My mother set up NatWest First Saver accounts for my children when they were born. The accounts are held in trust for when they turn 18 and my parents have paid into them monthly to help fund them through university.

My mother is now in the final stages of Alzheimer’s and I have registered financial power of attorney for her.

My daughter began university last year and my son starts this month, but I have been unable to access the £20,000 in their respective accounts. I was told my mother has to give consent for the children to access them, but she’s not in a position to do so.

I’ve been variously advised to set up online banking in my mother’s name without her consent, to request a one-off payment of less than £1,000 and, upsettingly, that it would be easier if my mother were dead.

As a consequence, we’ve had to take out a bank loan to cover my daughter’s expenses.
SW, Worcestershire

NatWest blames “lack of colleague awareness” of a “complex process”. We’re talking here of numerous colleagues in call centres and in branches who, over the best part of a year, have been unable to fathom what should be a standard procedure.

This appears to be a training issue and it’s hardly reassuring that “learning from your experience” will be used to “inform future improvements”.