Why do you need a health and welfare LPA?
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney, or LPA. One deals with your financial affairs and the other covers your healthcare needs. Let’s consider the importance of having a Health and Welfare LPA.
Health and Welfare LPAs in a nutshell
It’s a legal document under which you appoint someone you trust, known as your attorney, to make personal and medical decisions on your behalf if you lose the capacity to make them yourself. These might include questions about the place you live, the medical treatment you receive and whether to consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment.
What you risk by not making one
If you don’t make a Health and Welfare LPA it may fall to the courts to authorise social workers to make these decisions rather than your loved ones. As a result, your relatives can feel powerless, while the process of accessing funds and gaining permissions may take months.
You can make a Health and Welfare LPA online, either by using the services of specialists like https://powerofattorneyonline.co.uk or by going to the government website. Whichever method you choose, your interests will be legally protected by people you trust and, hopefully, your family’s stress will be reduced.
Your wishes can be observed without the need to involve strangers and the complex, costly legal processes of the Court of Protection.
It makes perfect sense, while you’re in good physical and mental health, to plan for the day when you might have lost the capacity to make sound decisions. It allows you to exert control over your future.
