Families have been outraged by banks and their ageist attitudes towards elderly people. There have been many instances where elderly people have been mistreated or scammed by banks or building societies. They have either been informed that they were closing their online account from one that used to pay a rate of 0.75% and asked them to open a branch account instead, which has a rate of 0.1%; or they would either be told that their account was untraceable, making them lose out on all their savings and hard earnings of several years.
Many of these elderly victims' children have been enraged at the way their parents have been conned and the lack of resource or willingness to help which they have received; hence, they have taken the responsibility of dealing with the banks themselves, discussing what the scenario is and what help is on other. However, the elderly people who have no children have found it difficult to fend for themselves. This money helps the elderly with their day to day lives and restricting them or making them have no access to their account is bringing many difficulties into living their daily lives.
A customer had not accessed their account for nearly seven years and her daughter filled in an unclaimed assets form from Halifax in April 2014. Within a week, Halifax had contacted them after thorough investigations and claimed that there was nothing that they could do as the account was not traceable. However, after several letters and visits to the bank, the elderly person finally received £10,479 in January 2015.
