On 1 February 2018 the Ministry of Justice announced that it would begin its £69 million refund scheme for those who may have overpaid when registering a Lasting or Enduring Power of Attorney between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017.
This is as a result of the application process becoming more efficient during this period and cost savings were therefore made by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) which should have in turn been passed on the customers in the form of lower fees.
Unfortunately, if you appointed a Solicitor to deal with registering the Lasting or Enduring Power of Attorney documents on your behalf they will not be able to deal with claiming the refund for you. This is because the OPG has said that only the Donor (the person who made the Power of Attorney) or an Attorney (the individual(s) appointed to act) can make the claim.
Claims can be submitted online using the Government website and each claim will take around 10 minutes to complete. The person submitting the claim will need to have the Donor’s bank details in order to process the application.