Comments on the guidance notes for applicants (Access to Funds)

To view the document being commented on please click on this link

Office of the Public Guardian consultation document

The Rights and Legal Protection committee of Alzheimer Scotland commented on the guidance notes.

General comments

• Very clear document and well written.
• The summary of questions at the beginning is helpful.
• Does the British Medical Association (BMA) give any guidance on what a doctor can charge for a medical certificate?
• Some of the sentences are very long - carers who are under stress may find these difficult to read; for example, section 1.10 sentence 3.
• One of our members thought the document was slightly repetitive, but acknowledged that this was probably because not everyone will read the document in its entirety.
• We couldn't see a question about liability e.g. "Are you likely to be personally liable for the adult's debts?" People may be worried that they will be responsible for these; therefore, they should be assured that they will not be.
• It should be mentioned that the budget needs to be covered by the incomings.

Specific comments

• Section 1.2 - "In this context" should be inserted in bold in front of "The Act".
• Section 1.4 - Who are the bodies? Does this include local authorities? If so, this needs to be made clear.
• Section 1.6 - Change "The adult has previously appointed a continuing power of attorney to look after his assets" to "The adult has previously appointed a continuing power of attorney to look after his/her assets".
• Section 1.7 - insert "financial" before "intervention order" in the first line of the answer.
• Section 1.8 - change "criteria" to "criterion" in line 4 of the answer.
• Section 1.10 - in line 7 of the answer, replace "adult’s current account" with "account held by the adult". Last sentence, replace "if the adult has the necessary funds to allow access to funds to work" with "information about the adult's account"
• Section 4.1.3 - explain the following terms in section 12: named person, primary carer, nearest relative. Use the definitions found in the Mental Heath (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.
• Section 4.10 - after "OPG registration fee" insert "and other miscellaneous expenses may be claimed. This is part of what is assessed by the OPG in the application".