Power of Attorney

What happens if you haven’t got anyone to do it. ?

I did both financial and health poa for my late mother last year. No problem at all, as others have said you just need to be methodical. What is really good about the more recently registered ones is that you can get a code from the Office of the Public Guardian to give to organisations who need to see evidence of the poa.

Just had an interesting talk at our u3a today on this subject.
What I took from it is that there are 3 routes to completing a LPA (and if you have an EPA you should review it to ensure it does what you want as I think she said it doesn't cover the health bit)
- DIY is the cheapest option £82 but apparently 50% of these fail the registration process. It's a 40 page form with, I think she said, 56 pages of explanation as to how to complete it!
- Solicitors will do it for about £500.
- a LPA Specialist will cost about half the solicitor fee and they are experts in this field.

It is better to have more than one attorney, and they can be from anywhere in the world and they do not have to be related to you - you just have to trust them. You can specify whether they act jointly (where they must all agree on a course of action etc) or separately (where just 1 of them can act for you).
Overall - It cannot be set up retrospectively, so no good leaving it until you need it and it's like insurance, you set it up and hope you never need it!
Hope this helps

Cabbie21

I am very used to form filling ( PIP, AA etc ) so I would expect to be able to do POA myself. My DH is meticulous as well.
what I am not sure of for the Health one, is how much you need to stipulate about your wishes for end of life, DNR etc. Or is that done separately? Am I just appointing a named person who then decides, using my expression of wishes as to what should happen if I no longer have capacity? I can appreciate that that might need to change, according to changing circumstances.

There is space on the H and W form for you to add your own wishes. Mine went something like, ‘If I should develop dementia, or any other condition where I am unable both to care for myself and speak (with full mental capacity) for myself, then I do not want any life-saving or life-prolonging treatment. I ask for palliative care only.’

Easy enough to do yourself. But please, please, please do both - financial AND
Health and Well-being. In the event that you need care - if there’s no Power of Attorney for Health and Well-being then Social Services can step in and make the all the decisions. This may mean that if person wanted to remain at home Social Services can overrule that and arrange care in a Care Home.
I learnt this to our cost when my late father needed care. It’s not a nice position to be in.
I printed off the forms for my Mum, filled them out and got them signed and sent in post “to be signed for”. Not at all difficult. I’ve recently applied for “Letters of Administration “ in respect of my late husband as he hadn’t left a Will. No issues with this either. If you use a Solicitor it costs and you have to provide the Solicitor with all the necessary information anyway, so might just as well do it yourself.
Good luck. It really isn’t difficult.

Thanks to those who replied to my query. I’ve got to get the POA sorted. Time is marching on….

It's not difficult but you have to be methodical and follow the instructions accurately.

granless our next door neighbours son is in Australia and he had POA, our neighbour died over 18 months ago, due to Covid he couldn’t get over to sort the house out (personal stuff) until this January.
As long as your son can get over it should be fine.

Definitely do it yourself online. The staff at the Office of the Public Guardian, who process the forms, are so very helpful and you really can’t go wrong. If you should make a mistake, they will contact you and talk you thru the correction. They told me they spend more time unravelling problems and errors filed by solicitors than they do sorting out problems from the general public!!! Solicitors will try and bully you into using them by saying if you make an error it can be disastrous, but if you do make an error, you will get every assistance in correcting it, as previously explained, so go for it and save yourself hundreds of pounds in solicitors charges xxx. I did mine, my husbands and have assisted several friends, it is so quick and easy

Does anyone know if son, who lives in Oz, can be named as having PoA for me? I know this might be a stupid question but he is my only living relative.

As many others have said you can do it on line, just make sure you get the dates right when people sign it. It has to be signed in the correct order, or at least the dates have to be correct. It took several goes to get Mum's right, mainly because I was doing it and live 120 miles away and couldn't visit due to you-know-what!!

Cabbie21

I am very used to form filling ( PIP, AA etc ) so I would expect to be able to do POA myself. My DH is meticulous as well.
what I am not sure of for the Health one, is how much you need to stipulate about your wishes for end of life, DNR etc. Or is that done separately? Am I just appointing a named person who then decides, using my expression of wishes as to what should happen if I no longer have capacity? I can appreciate that that might need to change, according to changing circumstances.

When I filled my health one in, there was a section where you had to choose between wanting everything possible done for you to keep you alive, or not wanting to be kept alive. I have simplified this here because I can't recall the exact wording. I know that I ticked the section that meant I didn't want to be resuscitated. It was easy to fill in.

I am very used to form filling ( PIP, AA etc ) so I would expect to be able to do POA myself. My DH is meticulous as well.
what I am not sure of for the Health one, is how much you need to stipulate about your wishes for end of life, DNR etc. Or is that done separately? Am I just appointing a named person who then decides, using my expression of wishes as to what should happen if I no longer have capacity? I can appreciate that that might need to change, according to changing circumstances.

Quite a few years ago I did a Power of Attorney ( financial) for my daughter and her partner. I can't remember all the details now, and things may have changed, but I found it very clear and easy to do on my own, using the online information. No need for a solicitor.

Germanshepherdsmum we definitely saved hundreds of £££s by doing it ourselves, yes we did register it. A barrister neighbour did the witnessing (can’t remember the exact term) . I agree solicitors can do a lot I can’t do, but filling in these forms isn’t one of them.

You can do your own Power of Attorney but you MUST register them for them to be valid

Not a solicitor. Have done POA for finance and capacity.All done on line but had to have it signed by a solicitor who basically had to establish mental capacity ensuring I knew what I was doing.

vegansrock

Our solicitors would have been over £1000 for the 2 of us, we did it ourselves for about £70. There’s nothing a solicitor can do that you can’t do yourselves.

Your solicitor may have included the registration fees in the quote - £82 per LPA - and have given you some certified copies. An LPA can’t be used until it’s registered - so many people don’t do this until they actually need to use the LPA then find it can take some time.
I would suggest there are a good many things a solicitor can do that you couldn’t do yourself.

Germanshepherdsmum

Missedout makes a very valid point. If a solicitor prepares the LPA they will have to satisfy themselves that the person giving the LPA is mentally capable. In the case of a DIY one prepared online, who is going to provide evidence of mental capability if it’s ever challenged? Look at the references in this thread to people doing it for someone else, who then only needs to add their signature. You might think it would never happen to you but families fall out, especially where money is involved. Paying a solicitor to do something can often save a great deal of trouble and expense later.

exactly this. Why my going to solicitor was worth every penny

ClaraB

I did both health and finance online for my Mum, quite straight forward, the hardest bit was gathering all the witnesses together.

When I did my own POA last year, I posted the forms to my two children who were the attorneys and they posted them back once they had signed them in front of a witness. It was not necessary for them to sign while I was there. The only criteria re signing is that the donor (me) had to sign and date last so I waited until I had all the papers returned before finishing and posting it off.

I did mine during Covid but everything was returned from the OPG witching just a few weeks, they emailed me at various stages so I knew what was happening which was reassuring.

If you follow the guidance on how to complete the forms carefully, it really is not a difficult process and I don’t know how anything can go wrong later on. I still had to get someone who knew me to certify that I had the capacity to understand but it did not need to be a specific professional, just someone who had known me for more than three years ( I think it was three years). I guess as I was organising it myself, my ability to process it also shows I had capacity and so the won’t be any doubt later it they are necessary. I did not add any additional conditions or restrictions to keep it simple but I did discuss everything with my children beforehand.

My Nannas got rejected because I signed on the same day as somebody else. We’ve since done my mums and dads and they were ok

Not difficult but it is essential to ensure they are signed dated in the correct order. No need to pay a solicitor.

vegansrock

Our solicitors would have been over £1000 for the 2 of us, we did it ourselves for about £70. There’s nothing a solicitor can do that you can’t do yourselves.

Looks like I might be changing my mind ?

I did both health and finance online for my Mum, quite straight forward, the hardest bit was gathering all the witnesses together.

Our solicitors would have been over £1000 for the 2 of us, we did it ourselves for about £70. There’s nothing a solicitor can do that you can’t do yourselves.