QUEENSLAND seniors will have stronger protections under a simplification of the state’s guardianship laws. Introduced to State Parliament in September, the laws will see harsher sanctions for guardians, administrators and those holding power of attorney who rip off the elderly.
Controls for those seeking to be a guardian or power of attorney will also be changed under the Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017.
Reforms include:
• Improving financial remedies to adults whose administrators, guardians or attorneys have failed to comply with their duties under the legislation;
• Establishing a statutory exception to ademption to stop gifts of specific property or items in wills from failing (ie. If a property is sold or disposed of before a person’s death, the intended beneficiary of that item will still benefit from the estate)
• Allowing the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) to appoint an administrator to exercise financial decision-making powers on behalf of missing people
• Strengthening eligibility requirements for an attorney - They must have capacity for the manner and, if they have been a paid carer for the principal in the last three years, they will now be excluded from holding that power.
To navigate through the process of Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPOA) a new educational resource has been created.
Launched by Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia (ADA Australia), the resource includes a video and fact sheets to help when making a EPOA, as well as helping those nominated to understand their duties, as well as how and when to make decisions.
It is hoped that this, along with the reforms, assist in reducing instances of misuse of power and financial elder abuse in Queensland.
One of the common issues people have is understanding finer details of the decision to make an EPOA, according to ADA Australia CEO Geoff Rowe.
“It is all quite complex and not something you can just tick and flick,”he said. “Through our advocacy work, we saw many people ended up being financially abused within the EPOA environment, mainly due to a lack of understanding by one or both parties or an external party.
“For example, we noticed that some health professionals didn’t understand the role of an attorney and were, at times, accepting poor and improper directions.
“We hope that, by all Queenslanders having access to these materials as a proactive resource, we’ll see a visible reduction in the number of people being wronged.”
What is an Enduring Power of Attorney?
It is a formal document giving a person the authority to make legally binding - financial and personal - decisions on behalf of another person. For example, if someone has failing cognitive health and may lost capacity to make decisions.
