LPA health and welfare

Bobinyorkshire

I’ve filled both LPAs in for me and my wife and I’m just deciding over who could be our certificate provider. Would a mutual friend of many years, who’s a practice nurse at a local GP surgery, be acceptable? I also feel that I’m missing something as the forms seemed easy to fill and did not take long, but a local solicitor quoted several hundred pounds to complete on our behalf. Does this seem right?

elsien

That would be fine. It just needs to be someone who knows you well enough to confirm that you do know what you’re doing and you understand the implications. Parent used the next door neighbour.
It’s worth paying a solicitor, if it’s a complex LPA, for example, my brother has two for finances, a personal one and a business one. Something very straightforward where you’ve not put a lot of detail can easily be done yourself. 

Flugelhorn

Bobinyorkshire said:

I’ve filled both LPAs in for me and my wife and I’m just deciding over who could be our certificate provider. Would a mutual friend of many years, who’s a practice nurse at a local GP surgery, be acceptable? I also feel that I’m missing something as the forms seemed easy to fill and did not take long, but a local solicitor quoted several hundred pounds to complete on our behalf. Does this seem right?

I would say it was fine to ask a friend to do this - the problem with getting someone who is clinically qualified is if the whole thing was ever challenged  that they may be expected to have done  more of an assessment as to mental capacity than a friend would have done. 

You aren't missing anything, the forms are straightforward - solicitors can make the process more complicated. 

Savvy_Sue

Solicitors will - or at least should - make you think about all the 'what if' questions, and will - or at least should - avoid some apparently common mistakes, especially of signing things in the wrong order. 

for example, they will explain the difference between appointing your attorneys to act 'jointly and severally' or 'jointly' - I think the first instance, any one of them can act for you, sign documents etc. Whereas if they are only empowered to act 'jointly', then a) they all have to agree and b) they all have to act / sign together. I think - again a solicitor would clarify this - that if one of those only empowered to act 'jointly' dies before the person granting the power, then the whole document fails and you have to start again, which may or may not be possible. 

I'm not saying don't go down the DIY route. I am saying make sure you understand what you are doing. 

Bobinyorkshire

Thank you for your advice. They are simple LPAs with no replacement attorneys, people to notify or preferences/instructions. Furthermore, the attorneys are the spouse and our children only with jointly and seperatlly decision making. We just wanted to wait until our youngest was older than 18 before we went ahead. The solicitors quotes were so high I thought they would be very involved and I guess they can be. But at this time ours are very simple and not worth the outlay, especially if it changes in the future and we need to revisit

They are complete now and I will check again before paying. I’ve clarified that the certificate provider can witness all the attorneys and was hoping to get everyone together on the same date so hopefully no issues about the order of signatures.

My wife’s only income is her NHS pension and is less than £12k. Do you know if the advice note of her pension for 2023/2024 will suffice as evidence of her income?

tooldle

I have POA for mum’s finances. She didn’t want to do the Health and Welfare version (whole other story). I’ve subsequently run into difficulties as mum has dementia. I’ve found it impossible to get mum taken off clinic lists, diabetic retinopathy being an example. Mum does not understand what is said to her and hence cannot follow any instructions. As I don’t have ‘health and welfare’ the clinic default to the GP’s opinion. Much wasted time and money through missed appointments (apt letters sent to mum) etc. Our optician on the other hand took mum off his list on my say so.
Mum has a DoLS order, social worker seemed to imply the process would have been simpler had I had ‘health and welfare’ POA. 

Mum has a DNR, so at least that aspect is covered.

Malthusian

Savvy_Sue said:

for example, they will explain the difference between appointing your attorneys to act 'jointly and severally' or 'jointly' - I think the first instance, any one of them can act for you, sign documents etc. Whereas if they are only empowered to act 'jointly', then a) they all have to agree and b) they all have to act / sign together. I think - again a solicitor would clarify this - that if one of those only empowered to act 'jointly' dies before the person granting the power, then the whole document fails and you have to start again, which may or may not be possible. 

If one of the attorneys on a "joint only" POA dies, then the whole document does indeed fail. No need to contact a solicitor, see page 14 of the Government's guide. It is one of many reasons why ticking the "joint only" box is a schoolboy error. There are no sensible reasons to do it and lots not to.
I'm not discouraging anyone from taking professional advice if they think they need it, but there are a limited range of things that can go wrong with an LPOA, providing you register it immediately and don't overcomplicate it (e.g. including silly restrictions and instructions). For example, if you sign in the wrong order, the OPG will send it back and tell you to try again.
In terms of making mistakes, the worst case scenario is that you mess up your Lasting Power of Attorney so badly that it becomes unusable and your family has to go to the Court of Protection to deal with your affairs; which puts them in the same position as if you hadn't made it in the first place. (A wasted £82 aside.) With Wills, by contrast, a badly-written Will can make things worse than doing nothing (i.e. leaving it to the intestacy rules or the previous Will).