Lasting Power of Attorney explained

What happens when I can’t make decisions for myself? Many of us would like to plan for a time when we need help making decisions. A stroke, a heart attack, Alzheimer’s disease or a severe accident can leave us dependent upon other people to help make crucial choices in our lives. Or we may need to give someone decision-making power for us if, say, we’re going to be in hospital or abroad for a time and can’t easily carry out decisions for ourselves. To plan for the future you can create a lasting power of attorney (LPA). An LPA is a simple way for you to choose someone you trust to make decisions for you. LPAs can be a lot less expensive than other ways for people to make decisions on your behalf and can make things much easier for other people in your life than the alternatives.

Who might need an LPA? Anyone potentially. Common illnesses such as cancer or heart disease can leave us reliant on other people to make decisions happen. More than 850,000* people in the UK have dementia, and the Alzheimer’s Society predicts this will rise to more than one million by 2025. As for accidents, every 90 seconds someone is admitted to hospital in the UK with a brain injury - traffic or contact-sport accidents are examples of what can go wrong.

How does an LPA work? An LPA is a legal document that you create. In your LPA, you name the people you’d like to make decisions for you when you don’t want to or can’t make some decisions yourself. You can make an LPA for decisions about your property and money or about your health and welfare.

When does an LPA start working? You can create an LPA to be used only if you can no longer make your own decisions - known as losing ‘mental capacity’. Or you can make an LPA to be used for certain decisions - financial ones - while you still have mental capacity.

What could happen if I don’t create an LPA? If you lose mental capacity, through illness or injury, and haven’t created an LPA:

• you’ll no longer be able to decide who makes decisions for you (you can only make your LPA while you still have mental capacity).
• people you don’t know could end up making crucial decisions for you instead - such as whether to accept medical treatment to keep you alive, or about where you live, what you eat and wear
• your spouse, children or friends might have to go to court to make decisions on your behalf - which can be a lot more expensive and time-consuming than making an LPA. -> Deputyship

If you still have mental capacity, LPAs are a simple and legally robust way of giving someone you trust power to make decisions for you - temporarily or for a longer time. LevLaw Ltd are specialists in organising this.

*These facts were correct as of March 2021 but may change in the future.