GETTING a diagnosis of dementia can be devastating and so can the financial impact.
The total cost of dementia in the UK is an estimated £42 billion per year, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Dementia can cost thousands of pounds, from taxi fares to care home fees[/caption]
Dementia can cause memory loss and confusion, which can seriously impact your money habits[/caption]
Most of that bill is shouldered by families who pay for care or provide unpaid labour looking after loved ones.
Other hidden costs are harder to track.
From falling for scams to losing cash and forgetting to pay bills, dementia can wreak havoc with finances.
LEAH MILNER explains how to protect yourself and your loved ones.
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
Around a million people in the UK have dementia, which covers 100 different illnesses including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
It can cause memory loss and confusion, making it hard to carry out daily tasks and making money decisions.
It’s common to lose bank cards, forget passwords for online banking, or rack up late payment penalties.
You might need to take taxis to appointments, pay for meals on wheels or use more energy if you’re at home most of the time.
Paying for care is usually the biggest expense.
Care home fees cost an average of £64,655 per year.
But if you live in England or Northern Ireland and have less than £23,250 in savings, your local council may pay for some or most of your fees.
It will assess your finances to work out how much help you’ll get.
How much you can get depends on what sort of care you need and how much you can afford to pay. You must be left with at least £30.15 a week.
In Wales, you can get help for care home fees if you have less than £50,000 in savings, and £35,000 in Scotland.
Care home fees are hugely expensive, and can cost loved ones £64,655 a year[/caption]
POWER OF ATTORNEY
Setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is really important.
It is a legal document that allows you to appoint a trusted person to make decisions on your behalf when you no longer can.
There are two types: one covers property and finances and the other health and welfare decisions.
Without an LPA your loved ones could be left in limbo and unable to access money needed for your care.
Despite this, 72 per cent of over-65s don’t have one in place, according to research by Paragon Bank.
Heledd Wyn from Rothley Law said: “When someone loses mental capacity to manage their affairs, their family have no automatic right to access bank accounts or make decisions about their health and care.”
Instead they need to go through a lengthy and expensive legal process to do so.
Download the LPA forms from gov.uk/power-of-attorney, print it out, and complete the paperwork.
Read the instructions carefully – the forms need to be signed in a specific order and witnessed too.
Send the forms to the Office of the Public Guardian. Find the address on the paperwork.
It costs £82 to register the LPA, although it’s £41 if your income is less than £12,000 a year.
Call the Office for the Public Guardian (0300 456 0300), Alzheimer’s Society (0333 150 3456) or Dementia UK (0800 888 6678) if you get stuck.
BENEFITS AND BANKING
Don’t miss out on benefits and discounts.
Attendance Allowance isn’t means-tested and worth up to £110.40 per week. It’s for those with a health condition that means they need help at home.
You might also get discounted or free council tax and help with energy, phone, broadband and water bills.
Unpaid carers who spend at least 35 hours per week looking after someone might be able to claim Carers Allowance, worth £83.30 per week.
You might qualify for a Carers Card at carerscarduk.co.uk. It costs £8 for two years and could save members £240 a year through discounts at supermarkets, restaurants and more.
At Nationwide Building Society, you can book a free dementia advice appointment even if you’re not a customer. They are run by specialist Admiral Nurses at 200 branches.
Sibstar offers debit cards for people with dementia for £4.99 per month that work with any bank. Their power of attorney monitors spending and sets limits via an app.
WHEN Jayne Sibley discovered that her mum, June, had been withdrawing £20 notes multiple times a day to hand out on the street, she was horrified.
Mum-of-two Jayne, 50, from Winchester, looked after her mum, June who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, until she died in 2023 at the age of 79.
Jayne’s dad Peter, 82, also has Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. He was diagnosed with the condition 16 years ago, and now lives in a care home.
He is no longer able to speak or recognise his family.
Seeing her parents’ struggle with dementia has been like “watching them both gradually disappear”, Jayne said.
“When someone you love has dementia, you watch the person you know slipping through your fingers.
“Mum would withdraw £20 notes multiple times a day to give to homeless people on the high street, forgetting she’d already given them cash,” she said.
“When she became ill, she lost thousands of pounds to scammers.
“Her number must have been on a target list because the phone didn’t stop ringing, with people pretending to be her internet company to con her out of money, flogging unwanted insurance or expensive vitamin subscriptions.
“My dad, who used to work in IT, would see cash in his wallet but couldn’t work out what it was worth.
“He’d be extremely anxious and embarrassed at the checkout, it was distressing for him to feel so out of control, because he was used to being in charge of managing family finances.”
In an attempt to try to keep her parents’ money safe,she invented Sibstar, which is a dementia-friendly debit card that works with any bank.
A friend or family member who has power of attorney can register with Sibstar and download the app.
This allows them to set spending limits on the card and get real-time updates on where it’s being used, but there is a £4.99 monthly charge.
