Lasting power of attorney and live-in care
If a parent can no longer manage their own affairs, a Lasting Power of Attorney lets you arrange and pay for live-in care on their behalf. Here's how it works.
Most families don't think about power of attorney until they need it — usually in the middle of arranging care for someone who can no longer manage it themselves. If that's where you are right now, here's the short version: a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is what lets you legally speak and act for a parent or partner once they can't do it for themselves, and without one, arranging or paying for live-in care can get complicated fast.
What an LPA actually covers
There are two separate types, and it's worth understanding the difference because they cover very different things. A property and financial affairs LPA lets the attorney manage bank accounts, pay bills, sell a house if needed, and — crucially for care — agree and pay a care provider directly. A health and welfare LPA covers decisions about medical treatment and, importantly, where someone lives and what kind of care they receive. Many families assume one covers the other. It doesn't. If you're arranging live-in care for a parent, you'll generally want both in place, or at least the financial one, since that's what lets you actually sign a contract and pay the weekly fee.
Why this matters before a crisis, not during one
An LPA has to be set up while the person still has mental capacity to understand and agree to it. That's the part people miss. If someone has already lost capacity — through a stroke, advancing dementia, or a sudden health event — it's too late to register a new LPA, and the only route left is applying to the Court of Protection for a deputyship, which is slower, more expensive, and involves ongoing supervision by the court. We've had families call us needing care arranged within days, only to discover partway through that no one actually has the legal authority to sign for it. It's a genuinely stressful position to be in, and one that's entirely avoidable with some earlier planning.
How this plays out when a carer moves in
In practice, once an LPA is registered, the attorney deals with us directly — agreeing the care plan, signing the paperwork, and setting up payment — while the day-to-day relationship is still very much between the carer and the person they're looking after. Having the legal side sorted properly at the outset means it never has to come up again once care is underway; it simply sits in the background, doing its job.
Setting one up
You can register an LPA yourself through GOV.UK, or through a solicitor if the situation is more complicated — for instance, if there's disagreement within the family about who should hold it. Registration currently takes several weeks, so if a diagnosis like dementia has just been given, this is genuinely one of the first practical things worth doing, well before care itself becomes urgent. If you're not sure whether an LPA is already in place for a parent, it's worth asking directly rather than assuming — it's a surprisingly common gap even in families who've otherwise planned carefully.
If you're already at the stage of arranging care and you're not sure where the legal side of things stands, mention it to your care manager when you call — it's one of the first things we ask about, precisely because it affects who we're able to talk to and what we can agree with them.
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0800 368 8558Lines open 8am–10pm, seven days a week See all questionsCan I arrange live-in care for a parent without an LPA?
If your parent still has mental capacity, they can agree to care and sign for it themselves, even with support from you. An LPA only becomes essential once someone can no longer make or communicate that decision on their own.
What happens if a parent loses capacity and there's no LPA in place?
You'd need to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order, which allows someone to act on their behalf. It works, but it takes considerably longer than registering an LPA and involves ongoing reporting to the court.
Do both attorneys have to agree on care decisions if there's more than one?
It depends how the LPA was set up. It can specify that attorneys must act jointly (agreeing on everything) or jointly and severally (either can act alone). This is worth checking early, since it affects how quickly decisions about care can actually be made.
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