Lasting power of attorney process to go online

These changes will be welcomed by fraudsters worldwide.

Nowhere in the world is there such an easy system to defraud vulnerable people, and any reduction in the limited protection already available will be most welcome.

Clearly, any contact with staff does increase the very slight risk of our frauds being detected before it is too late.

Signed:
World Wide Alliance of Fraudsters

(You guessed it - I am NOT a fan of LPAs under the present system!

What a terrible idea. I agree that the current system is a shambles what with delays and missing paperwork. However, I advise my clients that EPAs were changed to LPAs with their additional safeguards of registration and Part B certificates to protect vulnerable people from abuse. I tell them how much simpler the old forms were but that they were open to abuse as people were drawing them up on someone else's behalf and getting that person to sign without them understanding what they were signing - which is exactly what I can see happening once again if the process goes online. Meeting the client and having them sign the documentation alone in my presence is an important part of the LPA creation process of confirming that they have capacity and understand what they are doing. I can see the advantages of having the option to register being available online so long as the system for notifying named persons remains the same. I just hope the OPG give the matter some considerable consideration and don't charge ahead like a bull in a china shop.

Another bright idea by a government department. There was an earlier suggestion about thinking outside the box - this is a classic example of no thinking at all. All fraudsters must be rubbing their hands in anticipation at the thought of this being introduced.

Regardless of the problems with the OPG I remain to be convinced that this is an effective remedy for LPA's. It leaves the most vulnerable adults in our society wide open to abuse/exploitation and fraud. I agree with Ms Pennington that the best safeguard to protect potentially vulnerable adults from the such abuse is the necessity for the donor to meet, face to face, with a lawyer, to discuss the purpose and implications of giving an LPA. This really is the only way that the would be donor's identity can be confirmed and their capacity can be assessed.

At the moment I just cannot see what online safeguards would be as effective as this and can only hope that a great deal more thought is given to this proposal before it is implemented, in any form.

Do government departments never speak to each other? The Land Registry has already come a cropper over fraud through e-conveyancing. I do not see how they think they are going to protect vulnerable people from abuse if they initiate a system of applying for LPAs online. How are they going to ensure the donor has capacity and that the certificate provider is genuine? Don't they care? Furthermore based on past experience of government department's IT systems it will likely never do the job as intended and will cost us the taxpayers a small (not to mention wasted) fortune to find that out. Their problem is that they do not have enough staff to cope with demand but this is not the answer unless they want to make a bad situation much worse.

Would it be better for the OPG to charge £200 to register an LPA and keep to the present paper based system?

Or restrict any online submissions for registration to solictors orother properly regulated professions?

Why do the Government think the internet is the answer to everything, form the simplest issues to the most complex? Is the object to make access easier, or is it simply to cut anyone else out of the procedure because 'anyone can do it'. It is all part of the process to devalue the benefit of what any professionals do and make clients think that if 'anyone can do it' then even professionals must be able to do it at a price well below cost. The benefit of some advice along the way is completely undermined (but then, given the OPG's attitude to interpretation of restrictions, guidance and the like, perhaps the answer is to tell clients to go away and fill in the form with names and addresses and don't even try to think about including anything else).

Along with so many other proposals, anything that relies predominantly on the internet discriminates against older people and those in rural communities where internet provision is not the same as that enjoyed in urban areas. Where it involves the elderly in rural communities (many of whom I come across on a daily basis) there are plenty who have never used a PC, never mind the internet.

Its becoming a difficult enough job for the non-computer literate to get a tax disc in a rural area, getting an LPA will be a breeze!

It does make you wonder where these people get their ideas and just how much experience have they got of LPA's and elderley customers. Maybe we should introduce a new Olympic Sport of how fast you can defraud a person out of their wealth or sell their house when they are on holiday.
However I do see an opportunity for a new business where you constantly check that a client has not got an LPA finance with an unknown attorney and they still own their own house.