The Office of the Public Guardian, which is the Government body that oversees the registration of Lasting Powers of Attorney, are advising customers that applications to register Lasting Powers of Attorney are taking 20 weeks.  It is, therefore vital that if people are considering preparing Powers of Attorney in the future, they consider preparing them now so that if the documents are needed urgently, they are ready to be used.

Nicola Steadman has recently had experience of a client trying to use a Lasting Power of Attorney at Barclays Bank and it was taking 8 weeks to get an appointment at the Bank to register the Power of Attorney with them.  Then it usually takes 2 – 3 weeks to get the cheque book and debit card through.  This is on top of waiting 5 months for it to be registered!

Nicola is therefore encouraging everybody to consider preparing Lasting Powers of Attorney well before they might be needed so that clients are not affected detrimentally by any delays of third parties.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is important so that somebody can act on your behalf if you become incapable of doing so in the future.  You can prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney for Property and Financial Affairs and, also, for Health and Welfare.  As current turn around time with the Office of the Public Guardian is 20 weeks, it is so important to prepare the documents well in advance of them being required.

The Office of the Public Guardian received 193,000 LPAs to registered between April and June 2022 so awareness of their benefit is increasing!

If you have any questions, please contact us.