Power of attorney

[704703hey]

Elderly aunt is in a real muddle and wants me to get POA. I am not sure how to go about this, what do I do?

She needs visit a solicitor, and it makes life easier if you can go with het

www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney

There are 2 types, financial and medical - you can be both, but they have to be registered separately.

You can help her register it online, then you print the forms and she needs an independent witness to sign and say she is capable of making the decision. Then send of the forms and payment (£82 for each).

She needs to download the forms from the government website. There are two forms of POA, personal and financial, they cost about £78 each, and each needs a witness and a certificate provider. The certificate provider has to interview your aunt alone and without influences, to judge whether this is her own personal decision or not. If she is already "in a real muddle" she might be judged incapable of making the decision to appoint a POA.

ANyway, all the information is on the government website. Or a solicitor can do it for a cost - but you will still need witnesses and a certificate provider.

Read it slowly and carefully. It is possible to do it without a solicitor, but take your time and dot every i and cross every t. There are a huge amount of decisions your aunt needs to make, how many attorneys, how they make decisions, when they make decisions, whether they overrule medical decisions, what they bases decisions on, what preferences they want decisions based on, etc

I have cancer and recently signed POA over to my sons. It takes around 6 months to be processed, after the application, assuming you fill in the application correctly

Any further questions, please just ask. I will help if I can

yes, it might be £82. I guessed at £78 from memory, but it was just a ballpark figure. Yes, you do register and apply online, then download and print to get the forms witnessed.

I've had elderly people recently quoted £600/ £700 by a solicitor to do it so ty to do it it yourself if you can.

It is really easy to do yourself and the Office of the Public Guardian will help if you get stuck.
Do both health and financial. Fill it out on line and then get in signed.
The trickiest part is getting the various forms signed in the correct order.
Your aunt needs to decide how many Attorneys she needs. I would advice two. And to get them to make decision separately rather than jointly. You need someone to sign to say she is in sound mind,. We got mum’s neighbour.

Once it is done get her mail redirected so that you can keep a proper check on her.

Very slow at the moment, four or five months, but easy to do online.

What is her current state of mind like? You may be best getting a solicitor if there is possibly any doubt she's in sound mind when she signs it.

These are easy to do without a solicitor, you’ll need a witness and another person - friend of your aunt who can sign to confirm that she understands the implications of giving you authority. My MIL received one of the applicable benefits that meant that she didn’t have to pay the fee either.

You need a Lasting Power of Attorney and she needs to have capacity to understand the power she is giving you when she signs it. If you are worried that anyone else may come back and potentially make accusations that you got her to sign it when she didn't understand what she was doing then a capacity assessment would back you up.

My mum had been diagnosed with dementia but at that stage had the capacity to award LPA. She has two attorneys, my dad and my sister. They can act separately but it can be made so that joint attorneys have to act together. If one of them dies or retires I am named as a replacement attorney.

As others have advised there are two types financial and welfare and you can do them together. A solicitor is not needed but there are plenty who do this and again if there are likely to be any disputes you might want advice or support. Might take a little time to do the forms and will take a few months for the application.

It's good that your nan has told you she wants you to do this and is able and willing to talk about these things. This may also mean she would be okay to talk about other things in advance such as whether she has a Will and if not whether she wants to make one. What kind of medical decisions she might want you to make and whether she wants a funeral plan so she can choose now what she wants.

There is a guide on Age UK to LPA. An ordinary power of attorney is not valid when someone loses capacity. There is also guidance on the .gov website where you can make your application on not only the application but your responsibilities in carrying out the role.

www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/legal-issues/power-of-attorney/

You don’t need to go via a solicitor, you can fill the form in yourself and send of to the Office of the Public Guardian. You’ll need a witness eg her GP, or someone who knows her well who can confirm she still has capacity enough to understand and sign. Alternatively, if she doesn’t mind paying a few £100s, you could do it via a solicitor. If you DIY, read the form thoroughly before filling in. The witness cannot sign before you and your aunt.
Think about it though as it can be a lot to take on. I was POA for my late dad who had dementia and I basically had to do a 360 take over of his life.

I have done via a solicitor and myself. It’s not really easy. You do need to concentrate though if you do yourself but it saves you £££.

Why a solicitor? You can download and do yourself easily.

Have you managed to look at the forms online @704703hey?

Agree with the PP who said there's only a need to see a Solicitor if there is any doubt about her capacity.

If you're doing a financial POA, how do you both feel about a Health POA too?

They need to have capacity at the time when they sign the forms. So if there is a time delay in the process of getting them registered, only took about 6 weeks when we did DMs but that was a few years ago, it doesn’t matter if they start losing capacity in that time.

We set up the finance one to be active straight away, but the health one can only kick in when they lose capacity.

I hope treatment goes well 💖

Thank you all for your advice, I shall look at govt website. It does need to be done as when she was in hospital recently she lost her phone and card and it was a real nightmare trying to speak to phone company/bank/doctors without the correct authority. She is disabled and cannot leave her house at present so it's not like I can take her down.