The financial advice website This Is Money recently reported on the continuing delays families up and down the country are facing when making a Power of Attorney. The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) aims to process forms within eight to ten weeks it is currently taking anything up to 20 weeks, sometimes more.
Currently there are more than 88,600 requests being registered every month. This is a huge increase of 67% based on pre-covid figures. A bill is currently awaiting Parliament which will aim to modernise the process by allowing claimants to register their details online. This is something the OPG suggests will speed up the process
We at Calon Law have felt this pain with our customers and have seen much longer application timelines than previous years. We also support any technology that can help with a process of application. Our Director of Technology, Stephen Ash, said "Implementation of technology can have a big effect on the speed of an application process and move us all closer to using less paper, which is also beneficial to sustainability and the environment. However technology is no substitute for human contact and not everyone is comfortable with modern technology. That is why at Calon Law we ensure we provide our customers with all the support they need should they be unsure how to use such technologies"
