No, they are not aware of what her health issues are, although they know she is in a nursing home.
But actually, what I wrote is not quite correct - she is not mentally incapable, rather physically incapable of living and managing her affairs alone. She was deemed mentally fit enough by her doctors and solicitor to sign the power of attorney a couple of months after the illness (stroke) started. She still has that same level of mental capacity if not better.
Her biggest problem for managing the financial affairs is aphasia. The people who care for her in the nursing home and her relatives agree that she understands what we tell her and ask her, but she finds it difficult to convey a response that is more than yes/no etc. So some conversations involves us trying to guess what it is that she is asking or telling us, sometimes without success. But if we are trying to find out something from her, we must phrase what we want to ask her so that yes/no answers are required, and that way she is able to "answer".
However, the thing is - my aunt doesn't want to give direction about her financial affairs. We think that it is because she knows that she can never go back to living independently, and she has "switched off" from her old life. She tells us she is happy enough with the nursing home, and doesn't want to move to another one; she doesn't want to have her home renovated so that she could go back there with 24 hour nursing care etc. She doesn't want to know what is happening to her house etc, just says she trusts us to do what is best.
She doesn't qualify for fairdeal, so her money is just being used to pay for her nursing home and medical needs. And all the most easily accessed money is used up already.
While most of her investments are earning very little, this account is earning nothing - so it is an obvious choice for the next account to be used for the nursing home fees, and for the bills associated with maintaining her house.
Thanks for your reply.