Power of Attorney

[Happysmile02]

How do I start to get power of attorney for our disabled daughter of 38.

She has a mental age of about 1

[Jofisher]

Hi if your daughter lacks mental capacity you will need a deputyship and you apply for these on the gov.uk website there’s one for property and finance and one for health and well-being.

[Eeviee]

I agree with jofisher. The website is the office of the public guardian OPG.org.Uk. Your GP will need to sign one of the forms stating that that your daughter does not have capacity.

[SpeedyH]

Hi there. You can only apply for Lasting Power of Attorney for someone who has enough understanding to know what that legal process is about and agree to it. If your daughter has very limited understanding which sounds like she has, you need to apply instead for something called Deputyship from the Court of Protection. There are two types of Deputyship - Finance and Health and Well being. Finance Deputyship are useful if you need to sign contracts on behalf of your loved one, like a tenancy agreement for example, but a lot of other financial matters, like dealing with her benefits and so on can be done without Deputyship. Health and well-being Deputyship is quite hard to get because the law says that decisions about this have to be taken with the person’s best interest in mind anyway so unless there are ongoing major decisions to be made it is not really necessary.Deputyship is quite an important legal status and you have to provide annual reports and have regular visits from the Court of Protection to make sure that you are making decisions correctly.

You can apply for Deputyship yourself online but the application process is not for the faint-hearted and takes many months. If your daughter has low income and savings the Court Fees are either free or reduced though obviously if you go the normal route and ask a solicitor to apply for you there are their charges to pay.

[Runragged2000]

If are in Scotland the application for Guardianship is different, if you are let me know as I can let you know the process. I am Guardian for both my learning disabled siblings.