Power of Attorney not registered before mum died but money still taken - help

Spaniel2026

Hi 
I'm at a loss with what to do next, we had just completed my mums power of attorney and paid the fee, when she died unexpectedly. The office of the pubic guardian have refused to refund the two POW payments, which were paid on Friday 28th Nov, even though my mum passed on Friday 5th Dec. Nowhere near enough time for them to have registered the POW's. Obviously in the grand scheme of things, losing some money is nothing compared to losing my wonderful mum, but its seems awful that the government can take £160 with no 'bereavement clause' when every other company we've spoken too, everything else we've cancelled, they have been nothing but compassionate and refunded as much as they can. I wondered if anyone else had been in this situation and what if anything I can do? At least I wanted to highlight it, as POW's are really important but I'm now untrusting of the governments option.

Emmia

Spaniel2026 said:

Hi 
I'm at a loss with what to do next, we had just completed my mums power of attorney and paid the fee, when she died unexpectedly. The office of the pubic guardian have refused to refund the two POW payments, which were paid on Friday 28th Nov, even though my mum passed on Friday 5th Dec. Nowhere near enough time for them to have registered the POW's. Obviously in the grand scheme of things, losing some money is nothing compared to losing my wonderful mum, but its seems awful that the government can take £160 with no 'bereavement clause' when every other company we've spoken too, everything else we've cancelled, they have been nothing but compassionate and refunded as much as they can. I wondered if anyone else had been in this situation and what if anything I can do? At least I wanted to highlight it, as POW's are really important but I'm now untrusting of the governments option.

I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm not sure any refund would be forthcoming, the process of registration has probably already started, and costs will have been incurred.

These types of services are often done"cost price" rather than for profit - processing a refund will also have a cost.

Edit:  do you mean POA payments rather than POW payments.

PennysIntoPounds

I'm sorry for your loss.
Unfortunately they no longer issue refunds if someone dies while the LPA (lasting power of attorney) is being processed.
There's nothing you can do, it's just one of those things.
If you feel very strongly about it you could contact them to make a complaint about their policy, or contact your local councillors or MP to put it on their radar, but your priority should be taking care of yourself in this difficult time.
Thank you for highlighting this for others

silvercar

Sorry for your loss.

What they should be doing, in my opinion, is offering a more expensive expedited service for those that have an urgent need to get the LPAs registered.

Spaniel2026

Thank you for your responses and kind words - they were a great help.