Lasting Power of Attorney

 A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf.

This gives you more control over what happens to you if you have an accident or an illness and cannot make your own decisions (you ‘lack mental capacity’).

• You need to be over 18 years old and have the ability to make your own decisions.

There are 2 types of LPA:

Health and care decisions

Use this LPA to give an attorney the power to make decisions about things like:

• your daily routine, for example washing, dressing, eating
• medical care
• moving into a care home
• life-sustaining treatment

It can only be used when you’re unable to make your own decisions.

Property and financial affairs

Use this LPA to give an attorney the power to make decisions about money and property for you, for example:

• managing a bank or building society account
• paying bills
• collecting benefits or a pension
• selling your home

It can be used as soon as it’s registered, with your permission.

You can choose to make one type or both. Its important to make sure you have all the information you need from your professional before the assessment.

Why is an assessment required ?

Sometimes the donor has difficulty with complex information about what making an LPA means and an assessment is the only way to ensure they fully understand their decisions. A witness, a certificate provider, also needs to confirm that the donor knows what they are doing, which can be done by the assessor.

Why do I need one for each LPA?

Each LPA has different decisions within them. Information that needs to be understood is specific to either health and care decisions or property and financial affairs.

Protecting the donor is important in these circumstances, a donor has be to supported and not under any coercion by the intended attorneys.

Additionally, sometimes there is a need to assess the attorney's capability to undertake the decisions for when the donor cannot.