Not quite an appointee

I've found the DWP advice on how to become an appointee. What I would like to know is if there is more of a halfway house option. The claimant in this case is mentally sharp but physically so depleted that filling in forms and making phone calls is beyond them. Forms is OK - I can fill them in; they can sign them. But making a phone call (and waiting for ages while listening to holding music of hopeless banality) is beyond them. I'd like to be able to speak on their behalf without taking away from them their responsibility for managing their affairs. Is there such an option?

Hello,

Another member, whose posts I was following some months ago, did successfully apply to be allowed to speak on behalf of her son without actually becoming his appointee - a "halfway house" was exactly the way she described it. She said there is a vulnerable persons' team within the DWP who allowed it. If you search for a post using the words - "Anji - Official Appointee visit" you should find her post.

Best wishes,

Wendy Woo

Thanks for the info, everybody.

One useful thing I found when completing the application was that, when it asks for a mobile number, there is a link for "I do not have a mobile phone". We clicked that and it says "Please give a contact number", so we put mine in, so any call they make will come to me. I can foresee the conversation that then arises:

Me: Hallo

Them: Mr Parsons?

Me: Yes

Them: About your Universal Credit claim

Me: Ah, it's actually my son's

Them: Well, we need to speak to him

Me: He's too ill to speak on the phone. That's why you have my number

Them: But we have to speak to him

Me: He's too ill

Them:...

Me...

Me: So what do we do now?