Advice

Can we access a person’s money to pay for dementia care when they can’t?

Question:

My mum has dementia and is moving into a care home. She’s self-funding but hasn’t made an LPA. She can’t manage her money anymore – how will we pay the fees?

Answer:

You need a ‘legal power’ to access someone else’s bank account on their behalf. 

One way to get this is for them to have appointed you as their attorney in advance. This would be through a Lasting power of attorney (LPA) in Wales and England, or an Enduring power of attorney in Northern Ireland. 

But, since your mum hasn’t appointed an attorney and no longer has mental capacity to manage her money, you need other options. 

Deputies and appointees 

In England and Wales, you can apply to the Court of Protection for ‘deputyship’. In Northern Ireland, you’d need to apply to the Office of Care and Protection for ‘controllership’ instead. 

Deputyship allows you to access someone’s bank account and manage their money on their behalf, including to pay care fees. However, it’s not quick to get – it can take six months or more. 

It doesn’t necessarily have to be you who applies for deputyship – it could be someone else in her life. 

As a last resort, the local authority may apply for deputyship. However, it would charge for its services – families usually like to avoid that and keep control themselves. 

If your mum gets benefits (including State pension) then you can apply for ‘appointeeship’. That would allow you to manage her benefits on her behalf and have them paid to you. 

Her benefits are unlikely to cover care home fees. However, becoming an appointee could help while waiting for deputyship, since it can take less time to set up – about three months.  

In the meantime 

There are limited options, but things to consider include: 

• If you can pay the fees and keep account of what you spend, you could be paid back out of your mum’s money when deputyship is granted. You can ask the court to include this. 
• Ask the care home if there’s any flexibility with payment terms (though remember, it’s a business and will have its own cash flow issues). 
• Talk to your mum’s bank. In rare cases, it might make an exception and allow fees to be paid direct to the care home from your mum’s account. 
• If urgent, you could make an emergency application to the Court of Protection to authorise payment of care fees while your deputyship application is being dealt with. 
• Talk to your mum’s local authority. If she lacks capacity to make her own arrangements and there’s no one with the legal power to act on her behalf, then it has ultimate responsibility for her care (even if she’s self-funding).