50,000 power of attorney applications rejected – how to avoid common mistakes

More than 50,000 lasting power of attorney (LPA) applications were rejected in 2023/24, according to a freedom of information request.

Data from the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) obtained by the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown reveals that 30,180 financial LPAs and 20,738 health and welfare LPAs were turned down - a total of 50,918 applications.

Last year, 1,370,546 applications were received, meaning the rejection rate was 3.7%.

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Completing an LPA form can be time-consuming and complicated, with lots of paperwork, multiple signatures needed, and strict instructions that must be followed.

If there’s a mistake, the application is returned, requiring another application to be made - and another fee to be paid.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, comments: “The number of people applying for an LPA has shot up in recent years. In 2023/24 there were more than 1.37 million applications - up 28% from a year earlier and up more than 60% in five years.

“As a result, there’s a significant backlog in applications, and in 2023/24 it took an average of 76 working days to process each one. If you make a mistake, that will prolong the agony, because the application will be rejected. It means families need to take care not to fall foul of the rules.”

We look at what an LPA is, why it’s an important part of financial planning like writing a will or paying into a pension, and common mistakes to avoid.

What is a lasting power of attorney?

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) gives named family members or friends the ability to manage your affairs and make decisions for you if you lose mental capacity.

This could be because you are suffering from dementia, for example, or if an accident or illness leaves you in a coma.

There are two kinds of LPA. The property and financial affairs LPA allows your attorney to make financial decisions. This ranges from keeping an eye on your bank account to ensuring your bills are paid, or selling your home if you need to go into residential care.

The health and welfare LPA means they can make decisions about your care. This could include the medical treatment you need to stay alive and well, as well as daily care needs like washing and dressing. It also means the attorney can make decisions about whether you need to move into a residential care home.

Why you should consider getting an LPA

No one knows what the future holds for them. The rise of dementia and Alzheimer’s means there’s a real risk you could be affected as you get older. You could also be in a nasty car accident, or have an illness that means you lack the mental capacity to make decisions.

William Stevens, head of financial planning at the wealth manager Killik & Co, comments: "Many still think of an LPA as something to be arranged later in life but the reality is that, as scary as it is, you cannot always predict when you might need assistance with handling your financial or welfare related matters - it is better to have it and not need it rather than risk needing it and not having it.”

Coles explains that an LPA provides an opportunity for your family to support you, and “protect you from some of the things that become more likely - like missing bills, spending erratically or becoming a victim of fraud”.

She adds: “An LPA allows someone you trust to step in and take over the day-to-day management of your money. It also enables them to manage more complex and difficult things, like selling your home and paying the fees if you need to go into a residential care home.”

Without an LPA, your family can apply for deputyship to enable key decisions, but this is more complicated and expensive, and tends to confer more limited powers. You also lose the opportunity to pick someone you want for the job, and decide how they make decisions.

What happens if an LPA is rejected

It costs £82 to register each LPA. This means a total of £164 if registering both a property and financial affairs LPA and a health and welfare LPA.

If you make a mistake, your LPA will be rejected and won’t be legally valid. You'll then have to apply again within three months and pay a repeat application fee of £41.

Common mistakes to avoid

Sarah Coles at Hargreaves Lansdown highlights the following mistakes to avoid when completing an LPA application:

• Spelling names wrong: ID checks will fail if the name is spelled wrong. They can also fail if you have muddled the order of first and middle names.
• Signing in the wrong order: There are five sets of signatures you need on the application, and they have to be done in the right order. If the dates on the signatures show they were signed out of order, it will be rejected.
• Missing information: You need the names, addresses and dates of birth of the donor and attorneys in full. You also need to complete every section. Sometimes people won’t fully understand the section on how they want attorneys to act, so they’ll leave it blank. This will lead to the application being rejected.
• Illegible information: If they can’t read your handwriting or understand your corrections, they will reject it.
• Bad corrections: If you make a mistake on the form, you need to cross out the mistake, correct it, and then initial it. It needs to be initialled by the person who made the mistake. If you use Tipex, it’ll be rejected.
• Confusing instructions and preferences: Instructions specify things that your attorneys must do and preferences are those things that you would like them to do, so the language matters. If you include an instruction to use funds to benefit someone other than you - like making gifts - it is likely to fail because it might conflict with the duty to act in your best interests. It means it’s best to include this as a preference.
• Issuing conflicting instructions: Take care that instructions don’t conflict with something else in the document. If, for example, you have appointed attorneys ‘jointly and separately’ it means they can make any decisions on their own or together, so you can’t include an instruction that says one attorney must do as the other says or that in the case of disagreements you want to go with the majority.
• Telling attorneys they should act in the interests of anyone else: They act for you alone, so they can’t put your partner or children first.
• Trying to dictate how replacement attorneys act: The form allows for replacement attorneys to be named if something happens to the original attorneys. However, you can’t issue instructions for when this is done - so for example you can’t say they should step in when your attorneys are on holiday. You can’t give an attorney power to appoint a replacement either.
• Trying to give them the power to change your will: This isn’t allowed, so the application will fail.

Tips to make the process as straightforward as possible

Give yourself time to read over the instructions and the application form. It can feel overwhelming, but the gov.uk website will walk you through it. You do not need to pay a firm to apply; the process is designed for you to do it by yourself.

Bear in mind that you must be 18 or over and have the ability to make your own decisions when you apply. You do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen.

Check carefully who can be an attorney, and also think about who you would like to ask to be the certificate provider and the witnesses. Make sure the witnesses are eligible, for example an attorney cannot witness the donor’s signature due to a conflict of interest.

Everyone must sign the same original document. They cannot sign copies or use digital signatures.

If you are having more than one attorney, it can make it easier to be in the same room and sign at the same time. Otherwise you will need to arrange to meet up with them individually, or put the document in the post to them.

You can make an LPA online or using paper forms. It takes up to 16 weeks to make an LPA if there are no mistakes in the application - it’s usually quicker if you make it and pay online.

If you’re doing it online, you don’t need to do the whole thing all at once. You can save your forms and complete them later.

If you get stuck, contact the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for help at customerservices@publicguardian.gov.uk or telephone 0300 456 0300 (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 9am to 5pm, Wednesday, 10am to 5pm).

Check it all thoroughly before sending it off - is everything signed where it is supposed to be, is it dated, and are names, addresses and dates of birth all correct?

Consider asking a trusted friend or relative to also review the application before you post it.

There's lots more information on the government website to help you through the process. This blog from the OPG on who can be attorneys, witnesses and certificate providers is also useful.