Santander UK has announced a partnership with Sibstar that will allow it to refer customers who may need extra support managing their money directly to the Sibstar debit card and app, in an arrangement aimed at supporting people living with dementia, learning disabilities, or other conditions that make everyday spending harder to manage.
Sibstar is a debit card and app built around the idea that financial vulnerability should not mean financial exclusion. According to Long Finance, Sibstar is the UK’s first debit card and app designed specifically for people living with dementia, though its reach now extends to anyone who needs a structured way to manage day-to-day money.
How the Santander Sibstar referral arrangement works
Under the partnership, Santander will be able to refer customers and their families to Sibstar, but customers remain entirely free to decide whether to sign up. The Sibstar card and app will be provided and managed by Sibstar rather than Santander, so anyone who takes up the service is entering a direct relationship with Sibstar.
Once referred, a member of Sibstar’s dedicated Santander team will contact the customer to help them get set up. The debit card can be topped up directly from a Santander current account, making the process straightforward for existing Santander customers. Sibstar users can set daily and monthly spending limits, control how and where the card is accepted, and receive real-time notifications every time a transaction takes place.
The service does carry a cost: £4.99 per month, plus a one-off set-up fee of £4.99.
Graeme Cumming, head of vulnerable customer strategy at Santander UK, said: ‘For those living with dementia, learning disabilities or other health conditions, keeping on top of your everyday spending can become increasingly challenging. Through our new partnership with Sibstar, we’re helping customers who may need extra support, while maintaining their financial independence and giving families greater reassurance that their everyday spending is safe and supported.’
Sibstar’s background and the Santander Sibstar partnership in context
Sibstar was founded in 2020, according to PitchBook, which also records that the company has raised $1.75M in funding to date. One chapter in that fundraising journey was a well-known one: Sibstar appeared on Dragons’ Den, with founder and chief executive Jayne Sibley leaving with a £125,000 investment, according to the Dementia Support Forum run by Alzheimer’s Society.
Sibstar investor Sara Davies said: ‘I’ve seen first-hand through my own family how much peace of mind a product like this can give, and partnering with a bank like Santander means Jayne and the team can now reach so many more families who need that support.’
Jayne Sibley said: ‘Sibstar was built to support anyone who is financially vulnerable, whether that’s due to a learning disability, dementia, a mental health condition or simply a need for extra reassurance around scams and overspending.’
The people Sibstar supports include those living with dementia or learning disabilities, people managing a health condition, and those who are concerned about scams or overspending. That last group is broader than it might sound: financial scams disproportionately affect people who find it harder to spot unusual activity in their accounts, and the real-time notifications and spending limits the card provides are designed specifically to close those gaps.
Michelle Dyson CB, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘Managing money can become increasingly difficult for people living with dementia, leaving them more vulnerable to scams and financial abuse. Alzheimer’s Society is proud to have helped Sibstar to bring their innovative idea to life with our Accelerator Programme. This is a pioneering product which is shaped by people affected by dementia and supports their independence, safeguards their finances and gives families greater peace of mind.’
The Alzheimer’s Society connection runs deeper than an endorsement. Sibstar’s involvement with the Society’s Accelerator Programme means the product has been developed with direct input from people affected by dementia, rather than simply designed about them. That origin gives the Santander Sibstar partnership a grounding in lived experience that a purely commercial product would lack.
For Santander, the arrangement is part of its broader approach to what banks now call ‘vulnerable customer strategy’, a regulatory and ethical obligation to ensure that people facing difficult circumstances are not simply left without appropriate support. The bank is clear that its role here is referral only: it is Sibstar, not Santander, that will manage the ongoing relationship, the card, and the app.
