Did you know that you can claim a power of attorney refund on part of your registration fee if you applied to register a power of attorney between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2017?
Around 1.7 million people were overcharged when registering a power of attorney, resulting in the government launching a refund scheme.
The power of attorney refund applies to lasting powers of attorney (LPA) and enduring powers of attorney registered between these dates.
It only applies for LPAs and EPAs made in England and Wales.
Refunds can be claimed by the donor (the person who made the power of attorney) or the attorney appointed by the LPA or EPA.
However, the refund itself must be paid to the donor.
You can only make one refund claim per donor, even if more than one power of attorney was made.
The amount of refund you will get depends on when you paid the registration fees.
There is also interest added to the refund, at 0.5%.
Even if you don’t know when you registered the power of attorney, you can still apply for a refund.
Refund amounts range from £34 to £54, depending on when you registered the power of attorney.
If you paid a reduced fee to register the power of attorney, known as remission, then you will only get half the refund amount.
It takes about ten minutes to claim the refund using an online process.
You will need the donor’s UK bank account number and sort code.
Alternatively, you will need to claim the refund over the telephone if the donor doesn’t have a UK bank account, the donor has died or 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.
Claim online at https://claim-power-of-attorney-refund.service.gov.uk/start or call the Refunds Helpline on 0300 456 0300 (choose option 6).
It can take up to 12 weeks for the refund claim to be processed and, once approved, the refund will be paid into the donor’s bank account.
If your refund claim is rejected for any reason, you can appeal the decision by calling the Refunds Helpline.
