Deputyship help

[Sheltamother]

Hello guys need your help if you have done this Deputyship for a disabled children and which forms need your help my son will be turning 18yrs soon please help me thanks.

[Jofisher]

you need to do property and finance and health and well-being you gov on the gov.U.K. Website and you can apply on there

[BenjiB]

my son is 24. We haven’t done it yet. We don’t need it for finance as he only has benefits and haven’t felt we’ve needed it for health to date.

All the forms are online, you can do it yourself . Health and welfare is more difficult to get than finance.

[Pogul44]

Hi Sheltamother,

You may already know but for others reading that don't there are 2 types of deputy. I'll include general info below on this basis also, so apologies as I am not trying to teach you to suck eggs.

Property and financial affairs deputy

You’ll do things like pay the person’s bills or organise their pension.

Personal welfare deputy

You’ll make decisions about medical treatment and how someone is looked after.

I hold the P&FA deputyship for my brother. I used a solicitor to help with my application.

The responsibilities mean that I must follow the guidelines but essentially manage all his property and finances which include his bank account, all payments in and out, rent, living expenses, activities, spending money, transport, shares, rent/mortgage, ISA's, etc. Essentially anything he owns, all income, and all expenditure. This means his benefits too as this is his income.

I have just completed my first deputyship report. This is a report you must submit annually to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) who oversee deputies.

Once granted a deputyship your responsibilities are clearly outlined. One thing to bear in mind is that even if you only hold the P&FA deputyship you still have responsibility for the persons welfare and best interests.

The Visits and Care section in the report states the following:

"Use this section to tell us about person's care and contact with you and other people. We ask about this because it's OPG's responsibility to make sure you're looking after person's best interests, which includes making health and welfare decisions."

You therefore still have some responsibility for health and welfare decisions, in the persons best interests, even if you do not hold that deputyship.

Deputyships are only granted if the person lacks capacity.

Info on deputyships can be found here:

gov.uk/become-deputy

Forms can be found at the link below:

gov.uk/government/collectio...

If the person lacks capacity do they have, or need, a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) in place? If so, have you been appointed as the Represented Persons Representative (RPR)? This gives you more authority than you have as a parent. More info at the following link:

mental-capacity.co.uk/relev...

There's a lot of info here to digest and research. Hopefully you will find the information you are looking for.

Best regards,

[Sheltamother in reply to Pogul44]

Thanks lam the appointee already now need deputyship for his Child trust fund turning 18yrs soon

[Pogul44 in reply to Sheltamother]

Hi again Sheltermother,

Just to clarify, although you may already be aware, an Appointee is different to an RPR. It's likely just a matter of terminology but I'll differentiate for others that may not know.

An Appointee looks after property and finance. Benefits are paid into a bank account in your name. You don't need to provide an annual report. The bank do need to see the Appointeeship document.

An RPR gives you more best interests and welfare responsibility than you have as a parent, because once the person becomes 18 they are classed as an adult regardless of their mental capacity.

A P&FA deputyship gives you formal responsibility for all of the persons property and financial affairs. Any bank account must be in the persons name with you registered as deputy to manage the account. The bank needs to see the deputyship document. You need to complete an annual report.

Unfortunately dealing with matters for people with learning disabilities is a minefield of terminology and it takes a while to get used to it. It has me anyway ;0) !!

Best of luck with achieving your goals.

Kind regards,

Pogul44

[TeresaTT]

You'll also need someone to carry out a mental capacity assessment. I had trouble finding someone to do it as the social worker seemed reluctant. However, I gave up as I didn't really want deputyship as my son only had benefits and was in residential care. He's 25 now and I look after his money without having to keep receipts, do annual reports etc. Being his appointee for benefits seems to be working fine. However, I realise that in the future I might be better off with deputyship if problems arise. Social services might eventually want to move him to cheaper supported living.

[Pogul44 in reply to TeresaTT]

Hi TeresaTT,

In case you need an MCA to be carried out in the future the following may help.

I used a solicitor to make my P&FA deputyship for my brother. Fortunately I was in contact with a local authority Social Worker who had been involved with an issue related to my brother, and she was happy to do the MCA for my application.

An MCA is also required for a DoLS application, so if your relation has one a Social Worker would have been named on the documentation.

You could try an online search using the following search criteria should return a result and give some options for an independent social worker:

"independent social workers for mental capacity assessment"

Last resort would be to get in contact with Mencap or the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and they will hopefully be able to give advice on this.

Best regards,

Pogul44