No Power of Attorney-Dementia

Lily1

My mum has Alzheimers and my step father was advised by the Mental Health team to get a Power of Attorney, that was over 18 months ago.
At a meeting today with all the family it was brought up again. Can anyone advise what would happen if he does not get one put in place.

My mum is very aggressive and totally unaware of her situation, unable to cook, dress properly etc and my step father does everything for her. I wonder if it is too late for her to agree to sign this anyway.

I think he has already moved a lot of their money into his own name so the only asset is their house. Can you envisage any problems if things are left the way they are? The doctor said previously that it would be very expensive if it was to go to court in the future, but I could not see a reason why it would, unless he meant if she was reluctant at a later stage to go into a home.

Any help would be appreciated, it would be nice to let sleeping dogs lie.

jennie-jack

my parents have power of atturney for my granddad as he isnr capable of making his own decisions. it helped out whne some scam artist tried to sell him a new wheelchair. they emptied wallet and took a scribble on paper as a signiture. with power of attourney my parents could cancel the order and complain about the guy who had taken his cash.

Lily1

Thanks for that. We have been through all those times when mum believed she was in line for many wonderful prizes, but now she isn't ever alone long enough and is totally confused about money. I suspect there wouldn't be much harm while her husband is alive to leave things as they are.

anmarj

the power of attorney is the where the donar agrees to hand power over to somebody else, when they become mentally incapable then it has to go through the court of protection to be continued, if that person is not mentally capable then a power of attorney cannot be given, the only option is that the person has to apply for guardianship, like POA is a lengthly process. if he has moved money into his own name and she went into a care then the social services could think that she has deprived herself of assests to gain financial funding, which means they could treat her as still having that money. I am not meaning to scare you with that, but it could be a possiblity. the only real problem of not haveing POA is that if things need to be done ie contact with companies etc her husband will have difficulting in dealing with it. ie they may not speak to him and discuss/dislcose things to him.