Appointeeship

Appointeeship is where a person acts on behalf of another to receive their benefits and use the money to pay household expenses such as bills, food and personal items.

The Department for Work and Pensions acting on behalf of the Secretary of State can authorise someone else to act on a person’s behalf if the person is over 18 and incapable of managing their own affairs. This is called an appointment to act and the person or organisation appointed to act is called an appointee. An appointment to act is made under Regulation 33 of the Claims and Payments Regulations 1987.

An appointment to act can only be made in favour of a person aged 18 or over and at any one time, there must only be one appointee acting on the person’s customer’s behalf for all benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions.

An appointee can be an individual such as a relative or friend or an organisation such as a local authority or a firm of solicitors. An appointee would be responsible for everything to do with benefits such as completing and signing forms or reporting changes of circumstances.

An appointee is only able to manage benefits such as state pension, pension credit, housing and council tax benefit. An appointee is not able to manage bank accounts or private pensions.