Pensioner ‘up all night time worrying’ after NatWest shut off entry to state pension

The 92-year-old is among the many a whole lot of NatWest clients residing abroad to have their accounts closed, a brand new report revealed.

Philip Cato was a part of the Windrush era and lived in Britain for over 50 years. He has since retired to Jamaica to take take care of his aged mom.

Mr Cato depends on his state pension and a small annuity for his revenue, nonetheless, when NatWest closed down his account, it reduce him off from his state pension – leaving him and his spouse, Una, struggling to make ends meet.

He informed The Independent: “Una is up all night worrying about this, wondering when this pension thing is going to be sorted out.

“Our medical fund is running out because we’ve been living on that to survive. The whole thing is putting such a strain on us.”

He obtained a letter from NatWest which suggested him that his account would shut in February due to the financial institution’s “difficult decision to reduce the number of countries in which we service our customers”.

Dated July, the letter ought to have given him six months to type out his affairs. However, it didn’t attain him for 3 months, shortening the window to switch his pension funds to a brand new account.

Despite their efforts to switch the pension funds to a brand new account, they encountered difficulties in reaching the International Pension Centre. As a outcome, they missed funds totalling over £2,000.

Mr Cato’s daughter Judy mentioned the “stressful” state of affairs had impacted him, his 82-year-old spouse and their household, who discovered it unimaginable to get assist from the financial institution to entry the hundreds of kilos it had withheld.

With her mother and father in an more and more precarious monetary place, Judy tried to contact the pension service however couldn’t make headway and ended up making an official criticism.

She mentioned: “The situation brought me to tears quite a few times.

“I started sending them money as best I could, but with the cost of living here it was difficult.”

NatWest mentioned it had pulled the plug on some abroad private account to concentrate on the UK market.

But clients informed The Independent they’d been left with out enough warning of the closures or insufficient assist on easy methods to entry their cash, with Mr Cato’s lawyer saying she believed a whole lot of consumers had been affected.

A spokesperson for NatWest mentioned: “We have taken the decision to stop offering banking services to a number of personal customers in some countries of residence outside the UK.

“We’re doing so as we focus on investing in and providing great services for those customers in our core market. We will always get in touch directly with impacted customers if any changes are made to their account-servicing arrangements.

“We will always treat customers fairly by giving them clear information and timelines about next steps.”

This comes after former Brexit Party Nigel Farage mentioned his checking account was unfairly shut down by personal financial institution Coutts, owned by NatWest Group, as a result of it didn’t agree along with his political opinions. The row sparked an outcry and led to the resignation of NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose.

The newest information from the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – earlier than Hunt’s newest requests – revealed that banks had been closing near 1,000 accounts day-after-day, with simply over 343,000 shut in 2021-22.

In current years, Brexit has been an element, as many excessive road banks closed the accounts of non-UK residents. More not too long ago that retrenchment has gone world, with readers residing New Zealand and Brazil contacting the Guardian after the lack of their account again residence.

The FCA says whether or not or not banks prolong companies to clients outdoors the UK is a business determination.

However, the watchdog expects banks to “treat their customers fairly, comply with equalities legislation, and provide adequate notice to the customer if they decide to close their account”.