Legal News | 6.12.18
Lasting Power of Attorney refund scheme
Following a consultation by the Ministry of Justice, it has been decided that the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), with whom Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) must be registered before they can be used, overcharged registration fees between April 2013 and March 2017.
As a consequence, if you registered a Lasting Power of Attorney between April 2013 and March 2017, you can now make a claim for a refund of the overpaid registration fees. While we cannot make this application for you, because the claim must be made by either the donor or their attorney, as a firm we wanted to ensure that you were aware of your ability to claim this refund.
The registration fees charged by the OPG have fluctuated over the years so the amount that you will receive will vary depending upon when your LPA was submitted for registration but the bands are as follows:
Date fee paid for each power of attorney Refund
April to September 2013 £54
October 2013 to March 2014 £34
April 2014 to March 2015 £37
April 2015 to March 2016 £38
April 2016 to March 2017 £45
So, if for example you and your spouse applied to register both Property and Financial Affairs LPAs and Health and Welfare LPAs in July 2013, you would be entitled to a refund of £216.00, based upon a refund figure of £54 per LPA. In addition, the Office of the Public Guardian will pay interest on this sum at a rate of 0.5%.
Please note that any refund will be paid to the donor’s nominated bank account and that all claims must be made by 31 January 2021.
In order to make a claim, the donor or attorney will need to complete the electronic form that can be found at https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund.
If you need any further information, then please let us know or, if you are yet to make a Lasting Power of Attorney, then please get in touch with your usual contact or via wealth@wansbroughs.com and we would be happy to help.
