Millions of pounds left unclaimed in power of attorney refund scheme

Costs reduced gradually over time

Hannah Godfrey
clock • 1 min read

Only a small minority of the nearly two million people who could be entitled to apply for the power of attorney refund scheme have done so, leaving millions of pounds unclaimed, an FOI request has revealed.

The freedom of information (FOI) request, which was submitted by Royal London, found just 203,000 people have applied for the power of attorney refund scheme so far, out of some 1.9 million who could be entitled to do so. According to the response to the FOI, just £10.3m was refunded by 28 August, with potentially millions waiting to be claimed. The refunds apply to powers of attorney registered between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017 in England and Wales. According to the annual reports of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), 1.91 million lasting and enduring powers of attorney we...

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