A father who can no longer face the forms is not the same as a father who no longer understands them, and the DWP’s appointee system exists for the second. Families reach for it too early, because it looks like the only way to help, and the DWP resists it, because it takes a person’s claim out of their own hands. This page is the test, the visit, and the alternatives.
The test
GOV.UK says you can apply for the right to deal with the benefits of someone who cannot manage their own affairs because they are mentally incapable or severely disabled (GOV.UK, Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits, checked 1 November 2026). The regulations behind it describe a person who is unable for the time being to act.
That is regulation 33 (Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987, regulation 33, checked 1 November 2026).
Unable to act is about the claim: understanding what is being claimed, answering the DWP’s questions, reporting changes, and dealing with the money. A person who can do those things with help does not meet it. A person with advanced dementia, or a severe learning disability, does. In between, the DWP’s own guidance for PIP assessments describes the person as unable to manage their own affairs as a result of a serious mental health condition or cognitive or learning disability (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026).
Who decides, and how
The DWP decides, in person. GOV.UK says it arranges to visit the claimant to assess if an appointee is needed, then interviews the proposed appointee to make sure they are suitable, filling in form BF56 together, and that you are not the appointee until form BF57 confirms it (GOV.UK, Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits, checked 1 November 2026).
Once authorised, the DWP says it will monitor the situation to make sure it is still suitable.
No doctor signs the person over. GOV.UK describes the visit and the interview, not a medical certificate, so a GP’s letter describing the condition is evidence for the visiting officer rather than the decision. A claimant who can explain their own claim at the visit does not meet GOV.UK’s test of someone who cannot manage their own affairs, whatever the family expected.
Help without an appointee
GOV.UK says you can help someone with their benefit claim without becoming an appointee (GOV.UK, Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits, checked 1 November 2026). Its page on extra help says you can ask someone else, for example a family member or friend, to get advice and information about your claim and to manage the claim on your behalf (GOV.UK, checked 1 November 2026).
That arrangement keeps the claimant in charge. They sign, they are paid, and they can withdraw the permission. For a parent who understands their Attendance Allowance but cannot manage the envelope, it is the right shape. Our Attendance Allowance form page is written for exactly that pair of people, the claimant and the relative filling it in with them.
If there is already an attorney
An appointee cannot sit alongside an attorney. For Universal Credit, PIP and the other benefits under the 2013 regulations, an appointment can be made only where no attorney with a general power, or a power to claim or receive benefit, has been appointed (Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment etc. (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013, regulation 57, checked 1 November 2026).
Under the 1987 regulations, which cover Attendance Allowance, an appointment ends when the DWP is told a deputy has been appointed; an attorney is dealt with under the DWP’s own guidance.
DWP staff guidance says appointees, deputies and those with power of attorney are legally empowered to act on behalf of the customer, and are dealt with as if they were themselves the customer (Working with representatives: guidance for DWP staff, checked 1 November 2026). A registered lasting power of attorney for property and financial affairs does the whole job. Our forms page covers making one while the person still can.
If the problem is the bank account
Routing a parent’s benefit into a relative’s account for convenience is not what an appointee is for, and it carries the appointee’s liabilities. Where the real problem is that the claimant has no account, GOV.UK’s Payment Exception Service allows you to collect benefit or pension payments without a bank account (GOV.UK, Payment Exception Service, checked 1 November 2026).
Where the problem is that the claimant cannot get to a bank, the answer lies with the bank rather than the DWP. A bank can set up a formal arrangement for someone else to operate the account, agreed by the claimant while they can, and it leaves the claim in the claimant’s name. Handing over a card and PIN informally is the arrangement our misuse page sees go wrong.
When it ends
GOV.UK says an appointment can be stopped if the claimant is clearly able to manage their own benefits, and that the appointee must tell the benefit office if they stop, for example because the claimant can now manage their own affairs (GOV.UK, Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits, checked 1 November 2026).
A person who recovers after a stroke, or who was given an appointee during a crisis, can ask the benefit office to review it.
Where the appointee is the problem rather than the claimant, our removing an appointee page sets out the DWP’s power to revoke and the routes for theft. Our appointee page covers what the role involves for someone who does take it on.
Scotland
Social Security Scotland runs its own scheme. It says an adult might need an appointee if they are not able to make or communicate decisions because of a mental or physical health condition, and that it arranges a visit to make sure the person needs one.
It adds that you do not need to apply if you already have the legal right to act through a power of attorney or a court order (mygov.scot, https: //www.mygov.scot/acting-on-behalf-of-someone-applying-for-benefits, checked 1 November 2026). A DWP appointment does not carry across.