Warning: Lasting Power of Attorney Delay Increase Urgency

Unless you are psychic and can predict the future with certainty for at least 7 months, this is vital reading.

With delays for activating Lasting Powers of Attorney heading towards 6 months, it has become much more important to get them in place early.

Of course, children under 18 have parents who can make decisions for them in the event of serious illness or injury, but as soon as you hit 18, the authority to make decisions when a person is unable to make them themselves passes to the State. Not parents, not spouses and certainly not partners can make vital decisions, it will be down to Social Services and the Court of Protection (and substantial costs).

The utter helplessness of the situation is starting to get through to people with applications for Lasting Powers of Attorney rising substantially year on year.  Too many people are waiting until the first signs of infirmity, and not recognising that a stroke or an accident (perhaps just resulting from a simple trip over a paving slab) can happen in an instant, and plunge you headlong into the well meaning but over-stretched clutches of Social Service.  Your family will almost certainly not be able to regain control of where you live, who you see or medical decisions even if they apply to be your Deputy (a stressful and not inexpensive job) and spend significant sums of money applying to the Court of Protection.  This can easily take a year and cost several thousand pounds, and the Court rarely grants Health and Welfare Deputyships, reserving those decisions for itself, advised by Social Services, but it does frequently grants Property and Financial Affairs Deputyships (though sometimes to solicitors rather than the family.).

This, at best, leaves the family able to sell the house, but not move the individual out without Court permission.  So contact us to organise BOTH types of Lasting Power of Attorney today – it will still be at least 6 months before they are active, so please do not leave it on the back burner.

Use the enquiry form below, or call us on 01323 741200 and speak to Marrianne or Steve – there are some interesting statistics below which indicate that

less than 5.5% of the population is properly protected.  Are you one of the 94.5% at risk?

The old style Enduring Powers of Attorney may do half of the job – but leave you exposed to the Court of Protection if things go wrong.

 

The number of applications to register a power of attorney (POA) in England and Wales has continued to soar in spite of worsening delays at the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).

Data revealed in IRN Legal Research’s UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market 2022: Market Trends Report shows the number of applications in Q1 and Q2 of 2022 sat at 399,109, 12.6% higher than the 354,606 seen in the same period last year.

The number of applications has risen year-on-year since 2016 with the exception of the 19.6% decrease in 2020 brought about by the pandemic. Numbers started to increase again in 2021 reaching 715,298, a 5.5% increase on 2020.

The data also confirmed that the overwhelming majority of POAs remain a lasting power of attorney (LPA).

Full data on the number of POAs applied for in England and Wales 2016-2022 can be seen below.

Year	EPAs	LPAs	Total POAs
2016	12,188	599,299	611,487
2017	11,287	684,617	695,904
2018	10,039	727,461	737,500
2019	8,622	834,159	842,781
2020	7,021	670,761	677,782
2021	6,797	708,501	715,298
Q1 – Q2 2021	3,790	350,816	354,606
Q1 – Q2 2022	3,296	395,813	399,109

Source: IRN Legal Research

As of 31st March 2022, there were over six million current POAs on the register of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), increasing from 5.3 million in the previous year. At the same point, the OPG was supervising 56,862 deputyship orders decreasing from 57,777 in the previous year.

While the number of POAs has increased in the latest year, the OPG states that the increase would have been greater if not for a lack of processing capacity at the OPG following Covid.