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What Is A Lasting Power of Attorney?
If you lose mental capacity your loved ones are NOT legally entitled to have a say in your health and welfare or they are NOT entitled to have access to your bank accounts or financial affairs. This means that even if you are part of a couple who have been married for many years – if one of you loses mental capacity, all joint bank accounts will be frozen and you will not be legally entitled to decide what medical treatments your partner receives or even to choose suitable care.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that must be signed whilst you still have full mental capacity giving power to your nominated trusted persons (attorneys) – and then if you lose mental capacity it entitles your attorneys to take control over your health and welfare AND property and financial affairs. Therefore, it is important to make your Lasting Powers of Attorney now.
What happens if I don’t have a Lasting Power of Attorney?
A nightmare could begin for your loved ones if you lose mental capacity. It is likely to be already a stressful time and without Lasting Powers of Attorney in place your loved ones will be forced to apply to the Court of Protection for a Power of Attorney via a court order, also known as deputyship order.
This is a complex task in which the Court of Protection will look into the background of the person applying for power of attorney to decide if they are fit to run the ill or elderly person's affairs. The person applying may have to complete a 50-page form giving huge amounts of personal information about themselves, their family, their own finances and their relationship with the person they wish to help care for. Legal fees to appoint a guardian by the Court of Protection could possibly exceed £2,000 plus VAT. The Office of the Public Guardian then charge an annual fee of up to £800 to supervise the activities of the deputy, whether they are a family member or a professional appointee.
Sometimes the relative’s application for the deputyship order from the Court is rejected and the local authority are appointed to run your affairs – for which they can charge around £1,000 per year to do so.
How could I lose mental capacity?
There can be a number of ways in which we can lose mental capacity. There are an estimated 750,000 people with dementia in the UK and that number is expected to rise to a million by 2025. Then, if you include the number of people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke victims, cancer victims, the figure of people potentially losing mental capacity rises significantly. Mental capacity can be lost without warning with people who are victims of accident or illness.
Few of us can predict if we will lose mental capacity. It is the cheaper and more practical solution, as a safeguard, to have Lasting Powers of Attorney completed and registered.
Dominic Littlewood explains the importance of LPA’s