I have just turned 65 and, as part of my journey towards retirement, I decided to get an EPA [enduring power of attorney] in place.<\/b><\/p>\n
My wife fully supported my decision as the incidence of <\/b>dementia<\/b><\/a> in my family is high. She <\/b>decided to have an EPA as well.<\/b><\/p>\n We started the journey online in September and it\u2019s <\/b>ongoing. The system is complicated and there is no feedback. We downloaded, completed and <\/b>signed all the documentation. <\/b><\/p>\n Then, when uploading, it\u2019s not clear which is attached to which<\/b> section as the names are different.<\/b><\/p>\n I contacted the DSS [Decision Support Service] in November for an update and finally <\/b>discovered <\/b>it\u2019s necessary for appointed attorneys to also be signed up to DSS, even though they have all contact details for them \u2013 email, phone, home address. This requirement is not made clear during the process.<\/b><\/p>\n The attorneys completed their sign-in at end of year and nothing has happened since. I have made regular phone calls, leaving messages<\/b> and emails<\/b> through February and cannot get any response.<\/b><\/p>\n The system is a joke, I\u2019ll have dementia before it\u2019s approved.<\/b><\/p>\n AK<\/b><\/p>\n First up, congratulations. That might jar with your sense of frustration right now but it is important to recognise your good sense in acting early to put in place arrangements for your care should you find yourself unable to make those decisions for yourself at any point.<\/p>\n You are doing exactly what you should. Far too many people wait until the moment of crisis (or beyond it) to try to act on drawing up an EPA, an agreement that sets down whom you want to make decisions for you and the breadth of those decisions.<\/p>\n That makes things much more difficult, as a court will then need to decide on the individual\u2019s best interests, which might not necessarily chime with what they would have wanted themselves.<\/p>\n According to 2020 figures from the HSE and the National Dementia Office, about 64,000 people live with dementia. That was about one in every 11 people over the age of 65 at that time.<\/p>\n The figure is expected to nearly double to 113,000 in 10 years and to hit 150,000 by 2045.<\/p>\n For those who insist it is just an \u201cold person\u2019s disease\u201d and that there is no rush to act, to the Dementia Services Information and Development Centre, based in St James\u2019s Hospital, says that about 10 per cent of those living with dementia are not even 65 upon diagnosis.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s just dementia. There are many other people living with catastrophic brain injury who are simply not able to make the sort of basic personal care and financial decisions the rest of us take for granted.<\/p>\n Yes, you are right, the new system is somewhat clunky and certainly takes longer than the arrangements that used to be in place for EPAs. But, having used it, I\u2019m not sure it is quite as confusing as you found it to be.<\/p>\n In place since 2023, the new system was designed to do two things: empower individuals more in terms of making decisions about their own care and move the entire system online.<\/p>\n It has not run entirely smoothly for a couple of reasons. First, the Law Society, whose solicitor members were at the heart of the previous regime, and the Decision Support Service (DSS), established by government to run the new arrangement, got embroiled in a dispute in which both sides had a point but which meant significant delays or difficulties for people looking to put an enduring power of attorney in place.<\/p>\n Second, while much of the system is online \u2013 more so than necessary, to some degree \u2013 key elements of it are not.<\/p>\n First, everyone involved is required to register with the DSS online, including those whom a person wishes to appoint as their attorneys overlooking their future care. You are not alone in being flummoxed by this although it is clearly stated in the instructions.<\/p>\n Why it is necessary \u2013 apart from the State wanting even more details about more of its people online \u2013 is unclear. As you say, the forms will provide details of name, email and contact number anyway, which presumably is what the DSS should need.<\/p>\n Second, the new arrangement requires that the person making the enduring power of attorney and any attorneys they are appointing all sign the forms in the same place at the same time.<\/p>\n This is nonsense, especially in a world where many people will be appointing as attorneys children who may be abroad. The sheer logistics of getting everyone together in the same solicitor\u2019s office at the same time can be impossible, actively working against the DSS\u2019s professed guiding star of empowering the individual in the choice of their care.<\/p>\n Finally, a system determined to be \u201conline\u201d requires you to download and print out all documents for signing before scanning them back into a computer for submitting. For a system designed in 2023 not to make provision for electronic signatures seems daft.<\/p>\n The result is everyone is forced to register electronically, fill out multiple forms online, download all those forms, gather everyone connected to the application in a lawyer\u2019s office in person to have them signed and witnessed, get the printed medical statement of capacity signed, upload all the forms again and submit them. <\/p>\n Clunky, as I said.<\/p>\n However, having gone through the process, I cannot find any evidence for your assertion that it is not clear which document needs to be filed to which section, as the names do match. <\/p>\n Having got to where you are now, your big concern is that \u201cnothing is happening\u201d.<\/p>\n To reassure you, the DSS advised me that sheer pressure of work means it is taking around five months to get from the point of you filing your completed EPA application to having it registered, so it could be the end of May or even June before you get confirmation of that.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the DSS assures me five months is quite normal by international standards. I\u2019ll take his word for that as I certainly have not checked comparative arrangements in other countries. It is certainly a lot longer than it used to take under the old system, which our family used in a previous generation.<\/p>\n On the upside, the DSS says the lag time can be seen as a positive in that it is an indication of how many people are acting to put an EPA in place. There\u2019s obviously a limited number of staff in their office, so the more popular the scheme, the longer things will take \u2013 at least until Government beefs up staffing.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all the more reason for people not to leave things until the last minute. It does take time to think through what you want to do and then get all the relevant people registered with the DSS, all the documents filled out, downloaded, signed, uploaded and submitted even before you join the back of this five-month queue.<\/p>\n The one element of your query that certainly alarmed the DSS was the notion that calls or emails would have gone unanswered. This, they tell me, should not happen and is, to them, extremely concerning. They are looking to see what, if anything, might have fallen through cracks on this occasion but insist that callers or those emailing should expect fairly prompt replies.<\/p>\n The office offers a freephone service at 01 2119750 or an email address at queries@decisionsupportservice.ie<\/a>.<\/p>\n