Solicitors Caesar and Howie are ERSA members and Managing Partner, David Borrowman comments “These figures reflect what we are finding ourselves.  Both awareness of these products and demand for them seems to be on the increase and our Senior Issues team is working flat out to get money through for clients.  It was not always like this though and I think the current climate for pensioners – where finances just get more and more difficult – is the main driver of this increase.  If you are sitting with a lot of equity in your home, it doesn’t seem sensible to be short of money or deny yourself a good lifestyle in retirement, when unlocking some of the capital in the house could help so much.  We expect the sales of these products to just keep increasing actually”.

Equity Release products are now regulated by the Financial Services Authority and are generally sold through specialist brokers mostly using specialist solicitors for the legal work involved.  Caesar and Howie are the only Scottish members of the Equity Release Solicitors Alliance.

The thinking behind the new initiative is that a lot of harm to society arises from the taboo stopping us discussing death openly.  This harm manifests itself in many ways from the inability to communicate comfortably with a friend or work colleague, who has suffered bereavement – to families becoming involved in legal disputes because someone died without making a Will.  We even seem as a society to have difficulty communicating with people who are dying.  One terminally ill speaker, at the launch, explained how a number of her best friends had simply stopped contacting her once they know she was ill.

The new group believes that a new open approach, to death dying and bereavement, will hopefully help educate people to behave a bit differently and to deal better with all the issues involved round death, whether with friends or families or in the workplace.

Caesar and Howie support the aims of Good Life Good Death Good Grief.  Managing Partner David Borrowman commented “I think the group’s aims are laudable and cover many aspects of life.  But, just taking the legal issues involved there is no doubt whatsoever, that families cope much better with adverse events if some basic legal preparations have been taken.  Frankly, every adult should prepare a Will, a Power of Attorney and an Advance Directive, which is a statement of their treatment preferences in the last stages of illness.  If everyone were to take these simple and cheap legal steps much distress and difficulty and unnecessary expense for families would be avoided.  And remember, many pensioners in Scotland can get legal aid for Wills, Powers of Attorney and “living wills” so there may be no expense involved at all”.

Figures suggest that the new money available could help around 250 first time house buyers into the market.

David Borrowman, Managing Partner of Caesar and Howie, welcomed the announcement but suggests a sense of proportion be retained by all in considering the effect on the market.

David comments “Caesar and Howie favour the Lift scheme – we have introduced it to many of our clients and they have found it useful to them in getting a start on the housing ladder.  So it is good news if more money is going into LIFT – this is really a good scheme for young house buyers.  There are two things, however, which would make this scheme much more effective.  The restriction in giving these funds to tenants renting in the private sector should be removed.  Plenty of private tenants are desperate to buy and with private rents going up, this group may be needs more help than those tenants of social landlords – yet these tenants are given priority under the scheme.  Also the amounts of money going in are pretty limited.  The Scottish Government are right to look at ways of helping first time buyers.  When a first time buyer buys a property the seller usually buys a new property as well.  That means you could give the market a much needed fillip with this LIFT scheme.   But in all honesty at this funding level it is a bit like firing a couple of airgun pellets when you really need a barrage of artillery to get a result.  When the City ofEdinburgh District Council(of all institutions) can find £150 million to fund social house building this government investment of under £5m in LIFT looks feeble.  So I would say to Mr Brown – you are on the right track – but much more money please if you want to get the market buzzing again.

I try to encourage everyone to make these views clear and to take the basic legal steps they need to take, to ensure that family and loved ones better survive the adverse effects that death and serious illness bring to a family.  It really is simple – a couple of visits to a lawyer will be enough to get in place a power of attorney, a will and an advance directive – three vital “family care” documents all individuals should complete.  Very simply appointing someone to be your attorney by completing a power of attorney assures if you lose legal capacity through illness someone has legal authority to look after your affairs.  Without a power of attorney a guardian would have to be appointed in a court action which really should be avoided at all costs because of the stress and expense involved – the last thing any family needs when one family member has been struck down by serious illness.  Making a will ensures your property goes where you want it to go – not where the state says – which might not be what many people want.  For example, many folk don’t believe that a surviving spouse may not automatically inherit the family home – but that is the true legal position where there is no will.  Finally, an advance directive is a written instruction to your doctors and carers as to how you want to be treated in the last stages of an illness – when you are unable to communicate.  Spelling out your wishes to your family in advance like this gives them the confidence to make “end of life” medical decisions in accordance with your wishes – and spares family members the worry and possible guilt of perhaps feeling they had made a decision you might not have wanted.

It is just not difficult or expensive to get these documents in place.  And perhaps the best news is that probably about 70% of Scottish pensioners qualify for “Legal Advice and Assistance” which means they can get these documents done either free or at a subsidised cost.  That scheme can be easily accessed by people of pension age – in fact a telephone assessment can be done in minutes – so clients will know right from the outset whether they can get the work done free or at a reduced cost.

So please don’t put off decisions – get these basic family care documents in place.  Phone 01506 815900 for a legal aid assessment – it really is easy.

Many people seem to assume the best friend or spouse can carry on doing things for the ill person.  But the truth is in Scotland legally they can do nothing – yes nothing.  Even a spouse inherits no legal powers to do anything  for  an incapacitated partner.  This does not seem to be widely understood.  Where someone is so ill as to be legally incapacitated nobody has powers to do anything – unless these powers are granted by the local sheriff court following a court action – or unless some limited powers are granted by the Public Guardian – a public official responsible for a range of legal matters relative to adults with incapacity.  So sadly many families are faced with going to court to have the court give even a spouse powers to deal with the affairs of his or her partner – assuming say the partner is incapacitated by for example a stroke.

Going to court is a bit of a daunting prospect for anyone – and even more difficult perhaps when the family is dealing with the illness in the first place.

But the good news is – with just a little foresight and forward planning – all this hassle for families can be avoided.  That spouse\carer\ best friend can be legally appointed as the person’s attorney – provided the appointment is made before the illness causing the incapacity strikes.  Once appointed as attorney the best friend will have all the legal powers granted in the document appointing him or her  – which is called a Power of Attorney.  Usually that will mean the attorney will have automatically and legally all the powers necessary to look after and make decisions for the ill person. 

With so many of us living longer and experiencing debilitating illness it is just good sense to appoint an attorney.  It is actually a very easy process maybe needing one or two visits to a solicitor.  So make that friend\carer or spouse your attorney as well – it will save so much trouble should illness strike.  And the very best news for older people is that most pensioners – even householders with up to £25000 savings can still get legal aid to get their Power of Attorney put in place.

Did You Pass Your Driving Test Many Years Ago? Perhaps You Never Sat A Test At All? Do you Worry About Your Driving Now? Or Do Family And Friends Tell You Not To Drive?

Matchlight, (the Television Company that brought you, BBC1’s ‘Taking The Keys Away’) are making a new documentary series about driving. We’re working with the Automobile Associate (AA) for a Channel Five series and we’re looking for people to take part.

If you want some reassurance that your driving skills are still up to scratch, and if you fancy taking part in some fun, TV filming, then please get in touch.

Perhaps your family and friends constantly criticize your driving, or perhaps a few ‘near misses’ have caused you to be concerned about your driving techniques. Do you struggle to keep up with the fast moving pace of today’s road networks? Perhaps modern driving gets you down and you find yourself taking the bus more often, but you’re keen not to lose your independence. 

If you, or someone you know, might appreciate some help with driving, get in touch. 

We are looking for retired people, who might like to take part in a fun, and high profile, documentary series and improve their driving at the same time. Email me, telling me a bit about yourself on rosy.marshall@matchlight.co.uk or call Rosy on 0141 332 0319.

In some ways it is almost impossible to summarise for the public much of the document since it relates to changes in approach and methods within the NHS and other bodies.  However, in the broadest of terms the Scottish government document implicitly accepts, that maintaining care standards for the elderly in future is going to be a massive challeng, due to two overriding factors.  First, the need for care is bound to increase hugely in the future due simply to the increasing numbers of older people living longer. Second, this increasing care requirement is going to have to be met out of budgets which are under pressure already and likely to become more so in the future.

So how is the trick of providing more care, to more people, at less cost to be pulled off?  Very broadly it seems that as quasi reorganisation of how care is to be delivered is being attempted – to make every pound go a bit further.  There is lots of stress on pulling in other resources with the third and independent sector cooperating with Local Authorities and National bodies.  Shades of Mr Cameron’s Big Society perhaps. 

But cutting through the jargon it seems that a principal goal is to provide care in the home – which should frankly be cheaper to provide.  Alongside that is to be a concentration on preventative measures which would keep older people in their homes.  These would involve more community support and home adaptations as well as providing more support to carers.  Since for older people staying at home  would probably be the most desirable outcome it would appear for once that perhaps the most popular policy should turn out to be financially the most efficient.

As an interesting aside the place of Equity Release being a way of older people helping fund themselves in retiral is given a brief acknowledgement in the publication.  At Caesar and Howie we see this first hand as our Equity Release team has never been busier.   But where the public seem to be picking up on the desirability of equity release  – too many of the public still fail to take the simple step of preparing a Power of Attorney to ensure someone has powers to take steps to look after them and their affairs should incapacity strike.

With countless thousands of bed days being taken up in our hospitals by folk who cannot be moved till a guardianship application wends its way though the court – maybe the Scottish Government could save the NHS a fortune by giving free legal aid for adults to have a Power of Attorney done – thereby stopping the bed blocking at source! 

However joking apart – the challenge of care for older people in the future is indeed massive and will be for whatever government is in power.  Hopefully if some of the proposed changes work – at least a start on dealing with this huge issue will have been made.

David Borrowman

Caesar and Howie Managing Partner

The Law Society of Scotland has joined the debate and warned that cuts in the legal aid budget would threaten the public’s access to justice.  An unseemly spat between some lawyers and the chief executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board followed by disagreements between Glasgow lawyers and the Law Society of Scotland must have induced a sense of foreboding amongst the public following the debate.  With such bad news all around perhaps the whole system is in meltdown.

But in fact the truth is far from catastrophic at least for one group – older people in Scotland.   One little publicised feature of the Scottish Legal Aid system is that it is relatively generous to pensioners.  Through the “Advice and Assistance” element of the legal aid system a high percentage of Scottish pensioners can have basic legal work done absolutely free or at a significantly subsidised cost. Older people on a state pension only can be homeowners and have up to £25,000 in the bank and still be entitled to Advice and Assistance.  This type of legal aid does not cover court hearings of course but it does cover items of great interest and importance to older people such as the preparation of wills, powers of attorney and advance directives.

David Borrowman of Caesar and Howie   “I am pleased that his relative generosity to older people has remained in place meantime at least – with the Legal Aid Board at the moment looking elsewhere for cuts.   A key document every older person should prepare is a Power of Attorney appointing a trusted friend or relative to look after their affairs should they become unable to themselves. Powers of Attorney can still be prepared free of charge for many older people because of legal aid and I would hate to see that benefit removed.   But logically leaving that benefit in place probably reduces legal aid expenditure in the long run anyway.  Apart from anything else the cost of dealing with incapacity would go up because the less powers of attorney that are written the more court applications for guardianship there will be.  Of course legal aid remains available for guardianship applications – which are much more expensive.” 

David’s advice to older people and to those involved in pensioners groups is simple.

“Pensioners should act now – the three key family care documents, a will, a power of attorney and a living will can all still be done on legal aid. Do them now –  who knows what the future is going to bring anyway and who knows what the Legal Aid position will be in the future.“

Whatever actually happens the new rules will present challenges to employers and employees alike.  For an employer to fix a retiral date without approval of individual employees the employer will have to be able to justify that choice of date.  This might be possible for certain types of employment – for example employment requiring exceptional physical fitness – but probably the bulk of employment will not come into that category.

With no compulsory retirement in place it will be for employers and employees to agree retiral dates – presumably following communication and discussion. These discussions may be wide ranging covering performance of the employee together with their reasonable aims and aspirations.  Whilst the stated aim of the government is to reduce the number of employment tribunals it might be thought that a whole new generation of such claims might arise out of this legislation.  That remains to be seen of course.

One great and obvious benefit for someone at the old Default Retiral Age will of course be the prospect of working on with all the financial benefits that may bring.   But for many the decision might not be so straightforward, with health, lifestyle and other issues to consider as well as the effects on tax and benefits of working on. How long would you wish to work on?  On the same hours or not? Perhaps it would be wise for all those approaching 65 to review fully their finances, their wishes, aspirations and health prior to entering into discussions on their employment.  It is probably much better to have planned sensibly for the future after such a review  – then discussions with the employer might just be that much more meaningful.