05/12/2016
Managing some one’s affairs
Lasting power of attorney: if you have got capacity, you can grant an LPA appointing one or more people to manage your affairs (Property and Affairs LPA) or to make welfare decisions (Welfare LPA) for when you lose capacity at some point in the future. 25 or so pages and lots of decisions so need a reasonable level of capacity to be able to execute an LPA. They have to be registered with the Public Guardians Office (an offshoot of the Court of Protection) before you can use them (The fee is £110 per LPA). This also involves serving notice on named people.
If an LPA is being abused, you are obliged to tell the Public Guardians Office.
Appointee: The DWP decides you lack capacity to manage your own benefits income and appoints some one of their choosing to act as your appointee to receive and manage your benefits on your behalf. They can appoint family members, carers, etc or social services if there is no one else to do this or if they think that your appointee is abusing their position.
If you have concerns about how an appointee is acting you should tell the DWP.
If you don’t think an appointee is necessary i.e. because you have got capacity then you need to get medical evidence to convince the DWP that this is so.
Court of Protection: Can take over where some one lacks capacity. Can make either one off 'best interest' decisions or appoint some one to act as a Deputy (see below) for either welfare or more usually for property and affairs decisions. Can appoint anybody it thinks suitable which could include social services. Also now involved with reviewing DoLS authorisations.
The process of getting a Deputy appointed requires a lot of form filling, notices to be given, and a medical opinion confirming lack of capacity.
If you don’t need to have a Deputy i.e. because you have got capacity to make the relevant decision for your self then you need medical evidence to back this up.
Deputy (used to be Receiver): Appointed by the Court of Protection to step into the shoes of the mentally incapacitated person and make decisions. These can be welfare decisions but more usually relates to financial management.
If some one gets benefits and has money then usually the same person will act as Appointee and Deputy but this need not necessarily be the case.
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