Founded 1980
Chair:        
Secretary: 
Treasurer: 

Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft


MONEY FOR NOTHING FROM THE MoJ

Sounds too good to be true, like some email offering a chunk of a Nigerian prince’s fortune if only it can be lodged in your bank account for a while? And ps. please will you send your bank details to some overseas phishing address. No, its not like that at all. Honest.

Like most of us, I hope, I have made a Will. This was drawn up by a solicitor to avoid unforeseen consequences like my estate ending up with my second cousin’s aunt’s mother by mistake. Simultaneously I raised two lasting powers of attorney so that, should I eventually get even more gaga than I am now, my son and daughter would have the power to make both financial and health and care decisions on my behalf. It’s important to do this before going gaga since, otherwise, a court might doubt one’s mental capacity to enter such an arrangement. The only drawback was that fees paid to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for the purpose were, I felt, rather extortionate. The OPG is and agency of the Ministry of Justice.

I was correct. A chance reading of a financial column in the Sunday Times alerted me that the OPG had routinely been overcharging for this service for some years. They were making repayments to those who claimed but the initiative lay with the claimant. There seemed no mechanism whereby overpayments would be automatically refunded. 

Google ‘Claim a power of attorney refund – GOV.UK’ and there are the full details including claim forms to submit online. There is a sliding scale of repayments depending on the date of applying to register a power of attorney which must have been between April 2013 and March 2017. Interest is added since the date of overpayment and the window to claim closes on 1st February 2021. In my case I ended up £111.72 better off. Not a fortune, I agree but better off in my pocket than in that of the MoJ.

Apply now if you qualify. You have nothing to lose. And if you want me to send you a chunk of a Nigerian prince’s fortune, you need only send me your bank details c/o my Cayman Islands office!

​Peter Quinn