Stay as appointee or become a Court of Protection Deputy?

[Drjm]

I am an appointee for my son and that arrangement has worked very well. My son only has his benefits and no other assets. When he moved to supported living though I needed to sign a tenancy agreement, so I applied to the Court of Protection to be a deputy for his property and affairs.

I got a Court Order for the tenancy a while ago and I have now received a letter which will appoint me as a deputy providing I take out a bond. I know that if I take this on I will need to open a bank account in my son's name and account for his finances to the Court.

My problem is that the supported living provider is very disorganised in terms of financial affairs. He has been a t this placement some time and I have never managed to establish how much I should be paying for his bills for example. I have a current arrangement whereby I draw cash to pay for his food and any personal expenses he might have.

To be clear I don’t think there is any dishonesty with the provider and, if anything, I think I may be paying too little. I think the prospect of getting receipts with this provider is going to be challenging though.

I am in a dilemma about whether to stick with being an appointee or become a deputy. It could be simpler to have his finances separated from my own and I know I should be able to expect the provider to be more organised. It seems absurd to have done the application and not go through with it but I wonder if this is going to cause me a lot of stress and difficulty in practice.

Can anyone give me insight into what level of detail is required in reporting to the court? Any thoughts about whether it might be better to remain as an appointee would be much appreciated.

[Eeviee]

Hi. I believe that it is very important for the vulnerable person to have their parent and siblings as their deputy. This protects them from other people including local authorities making decisions about their accommodation and care without involving the family. As a deputy you have the legal authority to act in the best interests of another adult who does not have the capacity to make those decisions or understand the consequences of those decisions. Please never give it up. As you get older you will need to pass this treasured status to another person who can be trusted to act in your sons best interest. There are responsibilities when you look after another persons money but I would open a joint account but only have your sons money transactions in that account, that way all transactions in and out are clearly his and can be downloaded as a pdf or excel document for you to show anyone as required. You can also monitor spending. The annual online deputy form which needs to be completed is very simple and doesn’t ask for the details of spending to be sent even though records must be kept. You can imagine that there are greedy family who might spend their sons money but that is clearly theft and a crime You need to keep receipts of all transactions but I take photos and keep them in an album so you could go that. You have done the right thing by becoming a deputy and getting supported living. Please tackle that supported living company and make sure that you are happy with the service provided as there are a lot of poor providers out there. Good luck ! Happy Christmas!

[Eeviee]

hi just to add to my response. If you have all his benefits paid into the joint account direct from the DWP that would be the way forward.

[Drjm in reply to Eeviee]

Hi Eeviee,

Thanks so much for your replies - I greatly appreciate them.

Happy Christmas!

[Eeviee]

No problem. I’m passionate about protecting my son from non family decision makers. Deputyship is the only way. Happy Christmas 🎄

[Marmar56]

Hi I use to be my sons appointee until he went into assisted living I had no problems until he had a flood in his room the council wouldn’t talk to me as i didn’t have court of protection or have power of attorney. I decided to go for court of protection as my son doesn’t have capacity. So far it’s been good for us I pay his bills and give the assisted living the money for his food and other expenses he has, I always get a receipt for the money and they keep all the receipts so if I need them I can ask for them.

We did have to take a bond out but it wasn’t expensive.

[Drjm in reply to Marmar56]

Hi Marmar56,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry to hear about your bad experience but glad to hear the deputy system is working well for you now.

Happy Christmas!

[SpeedyH]

Hi there. I agree with the others and recommend you complete the application. The 'bond' is like an insurance policy to protect your son's assets should anything go wrong. You absolutely should have a separate bank account anyway - soon the dwp will be requiring details of what is in his bank and you will want to keep your finances private I should imagine. The Office of the Public guardian ask you to do an annual finance report which details income and whether there were large purchases or gifts to anyone. Some years they also ask you to send the previous years bank statements but not always. If your son is on benefits there is no annual fee for being a deputy, you only have to pay once for the bond. You will need the service provider to sign a receipt for the cash you give them and perhaps you could ask them to take a photo of receipts for any purchase over a certain amount?

You can set up a special 'deputy' account at some banks like Natwest.

[Drjm in reply to SpeedyH]

Hi SpeedyH,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. This is all very helpful to know.

Happy Christmas!