I am a 74 year old in the process of setting up a financial LAP with my two sons as attorneys. I have included advice recommending them to use specialist advice for financing care fees. I am still debating whether I should do a health and welfare LAP as well, bearing in mind the "get it on time" problems people have when in hospital. Its only the PD meds. that bother me, although I have other long-term conditions. I would welcome any thoughts as to whether it would help to have a health and welfare LAP which is related to how much notice hospitals take of next of kin My two local hospitals have Carers' Charters which ar supposed to ensure they consult with carers but what this translates to on the ground is another thing and still depends on the prior knowledge of the staff in question..Also any advice as to suitable wording or any other angles I hav missed.
My OH and I have got the health and welfare LPA with our two children and each other as attorneys. Our understanding is that while carers may be consulted, the final decision on care and treatment rests with the medics unless some-one has power of attorney. The attorneys do not have power to over ride your wishes while you are able to make your own informed decision. But they can help you to understand and arrive at the decision you want. There is a place on the form for you to give any advice for the future you want the attorneys to have in mind. In our case we said if euthanasia became legal we would want that if we had no quality of life and gave an idea of how to determine if our quality of life had gone.
You could look at the application form and see what you think. You don`t have to take it out unless you want to.
It`s given us peace of mind so we would recommend it.
Thanks or your reply which I nearly missed. . I've realised that in order for my request to catch someone's attention I need to switch to another heading because the DLA topic is so freuently used with very good reason I must add.. I am appalled at the way some applicants are treated. I seem to have found a flaw in the system? My post will only be noticed by someone looking for LPA's unless I do what I am doing now and hope no one else posts under work and benefts. So far i have not had much joy in getting suggestions as to what to consider - As soon as helplines they hear LPA they seek to think I am asking for legal advice , includng the PD UK helpline, whereas I want to think around the subject and hear what others have thought important to help me word the LPA myself.
We were advised not to fill in the section, on either LPA, regarding specific wishes with too much or indeed any detail as each situation could be very different and then there is no leeway to deviate from what has been proscribed and you may change your mind as the years progress.
We left those sections empty. We are attorneys for each other, together with our daughters, and have discussed our wishes/feelings with them. Maybe if the attorneys are not close family members it would be better to give an outline of your wishes, but again, not being too definite as once the LPA has been registered I don't think it can be changed, I'll have to check that, and you may have to complete another one.
We have both LPA's. If you don't have one or the other and you are unable, in the future, to make decisions yourself regarding finances and/or health matters, then it is a much longer and far costlier process to apply to the Court of Protection and, in the case of a financial LPA those persons that you do wish to have control over your finances will not have any say. Any application for payment for anything has to be sanctioned by the Court of Protection; I presume the same applies to the health LPA.
If you have already registered one LPA, and I am sure that you are aware that an LPA is not legally binding until it is registered, you will know that even this process is not a quick one.
Just today I was in a bank and mentioned that my OH may not be able to come in to undertake a certain transaction personally and they said that I could not do it for them. I mentioned the LPA and although they want a copy, (they will just have sight of it if it's anything to do with me or I will give them the number and they can check its registration themselves), it was then not a problem for me to act on their behalf.
Personally I find it ludicrous that a spouse or adult offspring has to go through all this palaver to mange the affairs of their next of kin. Another government money making initiative. I do appreciate that there has to be an element of safeguarding for vulnerable people, even with family members, in some instances but then each of us should know if an LPA is needed for us, and for the majority of families it is just a form filling, pretty expensive exercise. A GP could easily attest to the capacity of a person to hand over control of decisions to another family member.
I have read your comments and it is funny but I have recently taken out an LPA covering finance and health. I too was not sure what to do about the health one and then I told my brother and sister who are the Attornies exactly what I want so they both knew and I feel a lot happier now. I was worried that I would leave it too late and get to the stage when I would not be able to tell anybody what I wanted so I got it done now and it is all sorted and left hopefully never to be used!!
Thanks everyone. I have today got on with it after 2 years mithering, partly because of my two sons lesw than keen interest in the info.I gave them, and I have completed the first stage of the financial and property LPA process using the digital tool on the Website of the Office of the Public Guardian. I can't speak too highly of this service. I was able to run the wording of my guidance past the help line as this is a way of making clear what I would ideally like to happen whilst not putting actual restriction which would make the LPA unworkable. I was very interested to hear that the bank could check on the LPA using the reference number as I have heard of banks being awkward even where there is a registered LPA Although in one way its very simple I still keep finding out little extra bits.of info .like that.
In answer to why LPA needed, it was only too easy before for unscrupulous, people who prey on the elderly to get hold of the assets of the weak and vulnerable. For example, the bank simply changed my mother's current account to a joint one for our mutual convenience so that when she died half of it was mine by law. Not that I used it.. I know of at least one man's activities that will have been curtailed who was known to have "befriended" at least three women and their money and no one seemed to be able to touch him.
