Interested in a Health And Welfare Lasting Power Of Attorney?

A person may at some stage in their life struggle to deal with their health and general personal welfare affairs either due to physical or mental reasons. Physical reasons include struggling to carry out certain tasks because of physical difficulties such as walking any distance, talking over the phone or being hard of hearing. If any of this applies, you should think about making a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney.

Mental impairment could include starting to become forgetful and not remembering things so easily or becoming a little confused with specific matters. An individual may even develop health issues such as Alzheimer’s or some other mental illness and therefore potentially lose their mental capacity.

Please be aware that you cannot create a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney after you have lost your mental capacity, so it is important that you prepare for the future and create a Lasting Power of Attorney whilst you still have mental capacity.

Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney cannot apply to various matters including the following:

1. Financial decisions including making gifts

2. Life sustaining treatment unless specifically stated in the Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney

3. Making a new will

4. Restraining the donor unless certain conditions are satisfied

5. Consent to marriage or civil relationship or have sexual relations

7. Consent to divorce or adoption.

If you require a legal document to apply to any of the above matters, please contact us for more specific advice.

An Attorney cannot act or use a Donor’s Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney until it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. This is done to protect the Donor and ensure that it is not being made under duress.

A Lasting Power of Attorney can only be used in accordance with the terms and conditions that the Donor has imposed within. A Donor can specify a number of restrictions to be included in the Lasting Power of Attorney. If you have any particular requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us and we can clarify the legal position for you.

We can discuss your requirements and let you know the best way to proceed forward. We will advise whether it is more appropriate to have a Property and Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney or a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney, or even both.

You can leave the matter with us and after obtaining the relevant information we will draft the necessary forms and send them to the Office of the Public Guardian. We will answer any queries you have in relation to the Power of Attorney and ensure that you understand what is happening and keep you updated with the progress.