Alzheimer's and Power of Attorney

[HeadDoctor]

Is anyone able to help with how this works?

My father has early onset Alzheimer's and I'm going to need to sort both the financial and health POA but I don't really know where to start. My PIL have done it for their parents and said it cost them £1000. I don't have a £1000 and my father is on benefits and has no savings. Would he be entitled to some sort of legal aid?

[HeadDoctor]

www.lawpack.co.uk/power-of-attorney/product713.asp

Would this kit be a terrible idea? As far as I know he has no assets at all and is likely to have numerous debts.

[MissMuffetisin]

Try citizens advice bureau or age uk, or the Alzheimer's association website. Think Tescos do a fill it in and send it off form too.

[MissMuffetisin]

You need to do it whilst he has capacity .

[SmokeFree]

Hi HeadDoctor

I would save your money and not bother with that kit. They're is a gov.uk site which had all the forms and guidance notes you need. In fact it even has a tool where you can fill in the required info and the tool completes the forms for you.

If your father is on means tested benefits or similar then he may be eligible for the application fee exemption. It should have the info on the site.

The main question at the moment is whether your father has the capacity to make an LPA. Part of the process is getting a certificate provider to certify that your father understands the nature of the document and the power it gives the attorneys.

I'll see if I can find the website I'm on about.

[SmokeFree]

www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview

sorry I'm on my phone and not sure how to do a clicky link

[SmokeFree]

www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-lasting-power

This should take you to the online tool.

Hope this helps.

[HeadDoctor]

Thank you so much, I'll have a read of those.

[ARightOldPickle]

Don't pay lots of money to do it, it's fairly straightforward using the gov.co.uk forms. Me and my sister did it jointly for my mum, glad we did as she now has quite advanced dementia.

[CMOTDibbler]

My mum was assessed as having capacity after diagnosis (personally I thought it was dubious, but apparently its whether they understand at the time, not that they retain that information)

[ARightOldPickle]

We did mum's just after diagnosis, it depends how much they are affected at the time. She still had the capacity to understand what it was about as she was diagnosed quite early on.

[SlightlyJaded]

My mum was assessed as having capacity several months after a diagnoses of Vascular Dementia.

She couldn't tell the Solicitor what she'd had for lunch and wasn't sure what month it was but could articulate perfectly how stressful she found the responsibility of handling her finances and how she feared getting into a muddle in the future.

A diagnoses doesn't immediately revile capacity. I now have POA and it's such a relief for both of us.

[SlightlyJaded]

Revile(?) = revoke

[Dowser]

Try to avoid deputy as much as possible.
It's very expensive and there's a nightmare of a form to fill in each year unless you are an accountant

[springalong]

I am in a similar situation for my dad. Why is the deputy form easier for accountants? (Just curious as I am one!)

[CMOTDibbler]

Being a deputy is much more formal than having PoA (not that there aren't a lot of legal responsibilities with that), and you have to submit accounts each year as a deputy showing exactly what money has been spent on - so if you are used to doing such things I guess its not as onerous. But it costs lots more, takes much longer to get in place, and has ongoing hassles of its own which is why getting PoA is much better

[springalong]

thank you for details.