Power of Attorney

baser999

It’s got to the point now where our mother will be discharged from hospital, where she’s been for the past 6/7 weeks, into a nursing home. We’ve had a discussion with medical staff today and it’s decided this will be in her best interests as she can’t cope at home and the home would provide her with the assurance of 24/7 care as against double carers popping in four times daily. Costs would be comparable as we believe she’ll be self-funding.
She has premium bonds as well as another investment plan, in all funds of probably £120k, along with her pensions which the nursing costs will gradually eat into. She also has £8k in the bank.
She wrote a will some years ago along with a PoA however for whatever reason she chose not to send the PoA back. Would that PoA still have any effect if it was lodged now, many years after it was signed? We’re just wondering how we’re best going forward, paying nursing costs etc. We do have access to her debit card so can draw small amounts of money and pay stuff on-line. I suppose we cash in a tranche of the bonds and or the investment plan, money goes in the bank and we set up a DD for the nursing fees? 

RAS

And get clear guidance as to whether she's regarded as having capacity before you do anything.

Is this a Lasting Power of Attorney (Finance), which you need to get her to register ASAP, if she still has capacity. It's a slow process so you may need to talk to the local authority now. If she's lost capacity it takes longer.

If it's an EPA you can act on it now with her permission. Is she considered able to do that? You only may only need to register it is she's considered incapable, but in practical terms, it may not be easy to arrange access to some funds until it's registered. You'd need supporting evidence from the medics or SS. It takes a few months.

In either case, you need the registered POA to fully manage her accounts if she can't consent. I had to take financial paperwork into mum, under assessment, and get her to sign it before the OPG registered the POA. 

Clarify and talk to SS, as they can fund short-term, essentially as a loan, and when her funds are liquidated, you repay them.

Flugelhorn

I certainly didn't send a PoA in to be registered for 2-3 years after it was completed and signed - delay was such that one of the people "to be told" was now in a nursing home herself.  Got registered fine - probably not the most sensible way of handling it but owing to family dynamics and difficult relationships I didn't want to be responsible for it all until I really had to be - far better to register it earlier

Mands

baser999 said:

II suppose we cash in a tranche of the bonds and or the investment plan, money goes in the bank and we set up a DD for the nursing fees? 

You won't be able to do those without the PoA being registered. The registration process is currently taking 20+ weeks so you are unlikely to have that in place this year.

That may impact how you approach this.

Mojisola

baser999 said:

It’s got to the point now where our mother will be discharged from hospital, where she’s been for the past 6/7 weeks, into a nursing home. We’ve had a discussion with medical staff today and it’s decided this will be in her best interests as she can’t cope at home and the home would provide her with the assurance of 24/7 care as against double carers popping in four times daily.
She has premium bonds as well as another investment plan, in all funds of probably £120k, along with her pensions which the nursing costs will gradually eat into. She also has £8k in the bank.

Is she getting Attendance Allowance?  As she needs care in a residential home, she should be entitled to the higher rate.

When you're self-funding, every income source is helpful.

baser999

RAS said:

And get clear guidance as to whether she's regarded as having capacity before you do anything.

Is this a Lasting Power of Attorney (Finance), which you need to get her to register ASAP, if she still has capacity. It's a slow process so you may need to talk to the local authority now. If she's lost capacity it takes longer.

If it's an EPA you can act on it now with her permission. Is she considered able to do that? You only may only need to register it is she's considered incapable, but in practical terms, it may not be easy to arrange access to some funds until it's registered. You'd need supporting evidence from the medics or SS. It takes a few months.

In either case, you need the registered POA to fully manage her accounts if she can't consent. I had to take financial paperwork into mum, under assessment, and get her to sign it before the OPG registered the POA. 

Clarify and talk to SS, as they can fund short-term, essentially as a loan, and when her funds are liquidated, you repay them.

Thank you, knowing the PoA might not need to be registered could be very useful; will need to check what type of PoA it is.
Will then speak to her medics to ensure that they’re happy to confirm that in their opinion she still has capacity; I’m assuming they provide us with documentation to this effect? 

Brie

the court of protection can help if mom isn't considered capable at this point. 

If she is capable see if you can either make her bank account joint or get 3rd party authority on it so you can deal with any of her bills while you're waiting on the POA.  Care homes will be very used to dealing with these situations so potentially their bills may be paid initially by the council while you get the money sorted.  In the meantime keep a close record of everything that is spent on her behalf so it can be paid back to whomever when possible.