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A Power of Attorney allows someone to make decisions on your behalf, should there come a time when you lack mental capacity to do so yourself. Our guide on powers of attorney can help you making such decisions.
‘Mental capacity’ means being able to make decisions. They could be about everyday things like what to wear or when to pay a bill, or more important decisions like making a will and deciding where to live.
Someone can lack mental capacity because of an injury or condition, such as a car accident, stroke or dementia. Some people may have capacity to make decisions about some things but not others, or their capacity to make decisions may change from day to day.
Click the link below to get the answers to commonly-asked questions as well as practical forms about Powers of Attorney
Get your forms and answers to your questions on POA
While you have mental capacity, you can set up a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) to give someone the authority to make decisions on your behalf. This person is known as an attorney, while the person who makes the LPA is called the donor.
There are two types of LPA.
You could also set up an Ordinary Power of Attorney, which gives someone else the power to handle your financial affairs for you.
It's only valid while you have mental capacity to make decisions about your finances, so you can keep an eye on what the attorney is doing.
The role of attorney involves a great deal of power and responsibility, so make sure you think carefully about who you choose. You must be able to trust them to make decisions in your best interests.
Download the guide Powers of attorney (PDF 807 KB)
Download the factsheet Arranging for someone to make decisions about your finance or welfare (PDF 312 KB)
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Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
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