Court of Protection on Radio 4

Jancis

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Jun 30, 2010
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Anyone interested in the COP might like to tune in this evening to File on 4 at 8.00pm on Radio 4.
"The Court of Protection's ability to protect the fortunes of the vulnerable".
 

susiesue

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Mar 15, 2007
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Herts
"The Court of Protection's ability to protect the fortunes of the vulnerable".

That's a joke!!!!

Not only does it cost £400 to go through the COP but in my case they very kindly provided David with an Official Solicitor to 'protect' him - from his wife of 35 years!. They have just sent me a bill for £1,200:eek:for 'protecting' him - I didn't even ask for a solicitor. I am not impressed.......
 

susiesue

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Mar 15, 2007
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Well I listened to the programme - just confirmed what I thought. It seems to me that the only people the COP/OPG are protecting is themselves with their enormous charges.

The bit I found particularly galling was the fact that in one case they quoted they were looking after over £1 million someone had received as a compensation pay out and if I recall they had put it in an account with NO interest! There was nothing that the person could do about this but had he invested this money in an account paying reasonable interest he could have received £50,000 extra:eek: - due to their mismanagement he had lost this money - just awful as he is totally in their hands.
 

lin1

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Jan 14, 2010
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East Kent
Sue. Its disgraceful n thats putting it mildly
Dont know what or if anything thing can b done about it ,
 

Jancis

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Jun 30, 2010
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Florence and financial abuse of £300,000

For those who listened, does anyone have any comments to make on Florence's story?

She was abused psychologically and financially by her niece. Florence was in fact one of the luckier ones as her SW contacted an expert solicitor and the £300,000+ that the niece had managed to steal has now been recovered!! You can listen to this again on iplayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t3zb8/File_on_4_27_07_2010/

Florence's story is about three quarters way through - 25.37 on the sliding scale.
 

wazzer

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Jun 4, 2008
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North west England.
Court of Protection

Hi
I have just recently been appointed Deputy for my mothers Property and Affairs and I totally agree with Susiesue that the way charges mount up is shocking. Once you have finished with the Court of Protection (unless you qualify for exemption) and you have the Final Order you may then have to take out a Guarantee Bond as I have to sell my mothers house to fund her care (another £200 per year). Then the Office of the Public Guardian step in and I have to pay another £100 to be included on the Register Of Deputies and it will cost me another £350.00 per year for the privilege of controlling my own mothers bank accounts, on a level 2A supervision order and I am an only child.
Is there anything else I wonder?
 

wendyviv

Registered User
Jun 18, 2009
140
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essex. frinton
court of protection

I read the above posts with interest as I am having to apply for court of protection which I feel is disgusting as a wife of 47 years dealing with our finances for over 8 years. I know there is room for abuse but surely Dr. or long term friends could swear the honesty of wives, obviously not, I was told I needed protection for Roy because he does not know what is best for him, that is hurtful as I have been looking after him for 8 yrs and the last four months not even going out, he is in a care home now as he can't walk. I desperately want him home again but in my heart I know it is best for him to stay where he is, surely that should be enough not add to the misery.:eek::eek:wendy
 

susiesue

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Mar 15, 2007
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Herts
I read the above posts with interest as I am having to apply for court of protection which I feel is disgusting as a wife of 47 years dealing with our finances for over 8 years. I know there is room for abuse but surely Dr. or long term friends could swear the honesty of wives, obviously not, I was told I needed protection for Roy because he does not know what is best for him, that is hurtful as I have been looking after him for 8 yrs and the last four months not even going out, he is in a care home now as he can't walk.

Hi Wendy

I do sympathise - my husband and I have been married for 35 years and I resent the fact that the COP appointed a solicitor to look after David's interests without even consultaing me!! What did they think I was going to do? It is an insult - and an expensive one at that as the solicitor's costs were astronomical. I do hope they don't do the same with you.

Love
 

sistermillicent

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Jan 30, 2009
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I have recently been working with someone who has been through all this, you can challenge the solicitor's costs, the person I know who did this got them reduced by about half.
Pippa
 

Onlyme

Registered User
Apr 5, 2010
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UK
I have just listened to the Florence section of the Radio 4 programme and I was shocked.

I was ignorant that there are such big charges for the Deputy etc. Shocking. :mad:
 

susiesue

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Mar 15, 2007
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Herts
you can challenge the solicitor's costs, the person I know who did this got them reduced by about half.

Thanks for that Pippa. I have in fact written and challenged the costs. I pointed out that what they had charged me was the equivalent to one week's care home costs for David. As they were acting to 'protect the vulnerable' surely the money would have been better spent paying his care home fees. It just beats me how they can charge such exhorbitant fees when the whole idea is that they are supposed to be protecting my husband - how exactly is that protecting him? - on the contrary I think they are ripping off a vulnerable person. Hopefully I will get a similar outcome to the person you know.

Thanks.
 
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susiesue

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Mar 15, 2007
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Herts
I have at last received a reply to my letter to the Official Solicitor's office querying their fees of £1,224.35:eek: - it took them two months to answer my letter!

Yes, I can challenge the costs but if I do I will incur a further fee of £100.............they are just unreal!
 

Jo1958

Registered User
Mar 31, 2010
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Yorkshire
Oh Sue,
What a lot of money and more to appeal, it just doesn't make sense, have you telephoned them to ask if there is any point appealing and maybe losing that extra money. I found them very helpful and efficient when I applied for Lasting Power of Attorney, I am waiting to hear if it's accepted.
Thinking about you with this added worry.
Kind regards, Jo
 

susiesue

Registered User
Mar 15, 2007
2,607
0
Herts
Hi Jo

I have given in I'm afraid - no doubt if they spend time on the phone with me that will be a further cost - each call, letter etc etc is logged and charged!

I have paid it out of David's money which just means his money will run out even quicker now.

I think probably you are still dealing with the Court of Protection and if you are just applying for an LPA you shouldn't need the OS. Because mine was very complicated the COP appointed the Official Solicitor ,without asking me! - to 'protect' David from his wife!!!! - and then charge him an absolute fortune..

Love
 

serena

Registered User
Jul 17, 2010
69
0
Hampshire
Hi Jancis

Thanks for posting the info, this is all horrendous, far worse than could imagine.

Love and Light, Serena
 

leslee

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
275
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Tyne and Wear
I have read all of this and my jaw is just dropping. Can the government find any other ways of taking money from the elderly and vulnerable? It seems to me that it's akin to theft. What exactly do they do for all of the money that they charge? If anyone else did this there would be an absolute outcry.
 

outofmydepth

Registered User
Feb 28, 2012
103
0
very interesting to read ,can anyone tell me ,does the office of guardian get involved in every case or just where there is a lot of money/estate......................my mother doesn't have much and don't want that to go in charges :)
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,081
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Bury
"...does the office of guardian get involved in every case or just where there is a lot of money/estate...".

It's not so much the size of the assets as the difference between an attorney and a deputy

A capable donor can make an LPA which only involves the OPG, the donor will ask the OPG to appoint specific attorney(s).
When the LPA is registered the attorney(s) will be left alone to do their duty, the attorney(s) are responsible for the administration of the donor's affairs.The OPG need only be informed of major transactions such as selling a property.Attorneys have to 'be accountable for' rather than keep formal accounts.
Otherwise the OPG and/or the COP will only become involved if they have reason to suspect maladministration of the donor's affairs.

If it is necessary to take on the administration of an incapable person applicatation has to be made to the COP to administer the assets, it will do this by appointig a deputy to act on its behalf.
In this case the COP is ultimately responsible for the administration and therefore require full accounts and insurance bonds to protect itself which makes it far more time consuming and expensive than simply being an attorney.
 

Saffie

Registered User
Mar 26, 2011
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Near Southampton
When I applied to be a Deputy for my husband a year ago I had to pay the COP the original £400 plus another £400 for permission to sell our holiday chalet of which husband was joint owner, which was the main reason that I needed the deputyship. also the Insurance bond of course plus the £100 registration fee to the OPG

The annual supervision payment, payed retrospectively, was then arranged at various prices to reflect the different levels of supervision, (£125 in my case)but has now changed to £375 for every level - whether you dealing with very limited finances, as I am, or a multi-millionaire!

I also received a magazine from the OPG yesterday, which gave details of various factsheets to assist deputies and which they said go out to every new deputy. Well, this must be very new as I received my husband's deputyship in June and I didn't receive them. Last night I downloaded them and found that I needed to be doing things I haven't been and doing things i shouldn't have been! I'm now dreading the report I shall have to give in June even more than I was before!
 

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