The Office of the Public Guardian’s (“OPG”) is offering a partial refund of fees to those who paid their registration fees when applying to register lasting or enduring powers of attorney between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017.

During this period, the OPG’s operating costs came down as more people applied to register a power of attorney and the process became more efficient, but the application fee charged was not reduced in line with this. The Ministry of Justice, which sets OPG’s fees, reduced the application fee with effect from 1 April 2017, and has now launched a refund scheme for those who paid a higher fee in the qualifying period. The scheme will be run by OPG.

Making a claim is quick and simple using the online service. Only one form needs to be completed for each donor and OPG will find all power of attorney application fees paid by the donor during the qualifying period.

Who can claim a refund?

You can make a claim if you’re:

• the ‘donor’ – the person who made the power of attorney
• an ‘attorney’ – appointed by the donor in an LPA or EPA

The refund must be paid to the donor.

You only need to make one claim per donor, even if you made more than one power of attorney.

How much will be refunded?

How much you get depends on when you paid the fees. You’ll also get 0.5% interest.

You can still claim a refund even if you don’t know when you paid the fees.

You’ll get half the refund if you paid a reduced fee (“remission”).  Remission is a 50% fee reduction based upon a donor’s financial circumstances or upon the donor receiving Universal Credit.

How to claim

You’ll need details of the donor, the attorneys and the donor’s UK bank account number and sort code.

It takes about 5 minutes to claim online at https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund

However, you must claim by phone if:

• the donor doesn’t have a UK bank account
• the donor has died
• you’re a court-appointed deputy

You can also claim by phone if you don’t have a computer or can’t use one easily. The contact details are as follows:

Telephone: 0300 456 0300 (choose option 6)

Textphone: 0115 934 2778

Lines are open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9am to 5pm and Wednesday 10am to 5pm

After you’ve claimed

It takes up to 12 weeks for your claim to be processed. If your claim is approved, the refund will be paid to the donor’s bank account. You can appeal a decision if your claim is rejected – contact the Refunds Helpline.