Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act: consultation

Introduction

The Access to Funds (ATF) scheme is a simple way of managing an adult’s financial affairs and is far less onerous than guardianship. The present scheme is not widely used and is overly bureaucratic. We think there remains a need for an effective scheme and are putting forward proposals for change to the ATF scheme.

Suggestions for change

We are suggesting that, rather than monitor withdrawers under the scheme, the Public Guardian should actively supervise withdrawers. This will mean taking an annual view of the actions of every withdrawer with respect to the adult’s finances. We think this would look similar to the accounting requirements for guardianships at Schedule 2, sections 7 and 8 of the AWI Act , albeit with a lighter touch.

The Public Guardian will have discretion as to the frequency and form of the accounts. The ATF scheme should remain as at present with no remuneration or reimbursement of outlays for a withdrawer.

Our proposal is for the scheme to grant proforma powers at the outset for the same functions it already does, without the necessity for additional applications to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for additional authority or to change amounts. Safeguarding will be provided by a requirement to estimate the amounts required for each purpose at the outset. This will then be checked by OPG on an annual basis to see that the withdrawer has acted appropriately. This will provide a deterrent and will allow OPG to make enquiries if anything untoward is found.

In order to make the scheme more usable and flexible our proposal is to remove the requirement for the certificate to reflect the exact finances to be accessed by the withdrawer. These will be to pay for care home fees, holidays, clothing, and other related goods and services for the adult. An estimate of these amounts can be provided to OPG at the time of application, for supervisory purposes, however they will not be reflected in the withdrawal certificate.

At present for instance, if the care home fees went up from £500 to £600 an application for variation of the amount would be required. Under our proposal the withdrawer can amend this amount for withdrawal, or any other amount that corresponds with the powers they have, without a variation application. There will be no specific limits on the amount any sum can be increased. Any transactions will have to be explained when accounting is provided to OPG.

We think access should be provided directly to the adult’s current account, the risks associated with which can be offset by Public Guardian supervision. This makes for a clearer, less complicated scheme.