With two different LPAs available, which is more important to you, “Property and Finance” or “Health and Welfare”?
We advise many people who wrongly believe that someone allowed to make financial decisions can automatically make decisions relating to health and care.
With a growing number of Britons suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, careful planning is needed to make sure that you will have the right people making decisions on your behalf if the need arises. In the absence of a Health and Welfare LPA you run the risk of having strangers making decisions about your personal welfare, even if your friends or relations know far better what your choices would have been.
What if I lose mental capacity and do not have a Health & Welfare LPA?
- Your family members and loved ones are likely to not have a say in how you live or are cared for:
- Social Services may have to take the lead in making decisions about where you should live and what care you will receive.
- Only your legal next of kin would be consulted about decisions regarding resuscitation and life sustaining treatment. And even though they are talked to, it still does not mean they will have the final say.
- Decisions may have to be made by the Court of Protection, rather than by the people you would choose. This will be an expensive and time-consuming process.
How can a Health and Welfare LPA be used if I have one?
Unlike a Property and Finance LPA, a Health and Welfare LPA can only ever be used if you have lost the mental capacity to make such decisions yourself. With this LPA in place, your chosen attorneys have 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.
In short, only by having both LPAs in place, can you make sure that your wishes in as many aspects of life as possible are always going to be taken into consideration.
For expert help and advice, speak to our friendly Will Writing team today.