What is Enduring Power of Attorney?

If you are able to make decisions for yourself at the moment, but are concerned that you may lack the ability in the future, you can grant someone ‘Enduring Power of Attorney’ or EPA.

This is useful if, for example, you have bipolar disorder and you are concerned that when you become unwell you might go on a spending spree and spend more than you can afford.

Having an EPA in place means that if you lose the ability to make decisions your carer, friend or relative would have the authority to act on your behalf. You would be called the ‘donor’ and the person you are giving the authority to is called an ‘attorney’.

Register an EPA

If you have the capacity to make decisions then you can make someone an attorney by registering an EPA.

If you want to make someone your ‘attorney’, they must be at least 18 years old and they can not be bankrupt.

If you want to grant an EPA, you have to fill in forms. These forms can be found on the Courtsni website.

You can specify

You can make an EPA to give someone the right to deal with your financial affairs either when you lose capacity, or to make decisions while you currently have capacity and when you lose it. If you have a simple Power of Attorney this will become invalid once you lose capacity.

You can specify which decisions you want them to make and also give guidance for them to follow when trying to work out what would be in your best interests.

Once completed the EPA has to be registered. This is also done through the Office of Care and Protection. There is a fee of £127 to pay in order to register an EPA. Either you or your attorney can register the EPA.

If the person who is registering the EPA is claiming certain benefits, is on a low income or paying the fee would cause hardship then they may be exempt or only have to pay part of the fee. Find more information about the fees.