Legal Considerations When Caring for an Elderly Relative

Though caring for an elderly relative is an important and rewarding endeavour, it can also be overwhelming. There is a great deal of responsibility involved in the role, and in some situations it may not feel possible to take time away from it.

These kinds of responsibilities are often particularly waring for working-age people who have found themselves called upon to provide care for aging parents in the midst of bringing up children. These so-called ‘sandwich’ carers are growing in number, with researchers saying around one and a half people in the UK are fulfilling this role.

Whether or not you have young children, if you’re caring for an elderly relative you will need to juggle a whole range of responsibilities. These can range from managing your loved one’s social and emotional needs, to keeping on top of their everyday care, and managing their financial and legal interests.

The latter issues here can be difficult to manage if you don’t have previous experience in this area. If you’re not sure what legal considerations you should be aware of, here’s a guide to what to expect.

Ensuring legal documents are in place.

We recommend having important legal documents such as a Will and a lasting power of attorney (LPA) in place at all stages of life, but these documents become even more vital the older an individual gets. If you are supporting an older relative, you may wish to encourage them to ensure any legal documents they have in place remain valid and still fully reflect their wishes.

A Will is obviously important in order to ensure you know how your elderly relative would want their estate to be managed in the event of their death. However, a LPA can also be crucial. This document enables an older individual to appoint someone they trust to be able to make decisions on their behalf in the event that they become unable to do so. This can be hugely valuable in the case of both short term and long-term illnesses, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

You may also want to speak to your older family member about whether they’d like to make an Advance Statement or Advance Decision. These legal documents are sometimes referred to as ‘living wills’. They give individuals the opportunity to set out their wishes for future medical treatments, including whether or not they would wish to receive lifesaving care in certain situations.

Keeping affairs in order.

Life admin such as utility bills, bank statements and insurance renewal forms can quickly become disorganised if they are not kept on top of. This can be a particular concern in situations where an older individual can no longer look after themselves and requires care, either professionally or from family members.

In these situations, it’s understandable that keeping on top of paperwork can sometimes fall to the bottom of the priority list. However, this often leads to problems in the long-term. If you needed to step in to manage affairs on your relative’s behalf, it would be made a great deal easier if the paperwork was all in order and you’d had conversations with your relative about what was required.

If this feels like a mammoth task and you don’t know how to start getting everything in order, help is available. Our team offer a specialist paperwork auditing service.

Making provision for daily care and living.

It can be incredibly difficult to make the decision that additional care is required. This is true both for the elderly individual themselves and for their family members. Not only can this be a big decision emotionally, it can also be very complicated in practical terms.

Once it becomes clear that your loved one needs additional support, you’ll likely find yourself navigating a completely new situation. There are a range of options to consider here, and all of them have different practical and financial implications.

If you don’t know where to start, you might find it helpful to get a better overview of the possibilities, as well as what you will need to consider financially. You may find our free ebook Caring for an Elderly Relative a helpful resource.

Ensuring your family member’s financial and legal interests are protected.

We wish this wasn’t the case, but unfortunately there are people out there who target older people and seek to profit from them. You may well already be aware of how elderly people can be vulnerable in terms of abuse and neglect, but you may not be familiar with the possibility of financial elder abuse.

Threats in this area can come from strangers such as telephone or internet scammers, or tradespeople. Unfortunately, it can also come from familiar people, such as carers or even family members.

Thankfully, there are ways to protect your relative and their interests. Taking steps towards some of the other tasks in this article – such as ensuring legal documents are in place and keeping financial affairs in order – will go a long way towards keeping your relative safe.

You can read more advice on protecting your relative from elder abuse here.

Making decisions on an elderly relative’s behalf.

There may come a point where your elderly relative is no longer able to make important decisions independently. This can be an incredibly difficult situation to navigate, both emotionally and legally.

Practically speaking, managing this situation is likely to be more straight-forward if your relative has put a LPA in place. If not, you will need to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as their deputy.

The deputyship application process can be longwinded, but it’s the only way to be able to legally make decisions on your relative’s behalf without an LPA. It can be hugely beneficial to have the support of an experienced solicitor during this process.

At Roche Legal, we have a great deal of experience supporting elderly people and their families. We are familiar with all the legal considerations you’re likely to face if you’re in this situation, and we can help you navigate them. Our priority is to make things as manageable as possible, freeing you up to focus on what’s really important: your elderly relative and your own wellbeing.