What is Power of attorney?
Power of Attorney allows you to choose a trusted person or persons to make important decisions or act on your behalf, if you can’t in the future.
These decisions should always be based with your best interests at heart and you may even put some rules in place beforehand.
This includes making decisions about your health and living arrangements or managing your financial affairs.
You can put a Power of Attorney in place at any time as long as you haven’t lost mental capacity when the document is signed.
Types of Power of Attorney
In England and Wales, there are three types of Power of Attorney in operation.
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
This is the most common type of Power of Attorney. There are two kinds of LPA, you may want either one or both types in place.
- Property and Financial Affairs LPA: this covers things such as managing day-to-day finances, debts, benefits and buying or selling property. It can be used both before and after the donor (you) has lost mental capacity.
- Health and Welfare LPA: this covers issues such as NHS treatment, care and housing. It can only be used after the donor has lost mental capacity.
Ordinary Power of Attorney (OPA)
An Ordinary Power of Attorney also allows your trusted person/s to act on your behalf but it’s only valid while you have mental capacity. You might choose an OPA if you want someone to look after your financial affairs for a temporary period. This could be if you have health problems or an accident, or if you’re abroad for a long period of time.
Ordinary Power of Attorney should not be used if you:
- have been diagnosed with a health condition that could lead to mental incapacity
- are worried that you may develop such a problem
- want to put in place arrangements to ensure your affairs are managed by someone you trust in the event you lose mental capacity in the future.
Under these circumstances, it’s more appropriate to use a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA)
You can’t set up a new Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) as they were abolished in October 2007. If there’s one already in place it’ll still be valid if you need to register it in the future.
An EPA only applies to financial affairs so if you (or the person you’re caring for) has one in place, you may want to consider replacing it with a Lasting Power of Attorney.
What type of PoA do we deal with?
For properties and accounts in England and Wales, the Power of Attorney must be in the form of an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA), produced prior to 1 October 2007 or a registered Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) (property and affairs) for documents dated after 1 October 2007.
For properties and accounts in Scotland, the Power of Attorney must be a Continuing Power of Attorney (CPA) including a certificate signed by a solicitor, a practising member of the faculty of advocates, or a medical practitioner stating that:
- They’ve interviewed the granter immediately prior to the signing of the CPA
- They’re satisfied because of their own knowledge of the granter or having consulted another named person who knows the granter, that the granter fully understands the nature of the powers being given and the extent of them; and
- They have no reason to believe that the granter is acting under any influence or other reason which should prevent the powers form being given.
Power of Attorney in Scotland
In Scotland, there are three types of Power of Attorney
Continuing Power of Attorney (CPA)
This form of Power of Attorney allows you (the ‘granter’) to choose someone to look after your property and financial affairs immediately, continuing into incapacity or if you become mentally incapable. It can also include welfare powers, such as determining where you should live if you need to move due to changing levels of care. Welfare powers can only come into effect on incapacity.
Welfare Power of Attorney (WPA)
This Power of Attorney allows your attorney(s) to make decisions about your health and welfare after you become incapable. These powers can include deciding where you’ll live and personal issues, such as medical treatment and personal care. Your attorney(s) can’t intervene while you have capacity to make decisions for yourself.
For more information about PoA in Scotland you can visit the office of the public guardian website http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/power-of-attorney/types-of-power-of-attorney
Combined Power of Attorney
This is a combination of a CPA and WPA.
How to get a Power of Attorney
Your attorney can be a friend, relative or professional person such as a solicitor. They must be over the age of 18. When you’ve chosen your attorney, you’ll need to register them with the Office of the Public Guardian. You can find out more on the government websites by clicking below.
Power of Attorney Form
If you’re a customer with Power of Attorney in place and would like to open a savings account with us, you will first need to complete an online application and then complete the below form and return it to us with a copy of the Power of Attorney document.
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.pdfDownload
Where do I send the documents?
You can send your documents by email or post. If you’re posting your documents, please send them by recorded delivery so they reach us safely. We’ll send them back to you in this way too.
We’ll contact you to let you know when it’s been done.
By Post: Customer Services, Hodge, One Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1FS
FAQs
Find out more about our power of attorney process.
If you’re worried that decisions aren’t being made in the best interest of the donor please get in touch with the Office of the Public Guardian. They’ll look at the case and review whether they are able to investigate. See the gov website for further information
There are a number of ways a Lasting Power of Attorney can be brought to an end. The person who made the Power of Attorney (known as the donor) can cancel it if they still have capacity.
If the attorney is no longer able, or no longer wants to be an attorney, there’s guidance on the Gov.uk website on how to do this.
A Lasting Power of Attorney will also come to an end when the donor passes away.
An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) can also be brought to an end by the donor cancelling it if they still have capacity or an attorney says they no longer wish to be an attorney. It can also be cancelled with a court order or the Court of Protection can end if they believe the attorney has abused their position or the donor made the Enduring Power of Attorney because of fraud or excessive pressure.
You may be able to apply for new or additional borrowing but this has to be through an Independent Financial Advisor. If you don’t have an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) the website www.unbiased.co.uk can help you find one.
If we request additional identification, we will need to see your passport or driving license (original or solicitor certified copy) and proof of address dated within the last 3 months. This could be a utility bill, council tax bill or bank statement.
We will run identification checks through Experian, a credit reference agency, to confirm the identity of the PoA. In some cases, you may need to send us additional documents to verify identification. If we need this we will let you know.
For mortgage customers, the account will need to be redeemed which means that the mortgage will need to be repaid. For savings customers, the money in the account will be sent to the customers’ estate which then closes the account.
It can take up to a month. We’ll ask the Office of Public Guardian to verify the Attorney(s) named on the Power of Attorney document.
You can contact us by phone, email, or letter to manage the account.
No, as the mortgage is already in place and any changes would need to be made through an independent financial advisor.
You can open an account on the donors behalf. Please contact our savings team on 0800 7314076, they’ll be able to help you with your application.
We’re happy to accept a copy by exception or a solicitor certified copy via email.
We need either the original Power of Attorney document or full copy document. Please make sure you include all pages. If sending a copy we also need certification which means that the document needs to have each page stamped by the company who’s provided it.
You’ll need to send us one of the following:
- The original Power of Attorney document
- A solicitor certified photocopy with original solicitor’s signature, company stamp and a declaration on each page confirming the document to be true copy of the original.
If you have a Lasting Power of Attorney registered in England or Wales on or after 1 September 2019 then you do not need to send us these documents. Instead, you can send us an access code given by the gov.uk website when you registered your Power of Attorney. These are 13 characters long and start with a V. We’ll use this code to access the Power of Attorney online from the Office of the Public Guardian.
Additional documents:
- If the donor now lives in a care home, we need a letter on headed paper or an email from the care home stating the donor lives there. This must be signed by the Care Home manager
- We’ll need to run identification checks on the attorney and may need to see additional identification documents. This includes passport or driving license (original or solicitor certified copy) and proof of address dated within the last 3 months. This could be a utility bill, council tax bill or bank statement.