Lasting Power of Attorney – Sue Walker

Lasting Power of Attorney
After recently attending training, and then having to assist my mother with setting up lasting power of attorney, I thought it would be a good time to pass on some information and experience.

There are two types of LPA and you can set up one or both types:
1. The property and affairs LPA which allows the attorney you appoint to deal with your property and finances, as you specify.
2. The health and welfare LPA which allows  the attorney you appoint to make health and welfare care decisions on your behalf, only when you lack the
mental capacity to do so yourself.

Your Attorneys
It is important that you take care to appoint attorneys that are trustworthy and have the appropriate skills to make any proposed decisions. It is a good idea to appoint more than one attorney so that they can act jointly on your behalf and responsibility is shared.

Certificate Providers
This can be one or two persons. They sign as witnesses to show that you understand the LPA, and they also provide statements to say how they know you and that you are able to make this decision for yourself, and are not being put under undue pressure.

Named persons
These are people that you want informing that you are registering LPA so they can raise concerns if needed. If you have two certificate providers you do not need to have any named persons because already there are joint responsibilities for decision making.

Setting up LPA
Setting up LPA does not mean that you give up control and it will only be used when circumstances, and you, decide it is needed. If LPA is not in place when it may be needed the Court of Protection will appoint a deputy to act on your behalf.
If you leave it and you are not able to make the decision yourself it becomes very difficult and expensive.

To set up your LPA you can:

1. Work with a solicitor - legal fees on average £350 - £500 + vat. In addition the court fees are £110 per document (one for property & affairs, one for health & welfare)
2. Another option is to download the forms from the internet, complete them yourselves and send them to the Court of Protection. The cost is just the court fees £110 per document. Keep photocopies of all the documents in the event of any issues.

 If you have a large portfolio of property, land and savings it would be advisable to work with your solicitor. This increases the costs but they provide legal support. If your property and affairs are more straight forward I think it is a good idea to look at doing it yourself. We downloaded the forms from the internet and found them very easy to fill in.

We had two people who have known my mother a long time to be certificate providers. They needed to say how they knew Mum, how long they had known her and that she was making this decision herself. As a family we decided to only apply for the property and affairs LPA. In our circumstances we didn’t need the health and welfare LPA. We had a small problem where the certificate provider had written a separate letter and it should have been on the form, and as a consequence we had to match up the dates to the original documents. The court official was great with advice and it did not cost us anything extra. My mother now has LPA and is relieved that we can support her.

Please note that LPA has completely replaced the existing enduring power of attorney because the new powers include Health as well as Property and Affairs.

Two Useful websites: www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview www.which.co.uk/power-of-attorney