The short answer
- It has to be signed while they still understand itCapacity is judged one decision at a time, and a diagnosis does not end it on its own. There is usually time, which is the reason to start this week rather than after the next appointment.
- There are two of them, and they do different jobsOne covers money and property, the other covers health and care. Making one does not cover the other, so both are needed to cover both kinds of decision.
- £92 to register each one, and about two months of waitingThe Office of the Public Guardian charges £92 an LPA and takes 8 to 10 weeks where there are no mistakes in the application. It is half price if your relative's income before tax is under £12,000 a year.
- If the moment has passed, deputyship is the way backSomebody applies to the Court of Protection instead. It is £432 to apply for each kind of deputyship, there is a supervision fee every year, and the court decides who is appointed.
Fees and waiting times are from gov.uk, checked in September 2026, and they apply in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems and their own forms.
Why the timing matters
The form has to be signed while your relative can still make the decision
This is the one piece of paperwork that gets harder every month it is left. The care and the money can be sorted out later. A lasting power of attorney cannot.
The question everything turns on
Can your relative still understand this decision, hold it in mind long enough to weigh it up, and tell somebody what they want?
Yes, with help and time
They make a lasting power of attorney
Your relative chooses who will act for them, says what those people may and may not do, and signs it. A dementia diagnosis does not take this away on its own.
- Choose the attorneys, any replacements, and a certificate provider
- Fill the forms in online or on paper, then print them
- Sign in the set order, with witnesses
- Send it to the Office of the Public Guardian to register
- To register
- £92 an LPA
- Waiting time
- 8 to 10 weeks
- Who is named
- The people your relative picked
No, not any more
Somebody applies to the Court of Protection
A lasting power of attorney is no longer possible. Somebody applies to be a deputy instead, which means a capacity assessment, a court application and yearly reporting once it is granted.
- A doctor or another professional assesses capacity on form COP3
- Apply to the Court of Protection and tell close family
- Wait for the court to decide what powers to grant
- Report to the Office of the Public Guardian every year
- To apply
- £432 a type
- Supervision
- £320 a year
- Who is named
- Whoever the court appoints
This page is part of PrimeCarers' guide to dementia care, and it sits alongside what dementia care costs and at what point someone with dementia should go into care. Both of those describe decisions that somebody will have to take on your relative's behalf sooner or later. A lasting power of attorney gives that person the standing to take them, and a bank or a hospital the grounds to accept it.
On the forms your relative is called the donor, and the people they name are attorneys. The word attorney has nothing to do with being a lawyer here; it is the person given the power. There is no requirement to use a solicitor, and no requirement for an attorney to live in the UK.
The window does not close on a date. Capacity fades unevenly, and it is often better in the morning than late in the day. What are signs that dementia is getting worse describes the changes to watch for. Each month of waiting makes the conversation harder and the certificate provider's job less straightforward, and there is nothing to be gained by waiting.
What capacity means
What the law counts as being able to make a decision
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets the test, and it is narrower than it sounds. It asks about one decision at one moment rather than about a person in general. Somebody can be unable to manage a bank account and still be perfectly able to say who they trust to manage it for them.
Understand the information
Hold it in mind long enough
Weigh it up
Tell somebody the answer
Two things follow. The first is that a diagnosis does not answer the question by itself, and somebody in the earlier stages of dementia can usually still say who they trust and why. The second is that the day matters. If your relative is clearer in the morning, make the appointment for the morning. If they have become confused over the last week rather than the last year, that can lift: hospital stays with dementia explains why a sudden change is often delirium from an infection, dehydration or a new medicine, and delirium is treatable.
The two documents
The two lasting powers of attorney, and what each one covers
There are two of them, they are separate forms with separate fees, and each is registered on its own. It is easy to make the financial one and assume the care decisions come with it, and they do not.
| Property and financial affairs | Health and welfare | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Bank and building society accounts, bills, pensions and benefits, investments, and selling or renting out a property. | Daily routine, where your relative lives, the care they receive, and medical treatment. |
| When it can be used | As soon as it is registered, with your relative's permission, so it can be used while they still have capacity. | Only once your relative is no longer able to make the decision themselves. |
| Life-sustaining treatment | Does not apply. | Your relative chooses on the form: either the attorneys may give or refuse consent to it, or doctors decide while taking the attorneys' views into account. |
| Why it matters for care at home | Somebody has to agree the hours with a carer, sign the arrangement and pay the invoices. | Somebody has to consent to the care itself, and to a move if one is ever needed. |
| Fee to register | £92 | £92 |
What it covers
- Property and financial affairs
- Bank and building society accounts, bills, pensions and benefits, investments, and selling or renting out a property.
- Health and welfare
- Daily routine, where your relative lives, the care they receive, and medical treatment.
When it can be used
- Property and financial affairs
- As soon as it is registered, with your relative's permission, so it can be used while they still have capacity.
- Health and welfare
- Only once your relative is no longer able to make the decision themselves.
Life-sustaining treatment
- Property and financial affairs
- Does not apply.
- Health and welfare
- Your relative chooses on the form: either the attorneys may give or refuse consent to it, or doctors decide while taking the attorneys' views into account.
Why it matters for care at home
- Property and financial affairs
- Somebody has to agree the hours with a carer, sign the arrangement and pay the invoices.
- Health and welfare
- Somebody has to consent to the care itself, and to a move if one is ever needed.
Fee to register
- Property and financial affairs
- £92
- Health and welfare
- £92
Both are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, and both together cost £184. Source: gov.uk, September 2026.
If your relative already has an enduring power of attorney, check the date on it. Enduring powers were replaced by lasting powers on 1 October 2007. One signed before that date is still valid and can still be used, but it only covers property and affairs. There is nothing in it about health and care, so a health and welfare LPA is still worth making while your relative can make it.
Who to name
Choosing attorneys, and the person who signs the certificate
Two roles have to be filled before anything is signed. The attorneys are the people who will act. The certificate provider is an independent person who confirms that your relative understood what they were signing, was not put under pressure, and that no fraud was involved.
What tends to work
- Naming more than one attorney, so that no single person is carrying it alone
- Appointing them jointly and severally, so one attorney can act when the other is away or unwell
- Naming a replacement attorney, in case one of them cannot act when the time comes
- Asking a solicitor, a GP, or somebody who has known your relative well for at least two years, to be the certificate provider
- Writing your relative's own preferences on the form: where they want to live, who they want near them, what matters to them
- Telling the rest of the family before the forms go in, so that nobody first hears of it from the Office of the Public Guardian
What causes trouble later
- Appointing attorneys jointly for everything, which means every decision stops if one of them cannot be reached
- Naming somebody who is bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order as a property and financial affairs attorney, which the rules do not allow
- Asking an attorney, a family member, a business partner, an employee or a member of care home staff to be the certificate provider, none of whom may do it
- Filling the instructions box with conditions that turn out later to be impossible to follow
- Naming a single attorney and no replacement, so the whole document falls away if that person cannot act
- Signing the pages out of order, which means the Office of the Public Guardian will not register it
An attorney has to be 18 or over and has to have capacity themselves. Beyond that the question is whether your relative trusts them, because the job carries duties. gov.uk sets them out: follow any preferences and instructions written on the form, act in your relative's best interests, help them make their own decisions wherever they still can, keep their money separate from your own unless you already share an account, keep records, and never use the position to benefit yourself.
How to do it
Making and registering the forms, step by step
You can fill the forms in on the government's online service or download and print the paper ones. Either way they end up on paper: everyone has to sign the same original document, and digital signatures and photocopies are not accepted.
- 1
Fill in the forms
An eveningEach type of LPA is its own form. The online service lets you save and come back to it and checks the answers as you go. When you have finished you print what it produces. - 2
Decide whether to name people to notify
OptionalYour relative can name up to five people to be told when the LPA is sent for registration, and those people can object if they believe there was pressure or fraud. Naming a sibling who is not an attorney can head off a good deal of bad feeling later. - 3
Sign in the set order
One sittingYour relative signs first, watched by a witness. The certificate provider signs next, then the attorneys and any replacements, also witnessed. If the order is wrong the Office of the Public Guardian will not register it, so this is the part to slow down over. - 4
Send the notices
3 weeks to objectAnyone named to be told is sent form LP3 before registration and has three weeks to raise a concern with the Office of the Public Guardian. - 5
Register it and pay
£92 an LPAEither your relative or an attorney can apply to register it. A claim for a reduced or waived fee goes in with the application on form LPA120, because fees are not refunded afterwards.
The forms, the online service and the guidance are all on the gov.uk guide to lasting power of attorney, and nothing on this route needs a solicitor. A solicitor is worth the fee where there is property to think about, a second marriage or stepchildren, a business, or any real chance that somebody will dispute the arrangement afterwards. Age UK, Citizens Advice and Alzheimer's Society all publish guidance for families on this and all three have somebody you can talk to.
Cost and waiting time
What it costs, and how long you wait
The fee is modest. The wait is the part to plan around, because a signed form is not yet something a bank will act on.
- Day one
The papers are signed
Your relative, the witness, the certificate provider and the attorneys all sign the same original, in that order.
- The same week
The notices go out
Anyone named as a person to notify is sent form LP3.
- First 3 weeks
The window to object
Those people have three weeks to raise a concern with the Office of the Public Guardian before registration goes ahead.
- 8 to 10 weeks
The OPG checks and registers it
That is the timescale gov.uk gives where there are no mistakes in the application. A form sent back for correction adds a good part of it again.
- Once registered
It can be used
The property and financial affairs LPA can be used from this point with your relative's permission. The health and welfare one waits until they can no longer make the decision themselves.
Set that against the alternative. Applying to the Court of Protection to become a deputy is £432, and it is £432 for each kind of deputyship, so covering both money and welfare means paying it twice. A deputy then pays a supervision fee every year: £320 under general supervision, or £35 under the minimal supervision that can apply where a deputy manages under £21,000. There is a £100 new deputy assessment fee, a further £100 if the court decides the case needs a hearing, and a security bond set against the value of the estate. Those figures are on the gov.uk page on deputy fees, and solicitors' fees for a deputyship application covers what legal help on top of that tends to add.
Once it is registered
What an attorney can do when the LPA comes back
A registered LPA does not hand your relative's life over. It gives named people the standing to act where your relative cannot, and it comes with duties attached.
Show it with an access code rather than a photocopy
Agree and pay for care
Consent to the care itself
Keep records, and keep the money separate
The duty to help your relative make their own decisions wherever they still can is the part worth holding onto. If your relative can still say which of two carers they preferred, that is their decision to make and not the attorney's. When someone with dementia refuses care covers the harder end of that, and writing the preferences down in a care plan with the carer gives everybody something to work from.
A property and financial affairs attorney also deals with pensions and benefits, and two of those are worth checking straight away. Attendance Allowance is not means tested and is paid whatever your relative's savings, and local authority funding starts with a free care needs assessment that anybody can ask for.
If it is too late
What to do if your relative can no longer make the decision
If a certificate provider cannot sign to say your relative understood the form, a lasting power of attorney is not available, and going ahead anyway stores up a worse problem. Two routes remain, and they cover different ground.
| Court of Protection deputy | DWP appointee | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Property and financial affairs, personal welfare, or both. You apply and pay for each kind separately. | Benefits only. The benefit is paid to the appointee, who spends it in the claimant's best interests. |
| Who is appointed | The Court of Protection decides who is appointed and what powers they are given. | The Department for Work and Pensions, after an interview. An individual or an organisation can act. |
| What it costs | £432 to apply for each kind, plus £320 a year in general supervision, £100 for the new deputy assessment, and a security bond. | Nothing. |
| What has to happen first | A capacity assessment by a doctor or another professional on form COP3, and at least three people who know your relative told about the application. | The DWP satisfies itself that the claimant cannot manage their own affairs. |
| Duties afterwards | A report to the Office of the Public Guardian every year explaining the decisions made. | Report anything that changes the claimant's entitlement. |
What it covers
- Court of Protection deputy
- Property and financial affairs, personal welfare, or both. You apply and pay for each kind separately.
- DWP appointee
- Benefits only. The benefit is paid to the appointee, who spends it in the claimant's best interests.
Who is appointed
- Court of Protection deputy
- The Court of Protection decides who is appointed and what powers they are given.
- DWP appointee
- The Department for Work and Pensions, after an interview. An individual or an organisation can act.
What it costs
- Court of Protection deputy
- £432 to apply for each kind, plus £320 a year in general supervision, £100 for the new deputy assessment, and a security bond.
- DWP appointee
- Nothing.
What has to happen first
- Court of Protection deputy
- A capacity assessment by a doctor or another professional on form COP3, and at least three people who know your relative told about the application.
- DWP appointee
- The DWP satisfies itself that the claimant cannot manage their own affairs.
Duties afterwards
- Court of Protection deputy
- A report to the Office of the Public Guardian every year explaining the decisions made.
- DWP appointee
- Report anything that changes the claimant's entitlement.
Source: gov.uk, September 2026. A deputyship application takes months rather than weeks, because the capacity assessment has to be arranged first.
Two other documents belong in the same conversation while your relative can still make decisions, and both are worth doing at the same sitting as the LPA. An advance decision to refuse treatment lets your relative refuse a named treatment ahead of time. The NHS guidance on advance decisions says one is binding where it is valid and applies to the situation, and that refusing life-sustaining treatment has to be written down and signed by your relative and a witness. A will is the other. Will writing and protecting assets covers that, and am I legally responsible for my elderly parent answers the question that tends to come up alongside it.
Questions
Questions families ask about lasting power of attorney
Often, yes. A diagnosis does not remove mental capacity, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 requires that a person is assumed to have capacity unless it is established otherwise. The test is about this one decision at this one moment: can your relative understand what a lasting power of attorney does, hold that in mind long enough to weigh it up, and say what they want? A certificate provider has to be satisfied of that before signing. In the earlier stages of dementia the answer is often yes, which is the reason to start now.
A lasting power of attorney is no longer possible, and somebody has to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy instead. That means a capacity assessment on form COP3, an application fee of £432 for each kind of deputyship, a wait measured in months, a supervision fee of £320 a year under general supervision, and a report to the Office of the Public Guardian every year. The court decides who is appointed and what they may do, rather than your relative choosing.
£92 to register each one with the Office of the Public Guardian, so £184 for both types. If the donor's income before tax is under £12,000 a year you pay half, and if they receive certain means-tested benefits when you apply you pay nothing. Both are claimed on form LPA120 with the application. A solicitor's fee, if you use one, is on top and is set by the firm.
gov.uk gives 8 to 10 weeks from application where there are no mistakes in the forms. Before that there is a 3 weeks window for anyone named as a person to notify to raise a concern. A form that has to be sent back for correction adds a large part of that time again, which is why the signing order and the certificate provider are worth getting right first time.
They cover different decisions and neither covers the other. The property and financial affairs LPA lets an attorney deal with the bank, the bills, the pension and benefits, and any property. The health and welfare LPA lets an attorney agree to care, decide where your relative lives, and speak for them about treatment. With only the financial one, nobody has authority over the care decisions.
No. The forms and the online service are on gov.uk and are written to be completed without legal help. A solicitor is worth the fee where there is property to think about, a second marriage or stepchildren, a business, or a real chance that somebody will dispute the arrangement later. Age UK, Citizens Advice and Alzheimer's Society all publish guidance for families and each has somebody you can talk to.
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to have both types. An attorney under a property and financial affairs LPA agrees the hours with a carer, signs the arrangement and pays the invoices. An attorney under a health and welfare LPA consents to the care itself once your relative can no longer decide. On PrimeCarers the family chooses the carer and agrees terms directly with them. Carers are self employed; their identity, right to work and enhanced DBS are checked and they are interviewed online before a profile appears. They hold insurance covering them while they work, and you check skills, training and references with the carer yourself.