How to be involved in decisions about someone's care and finances, whether they have mental capacity or not.
The ways you can represent someone depend on whether they have mental capacity or not.
Find out
how to check mental capacity External link.
If they have mental capacity
Care decisions
If they have the mental capacity to make their own decisions, we can only give them care and support if they agree to it.
If you call us on their behalf, we will still need to speak to them to check that they are happy with any actions we take and they will need to sign documents themselves.
If you're worried about the future, it's a good idea to get them to grant you
power of attorney for health and welfare External link. This means you will be able to make decisions for them if they lose mental capacity.
Financial decisions and paying for care
If the person wants you to manage their money and how they pay for care, they can:
If they do not have mental capacity
Care decisions
If the person lacks mental capacity, you can make care decisions for them if you:
If you do not have either of these, we will still act in their best interests to make sure their needs are met.
Financial decisions and paying for care
If the person lacks mental capacity, we cannot complete financial assessments or give them help to pay unless they have someone to legally represent them.
You can make financial decisions for them if:
If you do not want to manage someone's finances when they lose capacity, it's a good idea to find someone that will. This could be a solicitor if there is enough money to pay for them. Or, as a last resort, the council can apply for appointeeship or deputyship themselves.
About appointees
It's free to become an appointee to manage a person's benefits and pensions. You can have those paid into a bank account that you can manage for them.
Being an appointee is sometimes limiting as not all banks will allow you access to the person's accounts. And not all private pension companies will deal with you. You will also not be able to make decisions about any properties the person owns.
Apply to become an appointee External link
About deputies
You can pay a fee and apply to become someone's deputy, which means you'll be able to access, manage and make financial decisions for them.
You will also need to apply to become an appointee to manage any benefits they get. Find out
how to become a deputy External link.
You can apply to the Court of Protection to get an urgent or emergency court order External link in certain circumstances where someone is applying for deputyship. Urgent applications must be for a specific reason, such as where someone's life or welfare is at risk or to access money from the person's bank to pay care fees.
