Within Adult Social Care, we may be working with people who need support with their personal finances. People should be enabled and assisted to manage their own financial affairs as far as is possible.

However, in cases where the person lacks capacity to manage their money independently, a best interest decision may be taken for another person to act on their behalf. See our guidance on Mental Capacity Assessments for information about the process and principles. 

There are various legal ways for someone to act on a person’s behalf with regards to managing their finances:

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)

A person must have mental capacity to grant power of attorney, and there are different types of power of attorney that come into effect in certain circumstances.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a way for a person to give someone they trust, their attorney, the legal authority to make decisions on their behalf if they lose mental capacity at some point in the future, or if they no longer want to make decisions for themselves. There are two types of LPA: an LPA for financial decisions and an LPA for health and care decisions.

Appointee

If someone is not able to manage their DWP benefits, because they lack the mental capacity to do so, then an Appointee has legal responsibility to manage the person’s benefits on their behalf. Applications for Appointeeship are made to the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions). An Appointee only manages the person's benefits on their behalf, and does not legally have access to any other bank accounts or financial assets that the person has.

Deputy

If a person does not have the mental capacity to grant a power of attorney, then the Court of Protection can appoint a deputy to make decisions and receive information about a person on their behalf.

There are two types of deputies:

• a financial affairs and property deputy deals with a person’s finances, such as bills, benefits, and pension,
• a personal welfare deputy deals with decisions concerning and person’s health and personal welfare.

The Office of Public Guardian (OPG) maintains a register of lasting powers of attorney, enduring powers of attorney and deputyship court orders. To find out whether a person has any of these in place, it is possible to request this information using the OPG100 form. The OPG have also published a practice note regarding what information you can ask for and how to ask for it.