Can a parent with dementia still make a power of attorney?

Often, yes. The legal test is whether they understand the decision at the time they make it — a dementia diagnosis alone does not remove capacity, especially in the early stages. If there is any doubt, a GP or solicitor can assess capacity and act as the certificate provider.

How much does a lasting power of attorney cost?

It costs £92 to register each LPA in England and Wales, so £184 for both types for one parent (fee correct as of 2026 — check gov.uk). The fee is halved if the donor's gross annual income is under £12,000, and waived entirely if they receive certain means-tested benefits.

How long does it take to register an LPA?

Registration with the Office of the Public Guardian can take up to around 20 weeks, which includes a statutory four-week waiting period. An LPA cannot be used until it is registered, which is why families are urged to start early rather than waiting for a crisis.

What is the difference between the two types of LPA?

A property and financial affairs LPA covers money: bank accounts, bills, benefits and selling property, and can be used while the donor still has capacity if they choose. A health and welfare LPA covers care and medical decisions, and can only be used once the donor lacks capacity to make the decision themselves.

Can I use a power of attorney before it is registered?

No. An unregistered LPA has no legal effect, and banks, the DWP and care providers will only act on a registered one. Registration can take up to around 20 weeks, so it is worth registering as soon as the LPA is made rather than waiting until it is needed.

Do we need a solicitor to set up an LPA?

No. The official online service at gov.uk is designed for people to use themselves, and for straightforward family situations it works well. A solicitor is worth considering where there is a complex estate, family disagreement, or doubt about capacity — Solicitors for the Elderly (sfe.legal) lists specialists.

What happens if my parent has already lost mental capacity?

It is too late to make an LPA, but the family can apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy — usually for property and financial affairs. Deputyship typically takes several months and costs more than an LPA, with ongoing annual fees and reporting duties.

Should siblings be appointed jointly or jointly and severally?

Jointly and severally is usually more practical: each attorney can act alone, so day-to-day admin does not stall if one is away or unwell. Appointing attorneys jointly means every decision needs everyone's agreement, and if one attorney dies or loses capacity the whole appointment can fail.

Power of attorney for an elderly parent (England & Wales)

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets your parent choose, in advance, who can make decisions for them if illness or dementia ever means they cannot decide for themselves. In England and Wales there are two types — one for money, one for health and care — and each costs £92 to register (fee correct as of 2026 — check gov.uk). Your parent must have mental capacity when the LPA is made, so the single most important thing is to set it up before it is needed, not after.

This guide covers the whole journey for a family in England and Wales: what an LPA does, whether a parent with early dementia can still make one, how to set one up step by step, what it costs, how siblings should share the role, and what your options are if capacity has already been lost.

This guide is general information, not financial or legal advice. For advice about your own situation, speak to a regulated professional, or a free service such as Citizens Advice or Age UK.

What is a lasting power of attorney — and why does it matter now?

A lasting power of attorney is made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Your parent (the “donor”) appoints one or more people they trust (the “attorneys”) to make decisions on their behalf. It is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), and once registered it sits quietly in a drawer — hopefully never needed — until the day it is.

That day tends to arrive without warning: a stroke, a fall, a hospital admission, a dementia diagnosis that progresses faster than expected. Suddenly someone needs to talk to the bank about Mum’s account, deal with her pension and benefits, or take a view on where she should live after discharge. Without an LPA, the family has no automatic right to do any of this — being next of kin gives you no legal authority over a parent’s money or care decisions.

The alternative, once capacity is lost, is applying to the Court of Protection to become a deputy. That route works, but it typically takes several months and costs considerably more, with annual fees and reporting duties for as long as it lasts. An LPA made in good time avoids all of it. There is a genuine window here: an LPA can only be made while your parent can still understand what they are signing. That is not a reason to panic — it is a reason to put it near the top of the list.

What are the two types of LPA?

There are two separate documents, and they do not overlap:

Type	What it covers	When it can be used
Property and financial affairs	Bank accounts, bills, pensions, benefits, tax, buying and selling property	While your parent still has capacity (if they choose), and after capacity is lost
Health and welfare	Daily care, medical treatment, where they live, and — if they opt in — life-sustaining treatment	Only once your parent lacks capacity to make the particular decision themselves

Most families make both at the same time. The forms are similar, the same certificate provider can be used for each, and doing them together means one signing session rather than two. If you can only face one for now, the property and financial affairs LPA usually unblocks the most urgent admin — we compare them properly in our guide to the two types of LPA and which to set up first.

Can my parent still make an LPA?

This is the question that worries families most, especially after a dementia diagnosis — and the answer is more reassuring than most people expect.

The legal test is whether your parent has mental capacity at the time the LPA is made. Capacity, under the Mental Capacity Act, is decision-specific and time-specific. It asks one thing: can this person understand this particular decision, at this particular moment — what an LPA is, what powers it gives, and to whom? It does not ask whether they can manage a spreadsheet, remember what they had for lunch, or handle every decision they will ever face.

Two practical consequences follow:

A diagnosis alone does not remove capacity. Someone with early dementia can very often still validly make an LPA. Many thousands of people do exactly that in the months after diagnosis — it is one of the first things memory clinics and the Alzheimer’s Society encourage.
Fluctuation matters. If your parent is clearer at some times of day than others, the LPA can be made at a good moment. What counts is their understanding when they sign.

If there is any doubt, do not guess. A GP or a solicitor can assess capacity and, helpfully, can also act as the certificate provider — the person who formally confirms your parent understands the document and is not being pressured. A solicitor who specialises in older clients (search Solicitors for the Elderly at sfe.legal) will be used to exactly this situation and can create a contemporaneous record that the LPA was validly made — useful protection if anyone ever questions it later.

The honest flip side: capacity can be lost, and dementia does progress. If an LPA is on the family’s “we really should” list, treat the capacity requirement as the deadline it quietly is. If you fear that moment has already passed, read our guide on what to do when a parent has lost mental capacity — there are still routes, and in early dementia an LPA is often still possible.

How do you set up an LPA, step by step?

The process is genuinely doable without a solicitor for straightforward situations. Here is the whole thing:

Decide which LPAs to make. Both types, ideally, for the reasons above.
Your parent chooses their attorneys. Anyone aged 18 or over — children, other family, friends, or a professional. More on choosing wisely below.
Find a certificate provider. Someone who confirms your parent understands the LPA and is acting freely. This can be a professional (GP, solicitor) or someone who has known your parent well for at least two years. An attorney cannot be the certificate provider.
Fill in the forms. The official online service at gov.uk/power-of-attorney walks you through it; paper forms LP1F (finance) and LP1H (health and welfare) do the same job. You can sit with your parent and do the typing — the decisions must be theirs.
Sign in the correct order, witnessed. Donor first, then certificate provider, then attorneys. Signing out of order is a classic reason forms bounce back.
Register with the OPG and pay the fee — £92 per LPA, or send form LPA120 if your parent qualifies for a reduction or exemption.
Wait, then store and share. Once registered, keep the original safe and note the reference numbers.

One thing worth knowing: the system is being modernised toward a fully digital process under the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 — check gov.uk for the current process when you start.

How much does an LPA cost?

Registration costs £92 per LPA in England and Wales — so £184 for both types for one parent, or £368 for a couple each making both. Fee correct as of 2026 — check gov.uk. Two reductions exist, claimed with form LPA120:

50% off if the donor’s gross annual income is under £12,000.
Nothing to pay if the donor receives certain means-tested benefits.

If you use a solicitor to draft the documents, expect to add typically a few hundred pounds per document — get quotes, because prices vary widely. For the full breakdown, including when a solicitor is genuinely worth paying for, see how much a power of attorney costs.

How long does registration take?

Longer than most families expect. Registration with the OPG can take up to around 20 weeks, which includes a statutory four-week waiting period built into the process. And an unregistered LPA cannot be used at all — not by the bank, not by the DWP, not by the hospital.

Put those two facts together and the advice writes itself: register the LPA as soon as it is made, not when a crisis makes it urgent. A family that starts the process the week Dad is admitted to hospital may find the LPA arrives long after the discharge decisions have been taken — see our guide to hospital discharge for an elderly parent for how those weeks tend to unfold.

An attorney must be 18 or over and can be family, friends or a professional. For most families the real question is not who but how many, and on what terms.

Where more than one attorney is appointed, your parent chooses between:

Jointly — all attorneys must agree and sign for every single decision. This maximises oversight but is slow, and if one attorney dies or loses capacity, the whole appointment can fail.
Jointly and severally — each attorney can act independently. One sibling can pay the care agency while another is on holiday. This is usually the more practical choice, and it degrades gracefully if one attorney can no longer act.

A middle path is possible: jointly for big decisions (such as selling the house) and severally for everything else. Your parent can also name replacement attorneys who step in if an original attorney cannot act — cheap insurance that is easy to add at the time and impossible to add later.

On sibling dynamics, a candid word. The attorney role is work: bills, records, phone calls to the DWP. Appointing all the children “to be fair” puts people with no time or aptitude into a legal role with real duties. It is often better for your parent to appoint the sibling who is good with admin, jointly and severally with one other, and to talk openly about it as a family now — resentment over an LPA surfaces at exactly the moments families can least afford it.

Whoever is appointed takes on legal duties under the Mental Capacity Act: act in the donor’s best interests, follow the principles of the Act, keep the donor’s money entirely separate from their own, and keep records. The official guidance at gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties sets out what is expected.

How do you actually use a registered LPA?

Once the LPA is registered, using it is mostly a matter of proving it exists:

Banks and building societies will want to see the registered LPA before adding an attorney to an account. Most large banks now accept the OPG’s online “use a lasting power of attorney” service, which lets you share an access code instead of posting the original document.
The DWP will similarly want the registered LPA before discussing or redirecting your parent’s State Pension and benefits.
Care and medical decisions under a health and welfare LPA only come into play when your parent cannot make the specific decision themselves — and even then, attorneys must act in your parent’s best interests, taking their known wishes into account, not simply substitute their own views.

Keep several certified copies, note the LPA reference numbers somewhere all attorneys can find them, and set up the online service early — it saves posting the original around the country.

What if my parent refuses, or keeps putting it off?

This is extremely common, and it is rarely stubbornness — it usually comes from a misunderstanding worth gently correcting: many parents believe an LPA means handing over control now. It does not.

Points that tend to land, raised calmly and not in the middle of a crisis:

An LPA is how you keep control. Your parent chooses who acts, sets conditions, and — for finance — decides whether it can be used at all while they still have capacity. Without one, if the worst happens, a court process decides who manages their affairs, on a timetable and at a cost nobody would choose.
It is a filing cabinet document. Like a will, it does nothing on the day it is signed. It only matters if it is ever needed.
It protects the family from chaos, not just them. Framing it as a kindness to the children — “it would make things so much easier for us if anything happened” — often works better than framing it around their decline.
Do yours at the same time. If you, the adult child, make your own LPA alongside theirs, it stops being about their age at all.

If conversations stall, a third party often succeeds where family cannot: a GP, a solicitor, or the excellent guides from Age UK and Citizens Advice that your parent can read in their own time.

What if it’s too late?

If your parent has already lost the capacity to make an LPA, the main route is applying to the Court of Protection to be appointed as their deputy — usually a property and affairs deputyship, since personal welfare deputyships are rarely granted. It works, but be realistic: the application typically takes several months, costs several hundred pounds up front plus ongoing annual fees (check gov.uk/become-deputy for current figures), and deputies must file annual reports to the OPG.

There are also quicker, narrower routes for specific problems — most usefully the DWP appointee system below. We cover the whole situation, including how to check whether an LPA is genuinely off the table, in what to do when a parent has lost mental capacity with no power of attorney.

Is there a shortcut just for benefits?

Yes, and too few families know about it. If the only thing you need to manage is your parent’s benefits — claiming Attendance Allowance, dealing with Pension Credit letters, receiving payments on their behalf — you do not need a power of attorney at all. The DWP runs its own free system called appointeeship: you apply at gov.uk/become-appointee-for-someone-claiming-benefits, the DWP usually arranges a short visit, and once appointed you can make and manage claims and receive payments for them.

An appointee’s authority covers benefits only — not bank accounts, property or care decisions — but for many families it is exactly the gap that needs filling, it costs nothing, and it works even where capacity has already been lost.

What about Scotland and Northern Ireland?

This guide covers England and Wales. The other UK nations have their own systems:

Scotland uses continuing (financial) and welfare powers of attorney, registered with the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland — see mygov.scot.
Northern Ireland still uses enduring powers of attorney for financial matters — see nidirect.gov.uk.

If your parent lives in Scotland or Northern Ireland, follow the process for where they live, not where you live.

What about older EPAs and ordinary powers of attorney?

Two other documents cause regular confusion:

Enduring powers of attorney (EPAs). If your parent made an EPA before 1 October 2007, it is still valid — but it covers property and finance only, and it must be registered with the OPG once your parent is losing capacity. An EPA cannot cover health and welfare decisions, so it is often worth adding a health and welfare LPA alongside it while capacity remains.
Ordinary (general) powers of attorney. These are temporary, finance-only arrangements — useful if your parent is in hospital for a few months and wants someone to run the banking — but they end the moment capacity is lost, which makes them useless for the situation LPAs exist for. Never rely on one as a substitute.

Our guide to the types of power of attorney untangles all of these side by side.

What should you do this month?

If your parent still has capacity: start the LPA — both types, online at gov.uk/power-of-attorney — and register it straight away, because the clock on registration is measured in months. If capacity is uncertain, book a GP or specialist solicitor assessment before assuming anything. And if it is already too late, start with deputyship and the DWP appointee route.

One last thing while the paperwork is out. The same crisis that prompts an LPA — a fall, a diagnosis, a hospital stay — almost always means unclaimed benefits too. Attendance Allowance and Pension Credit go unclaimed by hundreds of thousands of families, and an attorney or appointee can claim them on a parent’s behalf. While you are sorting the legal side, make sure the money side is claimed: our free benefits check takes a few minutes and shows what your parent may be entitled to. Sorting care costs later? The care means test guide explains how savings and the house are treated.