Oh Nita you have my sympathies! And I am quite surprised how critical some of the responses are that you've received. Not very helpful to you at such a stressful time. I too had to be my husband's deputy as his dementia was fast moving and we had no time to do an LPOA. The form came as a shock to me too as I had been managing our joint finances for years and as we had a Joint Bank Account the account didn't balance at the end of the period anyway. The COP didn't seem to bother but what really surprised me like you were the questions on decisions I had made. Also they wouldn't let me fill the first form in on line but made me fill it out hard copy, sent me the wrong version of it and forgot to include the last 2 pages. When I finally completed it they then rang me to say their scanner wasn't working well so I had to read them some of the pages!! What a farce. My husband passed away in November and I informed them. They sent their bill for the part year "for their support!!!" by return of post. I sent a cheque and questioned what their support had been and criticised their lack of sensitivity and they dropped the charges. I feel very strongly that this "service" needs to be publicly reviewed. I believe it is appropriate when the deputy is not a close relative but when it is the spouse/partner etc then the process is totally inappropriate and caused me much distress. I apologise for this rant on you post and I do feel for you. X
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reddollyfood, I think you have misinterpreted this thread, especially as Nita was not the name of the OP.
I don't think anyone has been critical of Jenny, just suprised that the form was not expected and I think everyone is in agreement that the form is difficult and complicated. I certainly found it a strain for the weeks I took getting the first one right. However, being a Deputy - and I, too, was Deputy for my husband - is an onerous responsibility all the time because, as already said, one is responsible to the CoP. I found the whole thing terrifying and dreaded the day the form would come through the letterbox.
I also found the regular balancing of the various accounts time comsuming and irksome, especially once the LA became involved with NH fees as capital ran down. However, this is by far the easiest way to prepare for the annual review form and that is what we have been trying to say here.
It is if anything a salutary warning to get an LPA in place before it's need is obvious as it is far less onerous to administer than Deputyship!
Regarding decisions on the form, I seem to recall that those I wrote were mainly of health and welfare issues because those were ones which concerned the people I'd had meeting with. Decisions about expenditure were already explained elsewhere within the form and, although I had kept our joint account open, it contained only my husband's income by that time.
Now that the form is able to be viewed and completed gradually online, it should be less daunting than when I did mine. I hope so anyway as, although the OPG is far from perfect - and I had my own issue with them after my husband died - they are there to safeguard those we represent.
