PENNY* JOHNSON was horrified when she became responsible for a family friend suffering with dementia – and quickly realised he was falling victim to scams on a regular basis.
Penny took in neighbour Michael, who she had known for 50 years, when his health began to deteriorate after being diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Mike’s health deteriorated after his wife died, leaving him distraught.
“That was really when I got involved. Up until then I popped in to see them every now and again and we led different lives, but when Jane died, she asked me if I would look after Mike,” she said.
“But things started to deteriorate and he was soon being scammed by people coming to the door and trying to lay a new driveway, he would lose his keys and he had a few rogue locksmiths.
“Then, a couple of years ago, he started getting some quite nasty scam phone calls, like trying to get him to pay his gas and electricity.
“We looked together at his bank statement and realised money was coming out left right and centre – several thousand pounds had disappeared.”
It was then that Penny looked into how she could get help protecting Mike’s finances.
She contacted charity The Alzheimer’s Society, and they suggested a new type of card by a firm called Sister.
Sibstar is a debit card and app for people with dementia and their carers. It allows the carer to help manage the person they are caring for’s every-day spending.
So, if the person makes a transaction, the carer can review it and figure out if they’re being taken advantage of, or are overspending by accident.
“From then, when Mike tried to give out his card details, it didn’t work,” Penny said.
“For example, he was charged £57 for a trip that should have only cost him £5 or £6 – but I got a notification from the Sibstar app, and I realised he had been overcharged by mistake.
“He wouldn’t have realised that, but I was able to sort it out for him.”
With Sibstar, you can also switch off the ability to withdraw from an ATM, as that is a classic way scammers target people for their cash.
“If he needs cash, I take him to the ATM and we can go and get some if he needs it,” Penny said.
“We kept the contactless so he can be independent and do his own shopping, but we’ve blocked using it online, which is where he lost thousands of pounds.”
Sibstar was created by Jane Sibley, who watched her own mum suffer from dementia and start erratically spending her money.
She would forget she’d bought things, accidentally overspend, and would even withdraw large amounts of money several times away and hand them out to people on the street.
The CEO of Sibstar, who lives in Southampton wanted to create something to help prevent this while allowing the personal with dementia the dignity to remain financially independent.
“It is critical that people with dementia remain financially included in the world and have the financial tools to allow them to do that,” she said.
Ms Sibley presented her idea on TV show Dragon’s Den earlier this year, where she won a £125,000 investment into growing the business.
Dragons’ Den investors, Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden backed the business, saying it could “transform lives”.
The business is now backed by the Alzheimer’s Society, which signposts people to its cards.
To use the card and app, there is a £4.99 card set-up fee, and a £4.99 monthly subscription fee.
Withdrawals from an ATM with the card also cost 99p.
However, Sibstar’s website says 7.5% of this goes back to the Alzheimer’s Society.
*Name changed on request
Dementia – the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s – comes on slowly over time.
As the disease progresses, symptoms can become more severe.
But at the beginning, the symptoms can be subtle or mistaken for normal memory issues related to ageing.
The US National Institute on Aging gives some examples of what is considered normal forgetfulness in old age, and dementia disease.
You can refer to these above.
For example, it is normal for an ageing person to forget which word to use from time-to-time, but difficulting having conversation would be more indicative of dementia.
Katie Puckering, Head of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Information Services team, previously told The Sun: “We quite commonly as humans put our car keys somewhere out of the ordinary and it takes longer for us to find them.
“As you get older, it takes longer for you to recall, or you really have to think; What was I doing? Where was I? What distracted me? Was it that I had to let the dog out? And then you find the keys by the back door.
“That process of retrieving the information is just a bit slower in people as they age.
“In dementia, someone may not be able to recall that information and what they did when they came into the house.
“What may also happen is they might put it somewhere it really doesn’t belong. For example, rather than putting the milk back in the fridge, they put the kettle in the fridge.”
