Power of Attorney

Beenie

There is no house to sell (rented accommodation), no investments or savings. Mothers income is all state pension, credits, housing benefit and -all being well in a few weeks - Attendance Allowance.

The GP rings me to discuss mother's meds and state of mind.

The LA have been dealing with me since early January when carers were appointed.

DWP have granted me appointeeship for her future benefit payments.

What I want to achieve is going into the bank and arranging for DDs etc. and a contactless card for her carers to use to buy minor items. I also want to have a say in which care home she is eventually placed ; this is why I have explored POA and being a third party mandate/joint signatory on her account.

lisyloo

Have you asked the bank what the options are?
I doubt whether giving carers a card is an option (any reason they can!!!8217;t have cash?)

We dealt with care homes and hospital without a POA.
It was very difficult to find one that fitted all the criteria - LA budget, close, decent standards, availability and met needs and future needs. There are some dreadful ones out there.
If the staff put their owns mums in there then that!!!8217;s a good sign.

I know it!!!8217;s been said before but you can get POA if she isn!!!8217;t in a position to agree. The only option then is deputyship. We are looking at that now but only becuase we will probably have a property to sell and that can!!!8217;t be done any other way.

Beenie

I have an appointment with the bank next week. Mother will have to be present as account holder, and to agree to me being a joint signatory/third party mandate or whatever it's called.

However, if mother fails to get up and get dressed properly we won't make it into town, and we will be back to square one.

Savvy_Sue

I'm fairly sure there are cards available where you top up in advance and that's all that can be spent, however there's a monthly charge and probably a topup fee too. And I think you'd have to give one to each carer, which could prove problematic.

I'd ask the agency what they suggest. I can see that there may be problems with keeping cash in the house for the carers to reimburse themselves for small items, so there's no easy answer ...

Beenie

Cash isn't a good solution. If I lived reasonably close to my mother, then it would be easy to top up her cash reserve. However, I am at the opposite end of the country, and travel is expensive (even with a senior rail card there are still taxis and overnight accommodation to take into account). There is no-one else to pop a £20 note in her purse, so my solution was internet shopping on her behalf.

Biggles

Beenie wrote: »

I have an appointment with the bank next week. Mother will have to be present as account holder, and to agree to me being a joint signatory/third party mandate or whatever it's called.

If she passes that test in front of bank staff, it would mean they consider her (at that time) capable of giving the authority. It follows that it's very likely she'll also pass the mental capacity test for completing a PoA. See how well she manages.