Olympic e-gold for Stratford - Stratford Herald

18
Midweek Herald Tuesday 26th March, 2013
Lasting powers of
attorney: banks and
government slated
TOO often banks and government departments
make it unnecessarily difficult for families to take
over the financial affairs of elderly relatives, a
Stratford lawyer has warned.
Sofia Tayton, of Lodders
Solicitors, blames ignorance
and bureaucracy for the
problems.
Her comments follow
research by Saga into
lasting powers of attorney
(LPA)—where people
heading into old age nominate
someone to act in their
stead in the event that they
are no longer able to make
their own decisions.
LPA registrations with the
Office of the Public
Guardian have more than
trebled in the past three
years to 210,000. But that
remains way short of what
ideally it should be.
Mrs Tayton, an expert on
matters affecting the elderly,
said: “The message is getting
across and that is very
welcome, but, despite campaigns
by ourselves and
others, many more should
be addressing this issue.
“I can understand that
some find it difficult to confront
their own fallibility,
and this is an emotional
decision, but in the long run
it is much better for both the
individual and the family.
Without an LPA people are
powerless to do even the
simplest things on their relatives’
behalf, such as pay
their bills.
“As we have highlighted,
and Saga too point out, if
Chris wows ’em in Whichford
RECENTLY 200 local gardeners made
their way to Whichford Pottery to welcome
award-winning garden designer
and TV presenter Chris Beardshaw.
Knowledgeable, passionate, amusing
and an all-round nice guy, Chris gave a
talk entitled ‘The English Garden’ and
his work with the Furzey Gardens
Charitable Trust, which along with
sister charity the Minstead Training
Project, provides residential care and
horticultural training to young people
with learning difficulties.
The project that Chris described was
moving and inspirational. He
explained that every single one of the
students from Furzey contributed to
creating his low-budget woodland
garden design which won a gold medal
at the 2012 Chelsea Flower Show.
Report by Ron Westrich
news@stratford-herald.com
someone is suddenly unable
to make their own decisions
through accident or illness,
and if they do not have an
LPA in place, their family
will need to apply to the
Court of Protection in order
to be appointed as a deputy
to act on their loved one’s
behalf, a lengthy and
demanding process which
can also prove costly.”
But, said Mrs Tayton, a
particular concern emerging
from the report was how
even when people have an
LPA they can be struggling
to use them with a range of
institutions from government
departments through
to banks and utility companies—the
survey found one
in three saying that staff do
not appear to be trained to
know what LPA means and
what their company process
is to action one.
One in four has to continually
show the requisite
documents to the same company
every time they deal
with them.
“It is a problem we too
have come across with
clients both about running
into difficulties without the
forms and, sometimes, with
the forms, for example,
banks will always want to
see them but won't always
recognise them!”
She went on: “This is
totally unacceptable—institutions
need to get their act
together.
“If someone contracts
Alzheimer’s it can be upsetting
enough for family
members. Banks, government
departments and
utility companies should not
then put more difficulties in
the way purely because staff
are not familiar with, or are
not trained to handle, lasting
powers of attorney.
“Indeed, quite the contrary,
staff should be sympathetic
and prepared to go the
extra mile to help.”