Scottish Widows puts bar up on French prisoners

Scottish Widows had, for some time, been attempting to discover the whereabouts of my brother to send him his demutualisation payment. I informed them that he is currently­ held in one of France's penal establishments.­ It contacted him, asking him to fill in a questionnaire. He returned it with a note asking it to forward any future correspondence,­ and money owed, to me, at my address. They ignored this and promptly dispatched a cheque for £2,000 to France. The prison authorities are holding the cheque and he cannot do anything about it. I told Scottish Widows, but it said the matter could be resolved only by returning the cheque, which is impossible, or by me being granted power of attorney which, again, is not possible. BK, Doncaster The difficulty is, Scottish Widows' customer is your brother and without power of attorney, it cannot speak to anyone else about his money. The insurer says his letter, asking them to deal with you, had no legal backing and it confirmed that it cannot make payments to a third party, whatever the circumstances. But it did agree to write to both you and your brother, to explain the situation and to send a cheque, made out in your brother's name, to your address. This has now arrived. As he has an old, but still active, UK bank account, you can pay it in on his behalf. • Email Margaret Dibben at [email protected] or write to Margaret Dibben, Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. Letters are selected for publication and we cannot give personal replies. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.