Court of protection

dibdabable

Just wanted some feedback on people's experiences with the Court of Protection. We will sooner rather than later need to think about how to manage Dad's affairs as he has dementia and sadly really lacks mental capacity to make any decisions now.
We don't need to do anything just yet but we feel that it's possible there may come a time, quite soon, when he will need more care than we can give and obviously that care would need to be paid for. He is not capable of dealing with this himself.

We were looking into the Court of Protection and the idea of becoming a Deputy, he is way beyond Power of Attorney unfortunately. In looking at this online, I have come across some pretty awful stories where families are not granted this and the Court actually takes over the care of that person's affairs, acting in their "best interest". So I just wanted to know if people have had any experience good or bad. Thanks.

Robinette

I am a deputy appointed by the court of protection and can honestly say that I have had very few problems. The only issues I have experienced are the length of time it takes to set up the deputyship in the first place and then to deal with any subsequent requests, and the amount they charge in fees.


My mum has dementia and her care home fees are paid by NHS continuing care. This is not means tested, so look into it.


Happy to answer any questions you may have.

dibdabable

Thanks for that Robinette, just want to do the right thing really. I'm not too worried about the wait, it's what we envisage needing in the next 3/4 months, the way Dad's condition is declining.I'll see if anyone else has anything to add.

Thanks for the mention of continuing care, I've seen this before whilst reading around Care Homes etc. We're hoping to keep Dad in his own home for as long as possible, it's the only place he seems to remotely recognise at present. If you don't mind me asking was your Mum granted the Continuing Care simply on the basis of her Dementia?

Robinette

dibdabable wrote: »

Thanks for the mention of continuing care, I've seen this before whilst reading around Care Homes etc. We're hoping to keep Dad in his own home for as long as possible, it's the only place he seems to remotely recognise at present. If you don't mind me asking was your Mum granted the Continuing Care simply on the basis of her Dementia?

Yes, Mum was granted continuing care purely on the basis of her dementia. It was not something we were aware of and we were totally shocked to find that she did not have to pay the £750 per week for her care! Having read about the problems other people can experience when applying for continuing care, we were very lucky.

Are you aware of the Talking Point forum? It is an Alzheimer's Society resource and is a real goldmine of information. You can find it here: http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/forum.php?gclid=CNCAjpySkrwCFYWWtAodD00AYQ.

dibdabable

Thanks I'll look into that. It's amazing what is out there and what many people just happen to come across, so thanks for verifying that. It all helps at a time which is as you'll know very worrying and sad.

tyllwyd

I'm aware of the Court of Protection but from reading transcripts of the judgments rather than having had personal experience of the court.


But the impression I have is that the judges genuinely want to act in the best interests of the person who lacks capacity - although that might not be what the people around them want because of family conflicts, someone wanting to take advantage financially and all the rest of it. If you read stories online, I'm guessing these are posted by the family members rather than the court - if you knew all the facts, it might be that they are only telling one side of the story and there might be good reasons why the judges made the orders they did.

dibdabable

tyllwyd wrote: »

I'm aware of the Court of Protection but from reading transcripts of the judgments rather than having had personal experience of the court.


But the impression I have is that the judges genuinely want to act in the best interests of the person who lacks capacity - although that might not be what the people around them want because of family conflicts, someone wanting to take advantage financially and all the rest of it. If you read stories online, I'm guessing these are posted by the family members rather than the court - if you knew all the facts, it might be that they are only telling one side of the story and there might be good reasons why the judges made the orders they did.

Yes I was sort of coming to that conclusion and felt there had to be a bit more to these stories than meets the eye. Fortunately we are a large and united family particularly where our parents are concerned, having all nursed our Mum up until her death last year. We're all fortunate enough to be financially okay and we're in close contact with Dad's GP who knows him and us very well, so I don't envisage a problem, but like you had come across some stories where things seemed to have gone very wrong. Thanks for your input.

Goldiegirl

It was 10 years ago, but I applied to the Court of Protection, to act for my mum.

I didn't bother to use a solicitor to set this all up, I downloaded all the forms from the Internet, and completed them and sent them direct to the Court.

The forms were many pages long, and it took a while to complete them and several weeks for me to be authorised, but I couldn't fault the way that the Court acted - it was all pretty straightforward really.

But this was a very simple case. I was my mum's only child, so I was the only person who wanted to act for my mum, and the Court deemed me an acceptable person to act.

I would suggest starting the process sooner rather than later, as it does all take time

nlj1520

I am the Deputy for my (disabled) son. At the time I applied to the Court of Protection, I and 2 other mothers were setting up a new service for our son's adult placement, so we were REALLY busy and stressed more than usual. I therefore decided to use a solicitor to make sure the forms were done correctly. I discussed with the paralegal that I met at the solicitor's offices how to keep the costs down and although it was a lot of money, I am glad I did it. I didn't have the confidence to be sure I was filling in the forms correctly. As we were close to signing a tenancy I was able to get an interim order from the court empowering me to sign that, as the full Deputyship was going to take longer.
The solicitor and the Court of Protection offices were all really helpful and made it as easy as possible.
If you are very busy, can afford it and think it might be helpful, maybe consider using a solicitor. Make sure you find one who is familiar with the process (to keep costs down) and one who uses a suitable level of staff......it doesn't need to cost you at qualified solicitor's rates for this sort of application. They usually have legal assistants who do this and they have a lower fee rate.
I am sure this will all go smoothly for you. Neither myself or any of my 'Mum's network' in similar situations have had a problem.

dibdabable

Thanks so much everyone for your observations and comments. I think I should be able to handle the forms etc, having done other legal stuff pretty successfully in the past for various things.

I wonder alsoif anyone knows if it's common to have two deputies, so that if for example something happened to one the other could take over, don't know if anyone ahs any experience of this at all.

Robinette

dibdabable wrote: »

I wonder alsoif anyone knows if it's common to have two deputies, so that if for example something happened to one the other could take over, don't know if anyone ahs any experience of this at all.

I am a joint deputy with my brother. You can be deputies jointly (acting together) or severally (acting independently). We actually wanted the latter but our solicitor got her wires crossed and it took so long to get the order that we couldn't face applying for an amendment. It has worked out fine for us, even though we live in different parts of the country.