Power of Attorney and Third Party Mandate

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a way of giving someone you trust the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf if you lose the mental capacity to do so in the future, or if you no longer want to make decisions for yourself.

There are two types of LPA:

• LPA for financial decisions
• LPA for health and care decisions.

Putting in place a LPA offers security for you and your loved ones and lets you decide what should happen if old age, illness or injury leaves you unable to deal with your own affairs. This can also reduce the likelihood of family conflicts in the future.

Without this in place, your family and friends may find it difficult to manage your affairs and they may not know your wishes.

For more details on Lasting PoA you can visit the Age UK website.

An Ordinary Power of Attorney needs to be registered against a savings account, so whether you're a new or existing customer, you and your Attorney will need do the following;

• Complete the relevant account application form.
• Complete a Power of Attorney form which can be requested over the phone by calling 03330 140144 and will be sent by post, or from our Epsom branch, and returning it to us with an original or certified copy of the Power of Attorney documents. Alternatively, if you have an access code from the Government (It’s 13 characters long and begins with the letter V), you can provide us with the access code to verify your Power of Attorney.  To find out more details about access codes, including what you need to do to get one please visit www.gov.uk/use-lasting-power-of-attorney 

If you’re a new customer we'll need to check your identity by making searches about you at a credit reference agency that will supply us with information. If we're unable to verify your identity by this method we'll advise you of the additional documentation required to complete the account opening process.

If you already have a savings or mortgage account with us, your signature matches our records and your name and address haven’t changed, you won't need to provide further evidence of your identity.

A Deputy arrangement is very similar to a Power of Attorney, however it is not arranged prior to a situation occurring where mental capacity has diminished. It usually only happens if the person who lacks capacity to make decisions has not made a Power of Attorney but suddenly requires assistance with their finances.

A Deputy is authorised by the Court of Protection to make decisions on their behalf. The process of appointing Deputies through a Court of Protection can take many months, during which financial assets may be effectively frozen.

Use the Deputy details form to register a Court of Protection Order. You'll also need to return to us an original copy of the Court of Protection Order and identification for each Deputy.

Please note any Court of Protection automatically ceases on the death of the person this was set up for. Any authority as Deputy is not valid from the date of death.

As a Power of Attorney you will be unable to open an account online. However, you can operate existing accounts online via our Online Service. This allows you to pay into these accounts and make withdrawals, as long as the funds are going to the beneficiary's nominated bank account. For full details click here.