LPA and additional needs (reposted as started in wrong forum)

Bomber_55

Hi all, I've searched forums but cannot find anything relevant to this? 
Friend has had a stroke (53yrs old) and is slowly recovering but needs to do her LPA. Her son is 24 but has needs (Autistic spectrum, Dyspraxia etc, communication). He is aware of money and responsibility and could in the future live independently. He would be the natural choice for LPA as all relatives are elderly.  
Is anyone aware of guidance for this or if we can make him LPA with support from a responsible adult for example? 
My friend is currently ~OK and has capacity to make LPA decision but she is planning for any future issues etc 
Do any charities support this kind of thing? 

elsien

I think if he does the role, then generally speaking he needs to do it independently outside of paid specialist advice such as complicated tax affairs.  What exactly do you mean by with support from a responsible adult -?what sort of support and who with that responsible adult be? Because if they are effectively doing it for him, then he’s not carrying out the role himself. And no one would want to be responsible without that legal framework. 

Presuming you’re talking about a finance LPA, this could potentially include having to sell her house, having to monitor her funds, having to negotiate care home fees, and let the local authority know when this changes, fighting for CHC funding, sorting out her tax affairs, dealing with banks and the DWP. Just as examples. It’s not as simple as just managing day-to-day money.

If he’s not able to do that, then he’s not really not a good choice to be power-of-attorney and if concerns were raised about his understanding then the OPG could remove him from the role. 

If she’s talking about her health and welfare power-of-attorney, would he be able to have conversations with doctors about health treatment and end of life care, or whether she is able to stay at home or needs to go into a care home all of which can be very stressful.

No charities will support this. And what are his views, is it a responsibility that he would actually want to take on? He may have an understanding of the issues, but if anxiety etc is going to get in the way then he’s still going to struggle. 

I’d suggest your friend thinks very carefully about the reasons why her son can’t function independently at the moment, and the implications that would have for everything he would need to do as a power-of-attorney. He could be a very intelligent man, but if he becomes paralysed with indecision the minute he needs to deal with the outside world (to give an extreme example) he won’t be able to carry out the role on a practical level.

You say all the relatives are older, but what about friends as LPA? You for example?
The other alternative is to find a solicitor to carry out the role , although obviously they will be cost implications to that.