Elderly relative being financially abused - Legal Power of Attorney

[prettydesertflower]

Hi,

We just found out an elderly relative is being take advantage of by a younger member of the family. After ignoring this relative for years, in the last 6 months they have taken up caring responsibilities and recently requested to be their Legal Power of Attorney. Sadly, it has come to light that they are taking money from our relative and taking items from their home. They recently told me they took hundreds of pounds from him their their toddlers birthday party. This older relative is very forgetful (will not remember giving money out) and has mounting debts so it looks like this individual is taking advantage of them. The younger person has a history of dishonesty and is know to social service for neglect and alleged physical abuse.

We have reported this to social services. We are trying to object to the LPA with difficulty as they are saying that only the nominated LPA can object. Surely if there is safeguarding concerns and prior contact with social services, they are not suitable to be an LPA?

Am I being reasonable to keep pushing for this person to be less involved?

We are at a loss as to how to help and make sure this lovely old man is safe.

Hi
im sorry this is happening in your family.
I believe you need to to contact the Court of Protection and make a formal request for this person to be removed from the LPA. You can phone them and speak about your concerns and they will advise.
Also Social Services may be able to take this on a complete a Safeguarding.
Do press on as your elderly relative may be in lot of danger from this person if there’s history of physical abuse.
Sending my good wishes

I had a very difficult situation where my DS took out a POA for DH who has dementia. POAs are very powerful and give the ability to control social aspects-up to who turns off your life support and any financial matters.

Removing it really requires the input of the person who is the subject of the POA. We had this, but removal involved solicitors, medical reports and considerable costs.

If you do not have agreement of the elderly relative it will be very difficult to remove the LPA and the consequences can be significant. In theory, the LPA has to be operated in a way which is consistent with the needs and interests of the donor. However, in practice this is very difficult to prove and money will have been spent. SS are unlikely to intervene unless the abuse is significant.

Are you in England? Has the POA been signed by the elderly relative ? Do you know whether it’s for medical and financial purposes? I have POA for my mother and it had to go through quite a rigorous process legally with me leaving the room to make sure mum wasn’t being coerced etc

Report your concerns to opg and adult social services. I have been going through something similar over the last few years and opg took a year to assign my case to an investigator I hope you have more success than I did as I found opg ss and police just pass the buck to each other and all have been useless in protecting my dm

@jeaux90when we set up poa for dm we just completed the forms we were sent and dm next door neighbour who is a solicitor witnessed us all signing them. I presume my dsis just did the same when she convinced dm to remove me

Hourglass are very good at providing advice and support op. You can call or text them

@Spendysissorry about your experience it really shouldn’t be that easy!

Report your concerns to the OPG. https://www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy-guardian

Thank you. I will have to look into the court of protection as I am not familiar with them but this gives another potential option.

Thankfully I have his full agreement. He is 80 and finds the process very overwhelming hence why we are trying to help.

We are in England and its for health and welfare. He did agree to it then wanted it changed. I am assuming there is not a financial LPA as this would be risky but I am not sure how to find out.

That is good. We used a solicitor, but you could also do the removal yourself. The advantage to the solicitor route is that they will stamp the revocation form which you can then forward on to banks and other bodies to demonstrate no further cash can be taken. Also practically then change PIN numbers and access codes. The process takes a considerable time (in our case a couple of months to complete), and to be aware the current recipient of the POA will be informed and can object to the removal. In our case DS took the opportunity to make a safeguarding complaint against us.

Also be aware at attempts to change a will and for house deeds to be amended. Note there is no way to check on a will.

Also you or a solicitor can check if a financial POA has been registered.

Does the elderly person have capacity? How did the person take the money for the party did they help themselves or did the elderly person agree to giving it to them

You can find out if financial poa has been registered and as far as I am aware can be then activated at anytime with the bank unlike health and welfare where it has to be proved the person no longer has capacity

They have capacity but are very forgetful with early stages of dementia

Office of the Public Guardian - OPG. These are the people to raise concerns with

If the person is deemed as having capacity it’s going to be tricky I speak from experience and I’ve been through an opg investigation and we are talking tens of thousands of pounds doing an equity release on the property and as far as I am aware but won’t know til dm passes a change of will. Dm was forgetful couldn’t be bothered with money trusted dsis and although i didn’t know if she was deemed as having capacity i always stated dsis had cut her off from the rest of her family isolated her manipulated her and coerced her opg don’t deal with that just facts police closed down their case while waiting on opg findings ss can’t get involved while opg are investigating or over rule them so you just end up in a vicious circle. Opg can’t tell me anything as I was removed as equal poa but ss who I had to contact to confirm it was my dm in the local care home as a friend saw her there advised she had capacity at the time so i presume that’s it case closed ss also let slip dm is nhs funded no idea why when her house is worth £600k currently being rented out to line dsis pockets at £2k a month no wonder she wanted me and my adult dc dm only gc who she was very involved with out the way