A retired social worker who has spent the past year doing humanitarian work across Ukraine – frequently dodging missiles and other attacks – was left with no access to her pension or life savings after Lloyds Banking Group, possibly fearing she was a sanctions risk, shut her bank account.
Fiona Hancock and her partner, Robert Paliwoda, have been working as volunteers helping women and children across various parts of the country since June last year.
She says Kherson, where they are now, has been under shelling and missile attacks for most of the time, and is facing serious flooding after the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam this month.
During their year in Ukraine, the pair from Trawden in Lancashire, have mostly been using Robert’s account, accessing money through local ATMs “as and when there has been enough electricity to power them, and when local curfews allowed”.
It was about only six weeks ago when Hancock tried to access her bank account that she discovered Lloyds had shut it down without her knowledge.
It has emerged that in March, the bank wrote to Hancock at her Lancashire home asking her to fill in an “ongoing know your business/customer” form. When she failed to respond as she was still in Ukraine and did not see a text message the bank sent – she says her phone no longer works except via WhatsApp – Lloyds swiftly shut the account.
Hancock said she had not used her card in Ukraine before the closure but had logged in to her account from the country. The closure process took less than six weeks.
“Life here is unbelievably difficult and we had earmarked the £5,000 or so in the account to help fund the next bit of our work here … Every time we do a run to collect an aid package, it costs around £300, and we desperately need that money,” the couple said via a WhatsApp call.
Hancock added: “Only after I emailed the Lloyds media team was I emailed a letter explaining what had happened. It seems they have sent a cheque with the balance to my [UK] home, which is currently housing two Ukrainian families, but that’s no good to me here.”
She explained that the account had originally been opened as a business account for her social work enterprise in 2021. “They did all their ID checks at the time. I can only assume it was closed because we are in Ukraine.”
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At the Guardian’s suggestion, Lloyds swiftly cancelled the cheque sent to Hancock’s UK home, and has instead paid the money into a Halifax account she also holds.
A Lloyds spokesperson said: “From time to time we need to contact existing customers to confirm their ID to protect customers and their money. Where we do not receive confirmation or a reply, we will give notice to close accounts.
“Unfortunately, in this instance, we missed the opportunity to pay the money from the closed Lloyds business account to Ms Hancock’s personal account. We are sorry for the inconvenience this caused and have now done that, we’ve also made an additional payment as a gesture of goodwill.”