U
Uncle Peter
You must know some horrid relatives. I can't think of anyone who would financially abuse someone in that position.Relatives are amongst the most likely people to be financially abusing
someone in that position. Some of the worst cases are where the
relatives are completely out of the picture.
Only the person themselves can get an LPA and they have to have
appropriate mental capacity at the time to do so**. People with
dementia can be very resistant to releasing control, both at the LPA
creation stage and the bringing into effect stage. Relatives can be
afraid of going through the process of telling someone that they should
no longer be allowed to make financial transactions.
Also, there is no legal requirement for banks to stop acting on cheques
because an LPA has been brought into full operation++. They do so
because they treat that as an indication that their client no longer has
the mental capacity to make transactions safely.
** The mental capacity required depend on the task in hand. The
capacity of someone with dementia can be higher at some times than
others. It may be possible to make a valid LPA at a time when it would
not be safe to make large financial transactions.
++ My specific experience is with EPAs, where there they could only be
used once capacity was lost.