Quick question

When dealing with DWP re benefits so far DLA and SDA re our daughter please could anyone advise whether it is best to be a 'Legal Appointee' as per DWP suggestion or hold 'Power of Attorney' as per Solicitors advice ?

Daughter totally disabled and blind but able to make desicions as no apparent mental handicap as assessed by those who do these things in the Neuro. teams.

We are assuming that as the S.S. Benefits Officer is seeing us tomorrow to claim further benefits for her this will trigger an ATOS load of paperwork and we will have to fill in and sign as well and demand they do Home Medicals in her Nursing home ?

Sorry for the questions but we are trying to find out the best way to proceed with conflicting professional advice and with benefits its hard enough already !!!

Hi mistynow,

I suspect that this will be outside any area that we can offer information on. Power of attorney would clearly extend far beyond just benefits claims though.

Steve

mistynow wrote:

When dealing with DWP re benefits so far DLA and SDA re our daughter please could anyone advise whether it is best to be a 'Legal Appointee' as per DWP suggestion or hold 'Power of Attorney' as per Solicitors advice ?

Daughter totally disabled and blind but able to make desicions as no apparent mental handicap as assessed by those who do these things in the Neuro. teams.

We are assuming that as the S.S. Benefits Officer is seeing us tomorrow to claim further benefits for her this will trigger an ATOS load of paperwork and we will have to fill in and sign as well and demand they do Home Medicals in her Nursing home ?

Sorry for the questions but we are trying to find out the best way to proceed with conflicting professional advice and with benefits its hard enough already !!!

As Steve has explained 'Power of Attorney' is beyond our remit as noderators.

However, from cases I've dealt with 'Power of Attorney' is the road to take, especially if your solicitor has suggested this.

See Power of Attorney

i was made legal appointee for my son specifically to deal with the paperwork, phonework and banking details of the benefits and allowances for my son who has aspergers and dyspraxia and lives at home. if all your daughter needs is someone to deal with the admin/phone/banking for her benefits/allowances and is capable of making her own decisions and running all the other aspects of her life, then appointee is a very agreeable arangement. power of attorney is much more far ranging however i believe you can gain this for a year at a time (i think) whereas you only need to apply for appointee status the once... and don't lose the returned form like i did...

hope it works out well for you whatever you decide on

Says here what "appointee" entails :
www.broxtowe.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1196

Thanks to all who replied, your responses were most helpful to us