Dementia

[hannah40]

My mum is 90 now with dementia. She now seems unable to sort her finances out.
She gets herself muddled. Now I’m a support worker for Adults with learning disabilities and Dementia is all new to me and really seeing my mum like this upsets me.
Any one know about how I could help her deal with money she chooses not to go out herself so really needs someone to take over her finances as I’m the only child I guess it’s down to me.
Can I become a joint account holder?
Do I need to become legal power of attorney
Or can I be an appointee
Or can I be the person that after permission has been given I then deal with everything like I do with my service users.
I work full time and have a family of my own and this isn’t something I want to do so the easier option would be best.

[pixie374]

If she, and you, are willing to make you POA, I would do that. You may need both Finances and Health and Welfare. I'm sorry, I know it is really hard, but it is not going to get any better. So I would see what she wants now xx

[bhg481]

If your mum's dementia is bad you might have problems getting power of attorney; I'd look into it ASAP. It's easy enough to do it yourself if things haven't got too bad.

[barry1010]

It won't be so easy to get LPA if your mother no longer has mental capacity, you have to apply through the court
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/if-the-person-you-want-to-help-has-lost-mental-capacity

[pixie374]

She may have. Dementia doesn't automatically mean she can't. But sort it sooner rather than later.

[hannah40]

She has still got the capacity at the moment.

[bhg481]

In that case get it done quickly. You can either get eg a doctor to certify she is fit to sign or 4 people who have known her for a long time; we went for the friends to sign ours with no problems.

[hannah40]

Where do you get the forms from please ? And how much does it all cost?

[bhg481]

Have a look here, hannah:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/search/#stq=lpa&stp=1%20

[woofgang]

all the information that you need is here. There is a fee but much cheaper to do it yourself than pay someone. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/make-a-lasting-power-of-attorney

[bednobs]

when my M-I-L had dementia, while she was lucid, she gave us her log on details for internet banking and we manged like that. She did not want to do POA

[ubasses]

I would not recommend Bednobs suggestion, if you ever have a problem on the account, the minute you make contact with the Bank and they discover what you are doing, you will be blocked from internet Banking. If her dementia has then progressed it will be too late to obtain the POA

[bhg481]

It's also a good idea to get yourself as a second person on utility company accounts (electricity, telephone etc) as many of these companies will only deal with the account holder and you can have a struggle if you need to talk to them about anything.

[hannah40]

Yes I can do utilities ect thanks I’m a support worker for LD adults so that comes as work to me. It’s the taking over her money that I need to do.
My mum doesn’t do internet banking so I don’t think I’ll go down that route but thank you to all your suggestions.
I’m a strong lady at work but not with my mum.
I leave her house every day and cry.

[bednobs]

yes, ubassess is correct. However MIL was stubborn and didn't want to do POA and that worked for us.
If you need something today though (or before you can get the forms sorted) thast's the way to go while teeing up the POA

[bednobs]

whoops, should have read your response about internet banking first :)

[hannah40]

Bednobs my mum is stubborn to. She will sign forms though and I can find people to clarify it all. But it all looks comp,icated so this weekend we’re go through forms.