Data Protection Frustration

[Jellybean8]

My mum has vascular dementia and is deteriorating fast. She lives 3 hours away from me and my two siblings. My sister and I visit as often as possible but have our own work and life commitments. I have just returned from a visit this weekend.

I sent Mum's driving licence to DVLA for renewal 6-7 weeks ago and it has not been returned. I have just phoned them to ask where it is in their process but they will not speak to me without my mother's spoken approval - I am in Glasgow and she is near Inverness. I have full PoA for her but DVLA insist they must speak to her and asked for her to call directly - I doubt she would manage to navigate their multi-step answering system or remember why she was making the call. The point is I cant ALWAYS be at her side as we live so far apart and at weekends when I do visit few offices are open. It it hugely frustrating to try to help manage Mum's affairs when I have PoA but run up against Data Protection. I want to protect her interests and make sure she is safe. DVLA will not even tell me if my mum should be driving at present and her insurers keep calling to ask for a copy of her licence.

If having PoA does not actually count when trying to deal with the affairs of elderly, demented parents - what is the point of it??

 

[Beate]

That's weird, they never had a problem speaking with me on behalf on my OH. Are you sure they haven't sent it back yet? In our case I badgered them for months until it turned out that even though he'd sworn it hadn't been returned, it had and he had just forgotten all about it and filed it away!
Have you sent them a certified copy of the LPA? Failing that, would you be able to pretend to be your mother on the phone?

 

[jenniferpa]

I do have a practical tip that might help you: three way calling. I used to do this (from the US) with my mother in the UK when I had to speak to someone on her behalf (mind you, it could in most cases have been anyone else on the line rather than Mummy).

I'm assuming you have provided the DVLA with a copy of the POA?

 

[nitram]

Have you tried sending a certified copy of the registered LPA to both the insurers and the DVLA?

You can't really expect them to accept that you have authority without written proof.

 

[Long-Suffering]

Hi Susan,

Just pretend to be your mum. That's what I always do.

LS

 

[Pete R]

My mum has vascular dementia and is deteriorating fast. .......I doubt she would manage to navigate their multi-step answering system or remember why she was making the call........

I do not wish to offend but why are you renewing the licence? Surely it would be best to recover any of the outstanding insurance.

 

[Long-Suffering]

Is your mum still safe to drive? Maybe it's time for her to stop?

LS

 

[Mannie]

My mum has vascular dementia and is deteriorating fast. She lives 3 hours away from me and my two siblings. My sister and I visit as often as possible but have our own work and life commitments. I have just returned from a visit this weekend.

I sent Mum's driving licence to DVLA for renewal 6-7 weeks ago and it has not been returned. I have just phoned them to ask where it is in their process but they will not speak to me without my mother's spoken approval - I am in Glasgow and she is near Inverness. I have full PoA for her but DVLA insist they must speak to her and asked for her to call directly - I doubt she would manage to navigate their multi-step answering system or remember why she was making the call. The point is I cant ALWAYS be at her side as we live so far apart and at weekends when I do visit few offices are open. It it hugely frustrating to try to help manage Mum's affairs when I have PoA but run up against Data Protection. I want to protect her interests and make sure she is safe. DVLA will not even tell me if my mum should be driving at present and her insurers keep calling to ask for a copy of her licence.

If having PoA does not actually count when trying to deal with the affairs of elderly, demented parents - what is the point of it??

When you have aPOA, you have to go through the step of registering it with each organization you want to use it for. Most organizations will have help on the web pages about registering the POA with them.

It sounds as if your mum , if she cannot navigate the phone system, should not be driving ?

The GP is the best for deciding whether she should be driving or not. Since you have POA you can register that with her GP and then speak with them, since this is a really, really common scenario.

The GP can speak with your mum to advise her.

This may mean your mum has to get used to the bus/taxi etc or needs to move house. My mum and dad moved last year because they were in a village with no facilities/shops etc. They moved near to me nd my siblings. I used the POA for the house move admin.

 

[canary]

Is it possible that DVLA have refused her a new license and have written to tell her? She may not have kept the letter if she didnt understand what it meant or thought it didnt apply to her.
If you have to use PoA for her I do wonder whether she is safe to drive. I might just let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[cragmaid]

I gave up trying to get some call centres to speak to me under POA...so I rang as her.

 

[Jellybean8]

Frustration with DVLA

Thanks for feedback.
Her GP assures her she is safe to drive...! That is a whole other can of worms as she lives out of town. I may try to call as her as some of you suggested. It just seems that data protection is an additional frustrating factor in an already very frustrating situation.

 

[Isabella]

I always pretended to be mum. Much simpler than trying to get someone in a call centre to understand what POA is. Even the bank call centre people kept going on about deputeeship and couldn't grasp the difference when I tried to explain it to them. In the end I gave up - I had POA and had the legal right to act on her behalf so I figured pretending to be her wasn't really a big deal as long as I was acting in her best interests.

 

[jenniferpa]

I always pretended to be mum. Much simpler than trying to get someone in a call centre to understand what POA is. Even the bank call centre people kept going on about deputeeship and couldn't grasp the difference when I tried to explain it to them. In the end I gave up - I had POA and had the legal right to act on her behalf so I figured pretending to be her wasn't really a big deal as long as I was acting in her best interests.

I did that just once. And the person on the other end of the line complimented me on my very young voice. Embarrassment ensued and I didn't do that again.

 

[jan.s]

Wouldn't it be good, if government departments shared information, so you send off a copy of the POA and that information is shared by all other government departments.

That happens when someone dies now - once the death is registered, I phoned a central number and pensions, passport office, DVLA etc were notified.

For once a good system, just a shame it's not used in other circumstances.

 

[Jellybean8]

Wouldn't it be good, if government departments shared information, so you send off a copy of the POA and that information is shared by all other government departments.

That happens when someone dies now - once the death is registered, I phoned a central number and pensions, passport office, DVLA etc were notified.

For once a good system, just a shame it's not used in other circumstances.

Yes - that does sound sensible. Totally agree it makes sense to share in certain circumstances. Thanks