Without an enduring power of attorney, you are effectively at the mercy of whatever random medical and other people in charge of your care decide on your behalf, so it seems a no-brainer to consider it. We all have family or close friends who will be much better able to help us in those decisions and will be willing to do so.have put an enduring power of attorney in place, according to Patricia Rickard-Clarke of Sage Advocacy, which advocates for older and more vulnerable people.
was actually passed in 2015 but it has taken this long to put in place the necessary support structures to ensure it can change the conversation on care.Part 7 of the Act deals with Enduring Power of Attorney. To be fair, much of the structure for this has not changed. You can nominate one or more attorneys, including replacement attorneys if one or more is no longer available. Where there is more than one attorney acting together, you can determine in your form whether they must act in concert or whether they act jointly and severally, or whether the decision-making is different from one decision to another. Obviously, they need to consent to being attorney nominees.
This is all as it was. But some things have changed. Most significantly, the scope of enduring power of attorney has been broadened so that it can include healthcare decisions. Until now, these were excluded. However, no one acting under the enduring power of attorney can override decisions that are already subject to an advance healthcare directive, an area dealt with in Part 8 of the Act.
And that brings us to another important change. There is much more of an onus on attorneys to provide accounts of their management of property and financial affairs, as well as key decisions they have made on your behalf and why. They also need to provide statements of your assets and income to the Decision Support Service.
More irritating for many, they are keen for the entire process now to be done online with documents downloaded for signature and then uploaded again for filing etc. It’s unclear how this will work, not least as older people might find dealing with this online more tricky .In an increasingly mobile world, our circumstances and available support can change.