New power of attorney guide

Pollycat

NeilCr wrote: »

You could try ringing the Office of the Public Guardian

On this link

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-lasting-power

it says to contact them if you haven't got internet access so it might be that they will send paper forms out

Just a proper 'thank you' for this. :T

My friend contacted OPG and they've sent the paper forms out.

Grandad99

My wife and I set up Enduring POAs before the Lasting ones were introduced. They only cover financial matters so we need to set up Health Lasting ones.

Is there any difference between the Enduring and Lasting money ones that mean we should also do new money ones?

Keep_pedalling

lPAs are more flexible in that they can be used with the consent of the donor while the donor still has the mental capacity to act for themselves. Bearing in mind that your EPAs are at least 12 years old a review is probably worthwhile anyway.

Grandad99

Thanks Keep pedalling. Do we have a shared 2 wheeled interest?

Next stage is to start the process. Not sure that I fancy the DIY route but equally not the prices of the advertised fixed fee solicitors.

Found this website which looks too good to be true - has anyone used it? https://lpatodiefor.co.uk/our-services/

Browntoa

Do it yourself , it's easy.

If you make any mistakes they reply with copies of the relevant pages and what needs correcting.

I'd not recommend paying £80 extra for each LPA

Rosie1980

It's really easy to do online and you can save it as you go, so you don't have to do it all in one sitting. There is guidance throughout to help you. Give it a go, if you really don't get on with it you'll know it's worth paying for help with it.

Primrose

A query re our registered Health & Welfare P of A.

We have stipulated that our attorneys should be allowed access to our medical information should a medical emergency arise, along with certain other stipulations. I'm wondering whether as a matter of form, we should formally notify our GP surgery of these stipulations and whether there is any capacity on NHS records for these wishes to be recorded.

Can anybody clarify please?

Primrose

I heard details today of somebody who registered their P of A with a bank so they could look after the affairs of a mother who,s going to be in hospital for a while. Unfortunately bank cancelled mother,s credit and debit cards although she still has mental capacity (just not at home to be able to pay her bills) and hasn't yet issued replacement cards to attorney daughter so bills are piling up unpaid

So this is just a warning to anybody likely to find themselves in a similar position. Make sure the bank doesn,t cancel the credit or debit card of the donor if they still have mental capacity and ensure that both donor and attorney are still able to operate the account. It,a only when donor has lost mental capacity that the attorney should take over sole use of a card on the account.

Another case unfortunately of banking staff not fully understanding of powers of attorney are allowed to operate.

Spreadsheetman

Primrose wrote: »

I heard details today of somebody who registered their P of A with a bank so they could look after the affairs of a mother who,s going to be in hospital for a while. Unfortunately bank cancelled mother,s credit and debit cards although she still has mental capacity (just not at home to be able to pay her bills) and hasn't yet issued replacement cards to attorney daughter so bills are piling up unpaid

So this is just a warning to anybody likely to find themselves in a similar position. Make sure the bank doesn,t cancel the credit or debit card of the donor if they still have mental capacity and ensure that both donor and attorney are still able to operate the account. It,a only when donor has lost mental capacity that the attorney should take over sole use of a card on the account.

Another case unfortunately of banking staff not fully understanding of powers of attorney are allowed to operate.

Interesting. When I set the LPA up for my Father who banked with Barclays there was a section on the form where you had to declare whether the person still had capacity or not. If you selected the no-capacity option it would cancel the donors cards and send all mail to the attorney's address. The capacity option kept the donor's account as normal, but added the attorney in parallel.

It sounds like some banks aren't as organised for dealing with LPAs as Barclays are. (they were very good and quick)

Primrose

The bank concerned was a tiny branch of the Nationwide so perhaps it was a case of the individual member of staff concerned not being adequately familiar with the process. However, something to be aware of for the future as the attorney concerned in this case didn't have adequate spare funds of her own to meet her mother's outstanding bills.


I too found Barclays efficient when I needed to trigger P of A's for my parents and the process was very seamless. Some of the then building societies were pretty clueless though and I knew more than some of the staff did. Perhaps things have changed over the years. However, when it came to dealing with a subsequent death situation, Barclays were less effective. I think these are areas where perhaps staff training is not as effective as it might be across some branches.