Debt, dementia and Alzheimer’s

September is World Alzheimer’s Month. We’re supporting the Alzheimer’s Society in encouraging everyone to learn more about dementia and Alzheimer’s.

At Financial Wellness Group we work with the Alzheimer’s Society to:

• help train our advisers
• and to signpost people for support when they need it.

Many of our colleagues have been through Dementia Friends training. Our advisers receive a wide range of training from third-party organisations like this. It helps them identify customers who need additional support in dealing with their debts – such as people with dementia – and to provide that support.

We try to ensure all our colleagues know how to spot someone who might need extra support. We also strive to tailor our service to those customers. Living with dementia can make financial difficulties especially stressful and hard to deal with, and we’ll help if we can. In some cases, we can negotiate with lenders to have some or all of a person’s debt forgiven (ie written off).

If you have a family member who has been diagnosed with dementia, you may be worried about how best to support them – including how to help them manage their money. There’s a really useful factsheet about debt and dementia on the Alzheimer’s Society website – and here are a few tips from us:

Don’t assume that older people don’t have debts! A few years back, Age UK found around one in eight older people had experienced problem debt in the preceding eight years. Older people in problem debt often experienced a decreased quality of life; even depression. There was also some evidence of a link with relationship breakdown.

Talk about it. Age UK’s research found that one in six older people had no-one to talk to about money. Everyone is entitled to their privacy, of course, but keeping money worries bottled up is bad for your mental health and can prevent people from getting the help they need. So encourage your friends and family to talk more about money, whatever their age.

Make sure the older people in your life are getting all the financial support they’re entitled to. People living with dementia – and those who care for them – may be entitled to benefits because of their additional support needs. But not all older people are claiming the benefits that could help them get by. To find out about the support available, use an online benefit calculator, check the Alzheimer’s Society website, or call Age UK’s advice line.

Consider getting a lasting power of attorney. This is called an enduring power of attorney in Northern Ireland. It helps you choose someone you trust to help you manage your money in the event that you’re not able to do it yourself.

Even after a dementia diagnosis, it’s not too late. If you need to help someone with their money after they lose mental capacity, you may need to apply to court to be what’s called a deputy, or a controller in Northern Ireland. The Alzheimer’s Society website lists sources of legal advice that may be able to help.

Be aware that it may be possible to challenge some debts. Let’s say you have a relative living with advanced dementia, and you find out that they have a lot of credit card debt. It may be that the credit card companies should have been able to tell that your relative did not have the mental capacity to take on that debt. A specialist debt advice provider may be able to help – visit Moneyhelper to find a source of advice.

Know how this will affect the future. If a parent or older relative gets into financial difficulty late in life, many people worry about whether this will impact on them directly. You can find answers about credit scores, care home fees and more on our blog, Can you inherit debt from your parents.

 

If you’re living with dementia, or caring for someone who is, we’re raising a cup of tea to you this World Alzheimer’s Month. It’s a truly awful disease, and we hope one day soon it will be a thing of the past. But thanks to the Alzheimer’s Society and to personal experience, we know that there can still be moments of joy in among all the hard days. Keep going – and please ask for help if you need it.