Compulsary Power of Attorney?

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

Does anyone know if I would be able to get one of these for my Gran?

She is 92 and senile and has moved into a nursing home. But her old sheltered housing place won't let me give them 4 wees notice. My Gran has to, but she is far too senile to do it.

So at the minute she's paying £400 a week for nursing home and £500 a month for sheltered housing. The sheltered hosuing are being very unhelpful, guess it benefits them as they keep getting the money.

My Gran won't agree to power of attorney as she is convinced that everyone is after her money.

When we set up our power of attorneys then we had to do it while we were still of sound mind (debatable maybe with a newborn baby!). So the standard arrangement won't apply as your gran is already senile. Could someone (very trustworthy) in your family get their names on her accounts? We did this with my grandfather so that family members could pay his bills etc. when he started to get too frail.

It might be worth asking the GP about what is available once a family member is not mentally capable too. They will know, as the GP is usually one of the people who signs off that the person really is incapable.

Good luck, it's such a sad situation isn't it?

or rather isn't capable

Thanks for that.

She won't let us put names on her accounts and obviously the bank won't do anything without her say so.

ave just rung a solicitor and they said we need a Court Of Protection not a Power of Attorney. But that its something we sort out ourselves not through a solicitor.

Do you have a decent social worker for your Gran? They could also be a good source of information.

She does seem good, am trying to get hold of her now. Its so difficult as social worker, gran, nursing home, etc are all a 2 hour journey away.

My mum just rang up crying, hysterical and saying she feels suicidal with the stress. She's just spoken to my Gran and told her to take a taxi from the nursing home back to the sheltered housing!! Then she rang the sheltered housing people and told them that seeing as they won't accept notice then she's goign to move back in and they can deal with her! OK.

Your poor Mum. I think that my Dad aged about 10 years when he went through it with my grandfather. I'm impressed that she has the balls to send your Gran over to the dreadful sheltered housing place though.

see this website
public guardian

it might be worth ringing them to see what they can do quickly.

Who arranged the transfer to the nursing home?

also speak to Help the Aged, they really know what they are doing

sorry I meant Age Concern

website

If your gran needs any kind of care my understanding is that the sheltered housing people won't keep her there. I speak from bitter experience as my 93 yo Grandmother was given notice as she needed a carer in each day and this was not acceptable - she'd only been there 20 years!

I would give the sheltered housing people 4 weeks notice, clear the flat out, and say from x date you won't be paying any more rent, and if they choose to sue a senile elderly lady for it you will be contacting the local press. You could threaten to go to the press sooner. You also need to get hold of the tenancy agreement for the sheltered accomodation, as it may specify what the notice period is. they'd have to accept notice if she died, so what's the difference?

If your Nan has been paying Council Tax on the sheltered accommodation, then the following may be of help as she could qualify for an exemption as she is classed as severely mentally impaired:

'An individual is considered Severely Mentally Impaired, for Council Tax purposes, if they have a Severe Impairment of intelligence and social functioning (however caused), which appears to be permanent. This includes people who are suffering from a degenerative brain disorder such as Alzheimer's disease, a stroke or other forms of dementia.

To qualify, a doctor must confirm, on request, that his/her patient does have a permanent mental illness.
and
In addition, to qualify for the disregard the person must be entitled to (though not necessarily in receipt of) one of the following benefits: -

• Invalidity Pension / Long Term Incapacity Benefit
• Attendance Allowance / Constant Attendance Allowance
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Highest / Middle rate of Care Component of Disability Living Allowance
• Disabled Persons Tax Credit
• Increase in Disablement pension (because constant attendance is needed)
• Unemployability Supplement / Allowance
• Income Support with Disability premium

Thanks for all the help.

I rang the sheltered housing back and they decided to inform me that my brother already has power of attorney!! Why they wouldn't/didn't tell my mum that this morning I have no idea. Why my brother has never told us I have no idea. Although he doesn't really keep in touch and wasn't aware of how bad Gran is at the moment.

Well I've got hold of my brother and told him to contact the shelterd housing and also the solicitor. So hopefully things will get moving.

But he reckons he will still need to do the Court Protection thing before he can touch her money and was worried about paying the deposit for the new nursing home. I told him not to worry as she has 8k in her current account and I have her card and PIN. He then reckoned that I can't use her money like this and its his job to stop me. Mmmmmmm. She'll lose the place at the nursing home if I don't.

Has your brother seen your Gran recently? I mean, does he realise how mentally frail she is now? It sounds as though he takes the whole attorney thing very seriously and feels that it's his job to "protect" his Gran. Except of course, that what she really needs is for him to understand the situation and take control for her.
Could he talk to the doctor or social worker so that they could explain the situation to him? If he's going to have power of attorney, then like I said, they will be involved anyway.
Fingers crossed for you.

He hasn't seen her in years but is now going tomorrow to meet the Social Worker which is great.

However he's also said that if Gran doesn't want to come to this great nursing home that me and mum found her then she won't be coming. Tried to make him understand that she can't make a decision in her best interest.