Anyone who has had to act as an attorney knows the frustration of having to provide the registered documents into the hands of the provider. In my experience, the banks are the most unhelpful and notoriously difficult to deal with and the utilities are not much better. So, this is really good news……
On Friday 17th July, the Office of Public Guardian (OPG) announced that they have been working behind the scenes to modernise the Lasting Power of Attorney process and have launched a new online tool to make it quicker and easier for attorneys to use an LPA to support the donor.
Once an LPA is registered, attorneys and donors will be sent an activation key. They are then able to create an online account and use the activation key to make an access code, which they are able to provide to organisations and providers to view an online summary of an LPA.
By allowing attorneys to submit the code to the online portal, this will almost instantaneously confirm their status as an attorney and allow them to take actions on their donors’ behalf and provide the required care and services an attorney is expected to provide. The OPG also have plans to open up the service to LPAs registered earlier in 2020 and some from 2019 but they have not yet released a date for this.
By replacing the paper-based process, which can take weeks due to documents being requested and copies needing to be delivered or posted, the speed in which decisions can be made will be dramatically quicker.
Despite these changes, existing checks such as confirming whether a person has the legal right to act as an attorney and the powers they hold will remain firmly in place, ensuring that the vulnerable and elderly are still protected from the abuse of a Lasting Power of Attorney.
This is good news up to a point. However, until we see how the protections work in practice, it would appear to be open to abuse by a rogue attorney. Proceed with caution and if you are not sure, seek advice. That’s what we are here for.
Contact us here or ring 0798 883 0691.