Lasting Power of Attorney and students

della11 · 13 July 2014 at 12:34PM

I have LPA for my Aunt.
She's self funded in a care home.

Up until now I have only spent money from her account on the usual annual celebrations (birthdays/Xmas etc) for her relatives in the same manner that she had done for many years previously.

She would now like to help her great niece, my daughter, financially through uni. not with fees but a contribution towards living costs/rent etc.

I thought it best to spread the amount over the year rather than lump sum and so it works out at just over £30 pw.

I am concerned about setting this up though as I'm obviously aware of Deprivation of Assets, although the financial assessment has already been completed.

Aunts assets should last for many years with the sale of her property incidentally.

Savvy_Sue · 13 July 2014 at 7:56PM

does your aunt still have capacity to understand her finances, but just wants you to do the leg work, as it were?

Has she helped anyone else in this way before the LPA kicked in?

Is it likely that any other relatives will object to this?

My gut feeling is that no-one will care about Deprivation of Assets as long as your aunt's money lasts longer than she does, but if there's any concern that it might not, or if anyone else might say "della's using aunty's money on her daughter" then getting her to sign something to say that this is her own decision not made under your influence might be worth considering.

Because it's two things to consider: Deprivation of Assets, AND the fact that as an attorney you have to use the money for the other person's benefit.

If there's a previous history of Aunty helping any relative who's a student, and she's still capable of expressing her wishes, you're on stronger ground. If you got jealous siblings eyeing up her dosh, not so easy.

della11 · 15 July 2014 at 4:36PM

Thanks for your reply.

Firstly there are no other relatives apart from my other children, who are now working adults.
No one else has gone to uni nor really needed financial help.

Finally capacity, in all honesty its her memory that's a bit flaky from time to time, shes also bed bound.

I don't really know why I'm worried about setting this up, guess because I might not be able to prove it to be genuine in the future if necessary should capacity be totally lost.

Not even able to get her to write it down as her penmanship is completely illegible.

Savvy_Sue · 15 July 2014 at 5:33PM

Is she incapable of signing anything?

If DofA isn't likely to be a problem (and only you can do the sums there) then I'd do it, but if memory is a problem I'd prefer to have something in writing ...

Lasting Power of Attorney and students

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