Accounts of parents with Dementia

le_loup

.......... and 87.5% work perfectly.

elsien

jack_pott wrote: »

There was a high court judge on the Today program this morning arguing that Power of Attorney is a really bad idea. In his experience 12.5% of all PoAs are abusive, and in 90% of those, the abuser is the family. Here at 1h52m.

And here.

Having seen the financial difficulties caused when people suddenly lose capacity and their family have no means to pay the mortgage or have money for day to day living (extreme example, but it happens) what did he suggest as an alternative?

le_loup

He suggested applying to his Court of Protection which we all know is fast, simple and cheap.

poppy10_2

elsien wrote: »

Having seen the financial difficulties caused when people suddenly lose capacity and their family have no means to pay the mortgage or have money for day to day living (extreme example, but it happens) what did he suggest as an alternative?

He suggested applying to the Court of Protection for Deputeeship
He acknowledged it was more expensive but argued that the difference in cost was negligible over the course of a typical LPA (3-4 years) and that there were far more safety checks when a judge appoints a Deputy, rather than any rando deciding to persuade a confused old dear to sign an LPA and getting their friend to witness it.
Makes sense to me, tbh

elsien

It would make more sense if there wasn't already a Court of Protection backlog of months. Sending all potential Attorney/deputyships there would cause it completely grind to a halt.

Keep_pedalling

People don't need to have an LPA in place to be financially abused, all someone needs is access to their bank cards and online access to their accounts. Many elderly people give relatives and friends this sort of access to help them out.

My mother is currently in care and without the authority to act as her attorney my life would be far more complex. Yes like other attorneys in my position I could easily steal from her, but I could do that without the LPA, what I could not do however is deal with the LA, the DWP and health workers. The vast majority of attornies do not abuse their position.

We are both fit and healthy, but no one knows if or when they will be struck down with something like a stroke or accident, so we have our LPA registered just in case. We trust each other and our children carry out their duties as attorneys, but hope they never have to do so.

Wellard_Mann

Some good points in the above posts. The Court of Protection seems to be overwhelmed as it is. It took nearly three months to register my father’s financial LPA – then another six weeks to correct an error they had made. OK mistakes happen but even so. I finally received it a couple of months before he passed. Fortunately, my mother was still around and kept things under control and she could speak for him on healthcare issues.

Also, even with the best will in the world, I can’t see how deputies would be able to make decisions quickly enough to be useful.

I acknowledge there are cases of abuse but, as others have pointed out, it’s easy enough to abuse the vulnerable by other means.

I’ve registered both financial and healthcare LPAs. Although I’m mostly healthy enough at the moment things can change in seconds. It gives me peace of mind and I trust my attorneys.