Out the Box

Fixing dementia spending woes

A new card and app is promising to help people with dementia manage their money.

A British woman has developed aflexible debit card and app designedto help families living with dementiato safely manage their dailyspending.

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

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.

“There have been lots of challenges, but by far the hardest has been keeping my parents’ day-to-day spending under control and secure,” she added.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

With Sibstar, users can load the card with their chosen amount of money and then manage how and where that money can be used within the app.

Sibstar allows users set daily spending limits, switch cashpoint or online payments on or off, and freeze and unfreeze the card.

Users can also receive spend notifications.

Sibstar is now backed by Mastercard, while the Alzheimer’s Society is also partnering with it for 12 months through its Accelerator Programme.

“We aim to provide people who have dementia with a way to remain financially independent whilst keeping their money safe and secure.”

“As well as investing in the company, we are working with the Sibstar team to continue to develop and promote their product,” Alzheimer’s Society said.

“We have supported them to work directly with people with dementia and their families who have shaped the features included in the product and fed into the development of Sibstar’s brand to ensure it appeals to potential customers.”

Sibstar will be launching soon, but interested parties can pre-register to hear when the card rolls out.

There is a £4.99 set-up fee and £4.99 monthly subscription fee, while cardholders will have one free ATM withdrawal per week, then 99p thereafter.

A total of 7.5% of profits go directly back to Alzheimer’s Society.

IS THIS REALLY NEEDED?

The number of people with dementia is projected to increase rapidly over the next several decades, largely due to increases in life expectancy and population demographics.

Currently there are an estimated 517,000 people living with dementia in the UK, which is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2050. This year 209,600 will have developed this progressive illness, which is one every three minutes, and the affected are not just the elderly.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT

In the past couple of years ACS has worked with the Alzheimer’s Society to help convenience retailers and their employees better understand and support customers living with dementia.

The charity’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of this debilitating illness and convenience retailers have thrown themselves behind the initiative, and it’s because of this partnership, we can see Sibstar really being supported in the sector.