No, DWP appointees do not have the legal authority to access a person’s private bank account unless they have been specifically granted that authority by the person or by a court order.

Where the person has consented for their appointee to access their personal bank account, then it must be clear, that the person has the ‘decision specific’ capacity to be able to weigh up and understand this decision.

It may be appropriate to have this decision-specific understanding documented in a separate mental capacity assessment as best practice to avoid any challenges about the persons ability to consent to someone accessing their personal bank account by banks or other organisations.

View this video on the Money Carer YouTube channel