Living with Dementia

For help controlling finances contact your local office as a first step. We can arrange to talk through your situation at a time that suits you most, in privacy, with respect and understanding. Feel free to bring a partner or carer.  

Some of the things you can do to better control money are:

• Use less cash
• Set up standing orders and direct debits to pay regular bills
  
• Check your bank statements to make sure things are as they should be
  
• Don’t share your cards or PIN with anyone
  
• Use Online Banking to make payments - it’s more secure.
  

You may want to give a trusted family member or friend access to your accounts. If you decide to do this it’s a good idea to keep just what you need to live on from month to month in the account. It keeps things fair between you and your carer.

If as time goes on, your dementia means you lose capacity to make decisions, you may need to give control over decisions to someone else in a way that protects you.

While you are still able to manage your own affairs, talk to your solicitor about an Enduring Power of Attorney. It only comes into effect when you can no longer manage your affairs.

A Power of Attorney is a legal arrangement where another person acts on your behalf. This person is called an attorney and it should be someone you know you can trust.

If you lose the capacity to manage your affairs, the attorney you appointed must apply to the courts to have the Enduring Power of Attorney put in force. Your attorney can bring this to your local Office where we will arrange for them to be set up with access to the accounts.

If you are caring for one of our customers and no arrangements have been made in advance please contact us on 0818 300 107 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday and we will work through the situation. We understand how difficult this situation can be and we will do everything we can to make sure our customer continues to have access to their money for their benefit.

The Banking & Payments Federation Ireland have a useful guide that covers more information on these topics available here.