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Fixing dementia spending woes A new card and app is promising to help people with dementia manage their money.
A British woman has developed a flexible debit card and app designed to help families living with dementia to safely manage their daily spending.
Sibstar is Jaybe Sibley’s brainchild, who developed the solution when she noticed her mother who lives with Alzheimer’s disease was finding it difficult to manage her spending. Sibley’s mother June
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started making numerous cashpoint withdrawals, giving money away and falling for scams – losing thousands of pounds in the process. Commenting on the initiative, Jaybe said: “And then she started giving away cash to homeless people. My mum is a kind-hearted, generous lady, but there was no way she could sustain this level of spending and giving.” After trying all sorts of solutions
– including asking the bank to set withdrawal and spend limits or scratching the code out on the back of the card – Jaybe had no choice but to stop her mother accessing her finances, but this meant her mother lost her financial independence. Her dad was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia in 2011, seven years before her mother was also diagnosed with the disease.
