Power of Attorney – Can I Claim a Refund?

You may have heard in the news that the Office of the Public Guardian is issuing refunds on some Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) application fees.

If you applied for a LPA between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017 you could be eligible to claim a refund, of between £34 and £54 for each LPA you registered. Between those dates LPA application fees were between £130 and £110 per application, whereas an application now costs only £82. The refund is available because, legally, the OPG (part of the Ministry of Justice) can only charge an application fee that covers the amount it actually costs them to process the applications. However, their application fees between the above dates were above the cost to them of processing the applications, and they have therefore pledged to refund the difference.

You can claim the refund if:

• You are the donor (the person who made the power of attorney)
• or if you are the attorney (the person appointed by the donor to make decisions on their behalf) then you can claim the refund on the donor’s behalf.
• A refund can also be claimed by the estate of a person who has died, if their LPA was registered between the above dates.

If you think you may be eligible for a refund take action now, all the information you need to make a claim is available on the government website here.

What is a lasting power of attorney?

A lasting power of attorney (a “LPA”) is a legal document that lets you (the “donor”) appoint one or more people (the “attorney(s)”) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf should you become ill and can no longer make your own decisions. There are two types of LPA: one for financial decisions and one for health and care decisions. You can choose to apply for one type or both. To accommodate the varying needs and demands of or clients we offer a range of services and levels of support to our clients making LPAs.

In some circumstances an LPA is not appropriate, if the donor does not have the capacity to decide who to appoint as their attorney. In this situation an alternative is available, called a deputyship, which is a court order granted by the Court of Protection appointing someone to act on behalf of the person who does not have capacity to make decisions themselves.