Deputyship for adult child

[ConcernedParent7643]

Hi, our son is in his early 20s and has insufficient mental capacity to make his own decisions. My wife and I have been asked by professionals numerous times whether we have deputyship and thus started the arduous process of applying for both Finance and Personal Welfare deputyships. After getting everything ready, incuding the COP3/COP4/COP15 form to other people, and many calls to the COP (who are very helpful) after a final call to the COP a spoke to different person who went into lot more detail into the process and asked questions around the Welfare application such as what specific problem are you encountering/what examples do you have that require the Welfare deputyship.

To date, we have been able to manage fine without deputyship. Doctors, dentists etc have been understanding and other than asking whether we are his deputies we have had no issues. COP responded that our application would be unlikely to be approved by the judge as we are requesting to be deputies based upon ensuring any future decisions around our son's welfare, rather than an immediate need. We were advised that if we ever had a specific need then we would apply requesting an emergency order. We've also read that Welfare deputyship is not commonly approved.

We had never considered/were aware of deputyship, until professionals, mainly social workers, brought it up and one in particular who fear mongered about what could happen, bad experiences etc this leading to our application.

Given the response from the COP, and the fact that my wife is already an appointee to manage his benefits (he has no other finances), we're now questioning why we would apply to be his deputies at all. The finance is covered by being an appointee and we have no immediate need for Welfare so it would likely not be approved anyway (according to the person i spoke to). Ideally we would have this in place for future use but if it's going to be rejected there's not much point in proceeding, particularly at a cost of a non-refundable £421.

Does anyone have experience of gaining welfare deputyship as a general request rather than a specific urgent need?

Dh has it for finance to be able to manage dsds finances, it’s essential past 18 if they do not have capacity to manage affairs. They do not have it for health because there’s no need, all health is managed by “best interests” meaning in collaboration with healthcare professionals, social services and her parents. He needed to cop deputyship to be able to sign her lease, her care contract, open a bank account suitable for someone without capacity etc

My daughter (28) has severe learning difficulties and autism and my husband and I have health and welfare deputyship. I am her DWP appointee and we didn’t pursue that one as her only income is from benefits.

Financial deputyship is easier to obtain. We had no urgent need for the health and welfare deputyship and it was very much about future proofing. My own experience is that health professionals will listen to your views but social care can be very different and it prevents them making dreadful decisions that they consider “best interests” eg where my daughter could live and with whom. The court order is very specific as to what is included.

Similar circumstances to you, we applied for both deputyships, got the financial one but the judge rejected the health and welfare one for the reasons you’ve been warned about Concerned. Annoying waste of time and money.

There will be a change in circumstances coming up in a few years and depending how that goes, we may be applying for an emergency health and welfare deputyship again then, fingers crossed we get it if we need it.

Thanks for the responses. We did not proceed with either of the deputyship applications. We called Mencap and the person we spoke to was very knowledgable and confirmed that only applications that are required to resolve a specific issue would be accepted. In that circumstance you highlight an urgent response is needed so it is more quickly reviewed. Excerpt from the Mencap email below. They are an extremely useful resource and would have saved us an awful lot of time if we had contacted them in the first instance. Unfortuately social workers can give unintential misinformation around deputyships and scare stories too.

Sharing this in case someone else is finds themselves in a similar situation.

Important!
I wanted to make you aware that a lot of Deputyship applications are turned down for Property and Finances if the person only has income from welfare benefits.
Deputyship is usually for someone with substantial savings, property in their name, inheritances or are unable to access a fund/ ISA or bank account that is in the person’s name.

Deputies for Health and Welfare are also rare, as decisions regarding these issues can usually be made in the person’s best interests by those providing care or treatment.
However, if there is a disagreement as to what is in the person’s best interests, or the decision relates to serious medical treatment, it may be necessary to ask the court to intervene.
The Court of Protection does not usually appoint deputies to make ongoing decisions about someone’s health and welfare unless they need regular treatment or supervision.