Deputyship

[blueorchid]

Hi,
We are about to apply for deputyship for my mum following my dad's death. Initially we were only going for Property & Financial Affairs. We spoke to the SW and they said that it wasn't necessary to get Welfare and Health as we could work together with the care home and SW to reach a decision on welfare/health matters. However I spoke with another SW last week and they are advising me to get Welfare and Health as well. We hope to move Mum from her home town (70miles away) to a care home that is near me.

Any advice on whether Health & Welfare is necessary? Have you applied for it?

Thank you in advance,
B

 

[thistlejak]

Health and Welfare is rarely applied for. You can work easily with SW without it - MIL's SW and Consultant used 'Best interests' to sort things out.
The Government website has lots of useful information about the different types of Deputyship. If your Mum has a house don't forget to apply for Trusteeship as well as you won't be able to sell it.

 

[nitram]

H&W deputyship is rarely granted, the COP prefer to deal with decisions on a separate application basis.

If she owns a property you should explicitly apply for permission to sell it in the deputy application.

A trustee is only needed in certain circumstances, it's a completely different application.

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[canary]

Health and Welfare deputyship is very rarely granted. If you apply and even if it is not awarded you still have to pay all the court fees etc. I was advised not to go for it, so I only had financial deputyship for my mum. It didnt seem to cause any problems, though. Yes, as @nitram says, make sure you request permission the sell any property in the initial application.

 

[blueorchid]

Thank you all.

 

[theunknown]

As others have mentioned, if you're going for deputyship because you didn't previously have PoA, I'd be extremely wary of looking to get 'health and welfare' deputyship. It's so rarely granted, because the courts normally retain that responsibility. You'd pay to apply for it, but probably not have it granted. I had to go for deputyship, and once it was granted it was very simple to sell my mum's property to fund her care. Also; again it's only my experience, once you've moved past the chance of having PoA, if your family member is in the right place, they'll still be very good at consulting you in relation to 'health and welfare'. Legally you don't have the final say, but in reality the place your family member is in wants you to make the decision.