Planning for the future - Managing someone else’s affairs

Managing someone else’s affairs

There are many reasons that you may have to manage the affairs of someone you care for, either in the short or longer term.

Managing someone else’s affairs can mean supporting the person you care for with many different aspect of their life, in addition to the actual practical job of caring for them. It differs for everyone, but caring for someone could include:

looking after their bank accounts, savings, investments, property, and other financial affairs
buying and selling property on their behalf
claiming and spending welfare benefits on their behalf
deciding where they live or making sure their home is safe and comfortable
making decisions about their day-to-day personal care

There are different ways of managing someone’s affairs. Choosing the right one depends mainly on the circumstances of the person whose affairs need to be managed and whether, or not, they have mental capacity to make a decision.

Having mental capacity means the ability to:

understand information relating to a decision
weigh up that information
remember that information for long enough to make a decision
communicate a decision (whether verbally, using sign language, or by other means)

Whether someone has mental capacity can change depending on the decision that needs to be made; someone might be able to make decisions about certain things but not others. Others might be able to make a decision at a certain time, but unable to make the same decision at another time. Read more here.

Find out more here – Make decisions on behalf of someone

You can look after someone’s affairs in the following ways:

with a third party mandate to deal with a bank, building society or other financial account
as a DWP appointee to deal with welfare benefits or tax credits
with a power of attorney
as a deputy appointed by the Court of Protection