My Mother is 96 and has had a M&S CC for many years, used for phone and online shopping which also gave her a feeling of independence as she rarely left the house. She began displaying signs of dementia late last year following a stroke, then fell at Christmas suffering a v serious head injury and was not expected to survive. She was eventually stabilised, though only after two scary doubt-filled relapses. It was then immediately clear that her dementia had deepened v substantially, and to make a long and very evil story short my Mother has in just a few weeks been replaced by someone who looks like her but has no memories, doesn't retain anything she is told conversationally for longer than 30-60 seconds, has no retained awareness therefore of her circumstances or where she is, who never has a yesterday to help her understand today, is confused on a good day and distressed on a bad one, doesn't recognise friends/some-family, and only occasionally recognises me when I tell her who I am. She is now in permanent residential dementia care where we continue to visit a very frail stranger unable to look after herself and needing help with all aspects of daily life, and that we love very much but can do nothing to help, only ... observe. Anyway ... I am dealing with her personal affairs. I would like to know please whether a card-issuer - M&S in this case - has legitimate recourse to family if the card-holder is neither competent nor capable and is unable to settle an outstanding balance, in this case just under £2K. Today the State takes all of Mum's pension and benefits to offset some of the £900+ p.w. cost of her Care, with the exception of a few pounds as so-called pocket-money to provide "personal treats" like toothpaste and replacement clothes/undies etc. Treats? There is no longer any possibility of the outstanding balance being settled by Mum from any source at all, she has no assets and had been getting by just okay on her State Pension+ small benefits whilst in a sheltered-housing bungalow since my Father died. I have been far too preoccupied to bother with the M&S reminder-letters over the past three months, but should take control before things escalate. I don't have any problem ignoring DCs if M&S moves it along, however I'd rather put the brakes on with M&S before that stage. So, to repeat my question ... I assume that in Law M&S would have recourse to income or assets, however there are none and I am wanting to know if In Law there is then permitted-recourse to family for the debt? If they try to make noise instead of writing the balance off, I am perfectly capable of berating M&S very robustly about pursuing a 96 year old woman in residential care with dementia! However, before then I want to be clear in my mind about the legitimacy of any other channels they may claim to be entitled to pursue for recovery. In reality they would actually be unsuccessful that way also as I am 71, retired with no assets and only state pension income, and with debts and obligations of my own already after a past business-collapse. I'm not concerned with that just now however, just in knowing whether M&S would be on solid ground if they should respond by saying that in these circumstances the debt becomes the responsibility of someone's family to settle if their assets/estate isn't able to cover it. So can someone advise on that one point please? Thanks! Howard

My mum has had a mortgage for 45 years. It represents 17% of it's value. They don't want to continue it, once it reached the end of it's term, even after agreeing to continue it in May of this year. We only get to know a repossession court date is due on 30th of this month, 10 days ago. Barclays know she was staying with me over summer and it was only a neighbour checking post, that alerted us. (Barclays has made it very difficult for me to assist my mum on the issue) They wanted a message from the doctor, which they got, now they changed their mind and want a more formal letter via the post. Before 'possibly' reconsidering. Her rate was/is a minimum of 5% and went higher when rates increased recently. So they are earning well from her. Plus she paid off two loans they sold her, to pay off overdrafts, they kept letting her fill up! Until we asked them to stop. Both stink of miss selling. The impact of this will worry her, cause her to fear leaving her home and disrupt her recuperation with us. An effort that took her from being skin and bones, close to death (even with carers/social workers visiting), to eating and being more healthy.

My husband at 55 has just been diagnosed with young onset dementia, he has £52k in unsecured debt in a DMP and we have mortgage arrears I have been managing for several years as he was being treated for anxiety and depression, I assume caused by the mis-management of our family finances ( a seperate issue), something that only came to light after he was made redundant in 2012. My question is how to move forward - I am unable to pay these debts (in his name) as I only work part time and have no idea how much longer I will be able to do this with his diagnosis and need for care and he has not been able to claim benefits during most of this period as the dwp declared him fit to work twice - he received esa for the assessment phase and despite support from GP he was declared fit to work. when he applied a second time he was advised he did not have enough contributions - vicious circle. I have much to deal with moving forward but would appreciate advice on the debt above- unsecured. I have spoken to the debt management company who advised I should contact the debtors myself. I am in the process of obtaining an LPA financial.

Dementia risk now included as part of NHS Health Check READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dementia-risk-now-included-as-part-of-nhs-health-check

My mum was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia, she has been with Virgin Media since 2011 starting out on a 18 month contract. Five months ago my mum came to live with me, I then went through the process of obtaining a Power of Attorney so I could deal with her housing arrangements ect. A month ago I phoned Virgin Media to cancel her TV services, they said they would need to speak to her and she would have to give them her password. After telling them I had Power of Attorney and my mum had Dementia and could not remember what she did a few hours ago let alone remember a password she was given 6 years ago they said they would have to send her the password. Luckily enough I still have the keys to her old flat as Social Care will not let me surrender the tenancy until they assess her as if I did they would look on it as me making her intentionally homeless.(whilst she waste's £600 a month on rent ect) Virgin Media said they would send a new password in a couple of days, after waiting a week I checked the flat and there was nothing from them. I phoned again weeks ago, again was promised they would send out a password. I was in the flat again last night and all there was from Virgin Media was a new bill for the coming month. I have now cancelled the Direct Debit. Who am I best to contact regarding this.

Hi I'm not sure if anyone would know this but just looking for a little advice. My mother lives with me, I am her carer. She receives DLA - High rate mobility - Middle rate care. She suffers with Vascular Dementia. At 78, is it possible to get some sort of reassessment for an award of high rate care? She needs care at night, and someone to keep an eye on her as she is starting to stay awake at night and attempting to keep me awake 24 hours a day. Any increase in benefit will go towards this care. I'm not sure if at her age this can be reassessed, and not sure about the fact that it is now PIP so don't know how it works. Many thanks.

My friends DH is 60 and has early dementia, he is currently in hospital due to dehydration and bed sores and has been doing well, apparently due to his dementia and the fact that he is in a situation where he is scared - IE in hospital and not with his wife he 'apparently' attacked two nurses and drew blood. They have taken him from the care of his wife and put a DOL on him. He is NOT violent with her, its the situation he is in that may have caused him to lash out. My friend is terrified that he will be taken away from her, she can cope with him at home whilst I appreciate that nurses need to be protected, he is a scared vulnerable ill man and surely he cant be penalised for that. She has a meeting next week, but feel that she needs legal advise to ensure that the fact that its the environment that's has caused the issue not the fact he is dangerous and needs residential care. What would be the next step for her to ensure her rights as well as his are ensured

Can anyone help This is really very important and urgent. A very close relative has dementia. Spouse today took relative for a Nhs hospital appointment and “apparently” relative became aggressive – threatened to kill the doctor and spouse !! This, of course, is part of the illness - and also because of a current bladder infection which can cause aggression in anyone. Relative is not normally like this. The trouble is that the hospital Doctor “sectioned” relative. They will now not allow him out of the hospital. The specialist doctor, to whom he was aggressive, will now not be back in the hospital until Tuesday. And it seems they can legally – potentially – keep relative in the hospital for months. I just do not know what to do. But am trying to be practical and quickly ask as many people as possible I know - who work in the medical and legal industry – how we can extract relative from the Nhs hospital system ?? And back into a known environment with a carer. He is in an open ward surrounded by other mentally ill people. Just last week he was staying perfectly well with family, with a carer, in a normal home environment and loving family surrounding him and helping - and was absolutely fine. Family have Power of Attorney over all affairs and physical well-being. But the hospital have "sectioned” relative under a certain Act, stating that relative turned up at the hospital of “own free will” - despite it being for a regular assessment appointment and not for an admission. Which seems to infer that family - even with Power of Attorney - can do nothing. At this very late hour trying to research all avenues. Can anyone offer advice on the correct steps to take to very quickly extract relative from this distressing environment. When compos mentis this is the very situation relative demanded family ensured never happened. Can someone help? Please. xx

My uncle has recently been hospitalised after the 4th fall in a week. I am his Nearest relative which under the Mental Health Act is his Next of Kin. He has dementia and a urine inferction which made him more confused than normal. His private carer who was in charge of ensuring his safety, apparently went home for a bath and left him alone till night time carers came in to put him to bed. This is despite the fact that an ambulance was called two days previously when she had done the same thing again. He has been besotted by her - he is 97 - she is now 51, but clearly marriage has been discussed and he had said she knows how much he cares for her and has left her comfortably off. After a rocky 4 weeks in hospital and a realisation he may not walk again he has begun telling us what has been going on behind closed doors, over a period of a week, we have taped quite a bit of it on our phones and I've typed up transcripts under the suggestion of a nurse. He says she takes his papers away from him so he cant see what is on television, she takes the controls off him so he cant find out what's on and she leaves him in the evening with no access to television or newspaper so he is in silence. She also threatens him regularly that is he doesn't say please and thank you for everything so she won't do this and that for him. He's always said it to me for everything. When he grovels to her promising to say please and thank you for every little thing. She then says "it's no good apologising, it's too late now, I'm going and I'm never coming back". He evens mimics her voice when he tells you - deep and threatening. Then today he was transferred into a care home for the first time and a housekeepr was with me when he called out "I know i cant marry you, you know i'm fond of you. I'm sorry I promise I'll say please and thank you all the time if you let me have some dinner. I'll do anything you want please". Suddenly his voice changed it became deeper and sterner and it said "too late now, no good apologising now, i'm going and I'm not coming back, get yer own dinner!" Later I asked what she gave him to eat and he said "cubes of cheese", i asked what he had with it, he said "more cubes of cheese". I asked what she gave him for hot dinners and he said "I used to have hot meals, proper dinners but i can't manage proper dinners now, she says it's bad for my stomach". I asked "dont you ever have hot dinners any more?" - "not any more, she says it's bad for my stomach". My question is would this be a subject for the police to investigate. We have some tapes if they want to listen to what is said. But would they say is is a dream or hallucinations. some times he's perfectly lucid and he sounds angry about it and when he's stressed and out of it and saying it, he sounds frightened but still goes on about how fond he is of her.

Hi, My question is on behalf of my father, I recently discovered debt letters, bailiff warnings and threatening letters addressed to him, the problem is my father has early onset of dementia and this has been recognized by various health experts, he was found to be unable to deal with mail correspondence among other things. A letter from council bailiffs has arrived stating we are to attend your property shortly to remove goods in connection with your unpaid council tax debt due xxx council. Our removal teams are in your area throughout the coming week and will enforce the liability order without any further notice. My father is not of sound enough mind to deal with anything like people coming to the door, I know this could also have serious implications on his state of mind and health too. What can i do about this? Is there any guidelines to help when dealing with someone who has health, mental issues like dementia? I know that they have been previously informed of his condition by a third party and have not seen any further correspondence untill now with this letter. Any help would be greatly appreciated please.