty, Balsam Hill seemed to backtrack once it learnt you were unhappy with it. After you complained about the top section not being right, it started denying you had a 10-year warranty at all. You were advised that: “The 10-year warranty is only applicable for ‘realistic trees’ and your 7ft Alpine Christmas tree with candlelight LED lights is under our ‘most realistic trees’”.

You refuted this with documentary evidence using the Wayback Machine, a website which tracks how other websites have been updated over the years. It showed that in 2017 when you bought the tree, both “realistic” and “most realistic” trees were covered by a 10-year guarantee.

Then Balsam Hill started trying to make out that the 10- year foliage warranty was “an optional add- on insurance”, which you had failed to select. Again, you proved this wasn’t true. You found the specific product webpage at the time of purchase, which stated: “This product is covered by the following warranties: Balsam Hill 10-year foliage warranty”.

If Balsam Hill thought it could pull the wool over your eyes over this warranty then it was clearly messing with the wrong person. I’m not sure if Balsam Hill’s staff were too lazy to look things up or deliberately trying to avoid sending out more replacement parts, as it hasn’t responded to my questions on this. Frankly, either represents a very poor show, and would be unacceptable, especially given the high price you paid for the tree.

Since you bought your tree, Balsam Hill has reduced its foliage warranty to just three years, leaving you wondering whether the 10-year warranty is becoming increasingly unpalatable for the company to uphold, possibly due to rising numbers of claims.

Happily, following my involvement, Balsam Hill agreed to send you a brand new pre-lit tree of the same size and type. I’ve asked it to hurry up and get this sent out to you before Christmas, so you don’t have to spend the entire festive period sitting and looking at an ugly Frankenstein tree while eating mince pies and trying to relax.

A spokesman said: “The concerns regarding the warranty of the item have been settled. This incident is an isolated case, and we are actively conducting an investigation to prevent such situations in the future.”