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Can a Person Claiming ESA Support Group be Power of Attorney for Parent?
- droopy
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11 hours 43 minutes ago #311829 by droopy
Can a Person Claiming ESA Support Group be Power of Attorney for Parent? was created by droopy
I would be interested to know if anybody could add their expertise/experience to this topic?
Can a person in ESA support group (actually UC now) hold Power of Attorney for somebody else?
My mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
She wants to nominate my brother and myself as her attorneys.
In the past, I have had a stroke, heart problems and severe depression.
I have partially recovered from the stroke, the heart problems are now milder and much more infrequent, but the depression is still at times severe, partly because of the memory problems the stroke left me with.
I want to help my mother, and my brother may go to live abroad again soon, so it would be useful having me live nearby with POA capability.
Two main questions;
1. Wil the investigating body for POA find out about my medical condition, and deny me POA?
2. Will DWP find out that I have applied for POA?
Will inferences then be made about my mental capacity, i.e. fit to POA, fit to work?
I don't know if I am fit to be POA.
I am now.of serviceable intelligence, but my memory is still very poor. Most of what is said to me is instantly forgotten.
I function by writing everything down, and then referring back to it, like the character In Memento.
If, by applying to be POA, I am almost certainly jeopardising my benefit, I would rather not do it.
I already have Third Party Mandate on my mother's everyday bank account, which is sufficient for the
maintenance of her current daily routine.
If she needs carers, or for somebody to make medical decisions on her behalf, it will all get more complicated and require full POA.
Any thoughts on this matter, particularly by any member who has already done this, would be very much welcomed.
Would you advise against it, either because of DWP complications, or because of the stress of being POA?
Thanks for any help,
Droopy
Can a person in ESA support group (actually UC now) hold Power of Attorney for somebody else?
My mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
She wants to nominate my brother and myself as her attorneys.
In the past, I have had a stroke, heart problems and severe depression.
I have partially recovered from the stroke, the heart problems are now milder and much more infrequent, but the depression is still at times severe, partly because of the memory problems the stroke left me with.
I want to help my mother, and my brother may go to live abroad again soon, so it would be useful having me live nearby with POA capability.
Two main questions;
1. Wil the investigating body for POA find out about my medical condition, and deny me POA?
2. Will DWP find out that I have applied for POA?
Will inferences then be made about my mental capacity, i.e. fit to POA, fit to work?
I don't know if I am fit to be POA.
I am now.of serviceable intelligence, but my memory is still very poor. Most of what is said to me is instantly forgotten.
I function by writing everything down, and then referring back to it, like the character In Memento.
If, by applying to be POA, I am almost certainly jeopardising my benefit, I would rather not do it.
I already have Third Party Mandate on my mother's everyday bank account, which is sufficient for the
maintenance of her current daily routine.
If she needs carers, or for somebody to make medical decisions on her behalf, it will all get more complicated and require full POA.
Any thoughts on this matter, particularly by any member who has already done this, would be very much welcomed.
Would you advise against it, either because of DWP complications, or because of the stress of being POA?
Thanks for any help,
Droopy
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- LL26
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2 hours 18 minutes ago #311836 by LL26
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
Replied by LL26 on topic Can a Person Claiming ESA Support Group be Power of Attorney for Parent?
Hi droopy,
I think you may need to take legal advice here and or speak with a doctor. If your Mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's does she have sufficient capacity to be able to create a Power of Attorney.
If she does have capacity then she must do this asap before she deteriorates and can't do this. Also you will need the POA in case you need to intervene for health or other financial reasons.
Of course it is up to your Mother to select her attorneys, but she can appoint more than one - if appointed jointly and severally then only one attorney is needed for a decision. If all have to act jointly then all of the attorney's have to agree and act together this can cause difficulties especially if urgent decisions are required and eg signatures are required. The downside is that one attorney can make important decision on their own this could cause problems if you and the other attorneys don't share the same viewpoint. However, this also means that you could take simple decisions that wouldn't aggravate your own health and and other attorneys could take on more complicated decisions.
Remember also that an attorney only ever makes decisions that the donor can not make themselves. It therefore may not involve too much, but if course if consideration of eg care home is involved this can be complex.
The POA can be set up with 1 or more attorneys and 1 or more replacement attorneys in case the original attorney can't act. In this case if you felt being an attorney was too onerous you would need to notify the relevant Government department and the replacement would act instead.
I am not aware of any complications with DWP. However in the unlikely event that DWP realised you were an attorney there would have to be an extremely large amount of attorney work happening for DWP to consider an effect on your benefit, and if there was another attorney it would be easy for them to do the work and you to just agree and sign something they have prepared. I genuinely can't imagine it would be a problem.
The greater problem is whether your Mother can indeed take out a POA. If she is has capacity please do not delay. If you have apply to the Court of Protection to install an attorney this takes a lot of time and is not at all easy! (And your Mum will have problems as no one can make decisions for her!)
I hope this helps.
LL26
I think you may need to take legal advice here and or speak with a doctor. If your Mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's does she have sufficient capacity to be able to create a Power of Attorney.
If she does have capacity then she must do this asap before she deteriorates and can't do this. Also you will need the POA in case you need to intervene for health or other financial reasons.
Of course it is up to your Mother to select her attorneys, but she can appoint more than one - if appointed jointly and severally then only one attorney is needed for a decision. If all have to act jointly then all of the attorney's have to agree and act together this can cause difficulties especially if urgent decisions are required and eg signatures are required. The downside is that one attorney can make important decision on their own this could cause problems if you and the other attorneys don't share the same viewpoint. However, this also means that you could take simple decisions that wouldn't aggravate your own health and and other attorneys could take on more complicated decisions.
Remember also that an attorney only ever makes decisions that the donor can not make themselves. It therefore may not involve too much, but if course if consideration of eg care home is involved this can be complex.
The POA can be set up with 1 or more attorneys and 1 or more replacement attorneys in case the original attorney can't act. In this case if you felt being an attorney was too onerous you would need to notify the relevant Government department and the replacement would act instead.
I am not aware of any complications with DWP. However in the unlikely event that DWP realised you were an attorney there would have to be an extremely large amount of attorney work happening for DWP to consider an effect on your benefit, and if there was another attorney it would be easy for them to do the work and you to just agree and sign something they have prepared. I genuinely can't imagine it would be a problem.
The greater problem is whether your Mother can indeed take out a POA. If she is has capacity please do not delay. If you have apply to the Court of Protection to install an attorney this takes a lot of time and is not at all easy! (And your Mum will have problems as no one can make decisions for her!)
I hope this helps.
LL26
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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