I am 66 and have been diagnosed with early and progressive dementia and have been advised to sort out my affairs.
My wife and I are both in IVA’s but with different companies. The house is mortgaged in my name only although my wife has a registered interest with The Land Registry. Her IVA is five years and finish and mine is five years and then a further year if there is no benefit in the house and with this economy it is doubtful if there will be.
My question is that we are considering a Lasting Power of Attorney with my wife as attorney. What are the effects of this on my IVA? It is probable that my wife may have to reduce her hours to look after me.
If anybody has experience of LPA’s within IVA’s – don’t you just hate all these acronyms! I would be pleased to hear from you.
Your wife can hold an LPA while in an IVA but the other issues are more of concern. Given your wife will have to reduce hours and your illness, it may be an idea to try and settle the IVAs if at all possible.
I did try to have a word with my case worker. Unfortunately she did not have a clue about LPA's or The Mental Health Act or The Office of The Public Guardian.
I suppose my question is will my IP have to comply with the above bodies once my LPA is registered and will this have any effect on my IVA?
It should have no effect provided the IVAs terms are complied with but the main concern is whether or not the IVAs can continue on. If your wife holds an LPA she will have to maintain your IVA conditions in addition to her own. This should not give rise to any conflict of interest but I do believe you both should try and get at least one of the IVAs closed down. Creditors are normally sympathetic to health problems and have closed down IVAs at pennies in the pound where there have been changes in circumstances beyond the control of the clients.
Good luck and hopefully it will work out for you both. If either of your IPs have representatives on this site you could contact us directly to help speed the matter up.
My husband has vascular dementia. re LPA to go through a solicitor costs about £1000 if you have one for financial side of your affairs and one for the medical side our solicitor would do the 2 including VAT for a reduced price. We could not begin to afford that in an IVA. However if you go onto the web site of the public guardian they will send the packs you need with great explainations of how to complete. You need your Dr to sign to confirm your illness but the cost is small compared to a solicitor. (sorry I can't remember the cost) We decided in the end not to continue with it as we do not own a property and do not have any money and after discussing things with our daughters and husband they were happy to allow my judgement to make any medicial decissions.
If I can you give any advice it would be to take one day at a time and consider any help that is offered. Speak to Social Services re what is available you may not want to take up what is on offer yet but to know what is available is reassuring.
Take Care
Jan
Nothing you can buy feels as good as not being in debt.
Thank you very much for your support and words of wisdom.
As you say doing it yourself cost £150 for each element and I will sweet talk to my GP for a pro bono signature.
Since being diagnosed I have joined a couple of networks and I am taking part in a research project into dementia. At the moment I am still reasonably competent, but these things will slide as time goes on.
My wife and I are currently drafting a letter to our IP's and in which we will ask for some leeway to be able to pay the required fees and hopefully see if one or both of our IP's will look on us with some understanding.
Hi Philip Glad I could be some help, we have lived this dreadful illness for some years. Howerever it has only been in the last year that things have progressed. I was surprised just how much support there is. I have the support of an Admiral Nurse who works mainly with the carer and can offer lots of information and a listening ear which I have found to be invaluable. The Alzheimers Disease Society is good for information and support, they also fund a lot of research into the illness.
I wish you, your wife and family all the best for the future and as I said consider all help offered, you must both remain well.
Jan
Nothing you can buy feels as good as not being in debt.
I've just caught up with this and am so sorry to hear your news.
Hope the IP is sympathetic and that this research can do you some good.
Good luck, thinking of you both.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Thank you all for your kind and welcome good wishes.
Sadly dementia which apparently can come in several forms Alzeimers being the most well known is non preventable and there is currently no cure.
The medical research I have enrolled in may at some future date help others. There is nothing I can do about it, just get on with life.
The IVA's are just one element of sorting out my affairs, admittedly a big one but there are other things as well. Our children who are being wonderful have paid for us to go to America - drive along the parts of Route 66 and onwards to The Grand Canyon so we fly out tomorrow. They were part of the reason for our IVA's. Borrowed, put the three of them through university and then redundancy struck.
One suggestion made to me has been to stop paying my IVA put the money aside and allow the IVA to fail and then declare bankruptcy using my three withheld payments to pay for it. With little or no equity in my house, my wife would gain ownership for a nominal sum and my payments towards bankruptcy would be less or even nothing and could be over with in a year. My IVA agreed in December 2008 still has until 2014 to run if you count the extra year.
