Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Those elderly people should be informed that they have sums of money saved up for them and that they have to pay Zakah on this money if it reaches the nisab.
Answering your question, The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’, issued the following fatwa:
Those elderly people should be informed that they have sums of money saved up for them and that they have to pay Zakah on this money if it reaches the nisab (the minimum amount on which Zakah is due) and a hawl (one lunar year calculated from the time a property reaches the minimum amount upon which Zakah is due) passes on it.
As for senile old people, those in charge of their money have to pay the Zakah due on it.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.