LPA Details & Links
LPA - Have you done yours yet?
At our meeting on 4th March the speaker, drawing on her personal experience, reminded us about the importance of making a ‘Lasting Power of Attorney’. If you lose capacity your relatives cannot access your money even to pay for your care or household bills. An LPA is a legal document that you set in place while you have mental capacity which nominates relatives and /or trusted friends to look after your affairs if you are unable to do so. You do not give up control, you can choose whether it can be used either before, or only when, you lose mental capacity. There are two types of LPAs: one for finance and property and one for health and welfare. Without an LPA Deputies can be appointed by applying to the Court of Protection but this can be lengthy and costly. One potential trap Gaye warned us about is to think carefully before appointing attorneys to act ‘jointly’. Appointing family or friends to act jointly means they must all act together in all matters, rendering the Lasting Power of Attorney useless when one of the attorneys can’t be reached; it’s preferable therefore to appoint attorneys to act ‘jointly and severally’.
LPAs can be easily setup by yourself and the only cost is the £82 (per LPA) registration fee. The form can be completed online (like your tax return) or downloaded and printed. The forms are written in plain English and not complicated. The document is only lengthy because there are lots of guidance notes on each page. To complete the forms online an account can be set up and the form can be saved and revisited before finally submitting.
There is lots of advice on the government website at GOVLPA
To go straight to the documents download click GOVLPADOWNLOAD
Note:- There is also a separate advice booklet you can download
If you want to register and complete the documents online click LPAONLINE
Note; Just like the online tax return you can ‘save as you go ‘and keep returning and checking.
There is also lots of good advice on the moneysavingexpert.com website and also on the Which.co.uk website.
Click MONEYSAVING and WHICH to access the advice sections of these websites
Which also offers an ‘assisted service’ at a cost of £123. To go direct to this click WHICHLPA
There are also various LPA ‘services ‘which charge £400- 500 for setting up LPAs . Age UK has a directory of trusted providers.
You can also seek advice from a solicitor – this need not be expensive particularly during ‘Will month’ which is operated at low prices by solicitors in association with various charities.
The u3a cannot offer any legal advice regarding LPAs but if you require technical assistance this is available from our various computer groups. Go to the groups Tab to contact the convenors. If there is sufficient demand a ‘technical assistance’ workshop can be arranged.