Guidance

Making and registering an LPA during the coronavirus outbreak

If you want to make an LPA now, you can as long as you follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolating.

From:
Office of the Public Guardian
Published
17 April 2020
Last updated
12 May 2021 — See all updates
Applies to:
Wales and England (see guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland)

The government has published the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ setting out the roadmap out of the lockdown for England. This explains how restrictions will be eased over time. See specific guidance for Wales.

Some of the rules on what you can and cannot do changed on 29 March. However, many restrictions remain in place. Find out what you can and cannot do.

Making a lasting power of attorney (LPA) is an important decision that you should think about carefully.

An LPA needs to be signed and witnessed by several people.

Once the LPA has been signed, you need to send it to us for registration. We are experiencing delays registering lasting powers of attorney. Please allow up to 15 weeks from receipt of your LPA for your application to be processed. This includes a 4 week waiting period required by law.

Please continue to check our coronavirus response page for updates.

You can still make an LPA during this time. There are other ways people can make decisions for you that are quicker to get in place. These may be useful while you’re waiting for an LPA to be registered or if you’re self-isolating and need someone to carry out bank transactions for you.

How do I make an LPA during the COVID-19 outbreak?

If you want to make an LPA now, you can still do so as long as you follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolating.

The government has published the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ setting out the roadmap out of the lockdown for England. This explains how restrictions will be eased over time. See specific guidance for Wales.

Some of the rules on what you can and cannot do changed on 29 March. However, many restrictions remain in place. Find out what you can and cannot do.

Please check back regularly, as we’ll update this page if government information changes.

You must read this guidance alongside our standard guidance on making an LPA.

This guidance is for people making an LPA in England and Wales only. There is separate guidance for people making an LPA in  Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Signing and witnessing the LPA

You should follow government guidance on social distancing to ensure that you satisfy requirements when signing and witnessing an LPA. Do not:

  • use digital signatures - the document must be printed out and signed by hand with a black pen
  • send people photocopies or scans of the LPA to sign - everyone must sign the same, original document
  • ask people to send you a scan or photocopy of the page they’ve signed - we cannot register an LPA that includes scans or copied pages

Witnessing the donor and attorneys’ signatures

Witnessing must be done in person. You will need to follow government guidance on social distancing at all times when signing the forms.

Rules on witnessing

The witness must:

  • be shown the blank signature and date box before they’re signed
  • have a clear view of the person signing the LPA, so they can see the signature being made
  • be shown the completed signature and date box immediately afterwards

Signatures must be witnessed in person.

If the donor cannot sign the LPA

If the donor is not able to use a pen and cannot sign the LPA, someone else can sign on their behalf.

The donor and 2 other people must be there in person to witness the signature being made. The 2 witnesses must also sign the LPA.

You must follow all the rules on witnessing in accordance with the government social distancing guidance.

Make sure the LPA is signed in the right order

It’s very important that the LPA is signed in the right order. If it’s not, we cannot register it. The donor may have to make a new LPA, get it signed again, and pay another application fee.

The certificate provider and donor conversation

The certificate provider must talk to the donor about the LPA to make sure the donor understands it and is not being pressured to make it.

We recommend this conversation happens face to face, but you must consider the government social distancing guidance.

If this must be over phone or a video call, the certificate provider should make sure the call is private.

Think carefully about who should be sent the registered LPA

When you make an LPA, you’ll be asked to say who will be the ‘correspondent’. This is the person we’ll send the registered LPA to.

If you think you might need to use the LPA very soon after it’s registered, think carefully about who should be the correspondent to make sure the person who needs it has access to it.

Organisations, such as banks and care homes, will want to see this original registered LPA when an attorney wants to make decisions on the donor’s behalf.

If you do not have access to a printer

You can ask a friend or family member to print the forms and post them to you.

You can also ask us to post you the LPA application forms. Our telephone number is: 0300 456 0300

How you can help us register your LPA as quickly as possible

  • Use our online service to make the LPA and pay the application fee by card rather than cheque. Although you’ll still need to print the completed forms to sign and then post to us, it will take us less time to register your LPA. This is because cheques take much longer to process than card payments. If you make the LPA online, you’ll also be able to track the progress of your application through the service without needing to contact us.
  • If the donor and attorney have email addresses, include them on the LPA form. This will make it much quicker for us to contact them if there are any issues.

  • Double check your forms before sending them in. Avoid common mistakes, by making sure:

When you post your LPA to us and when you’re waiting for the registered LPA to be posted back, please bear in mind that the postal service may be slower than usual. You can see service updates on the Royal Mail website.

Published 17 April 2020
Last updated 12 May 2021 + show all updates

  1. Updated LPA processing times (removed duplication), including Welsh version.

  2. Changes made due to May Roadmap

  3. Added translation

  4. welsh version changes

  5. changes made due to roadmap out of lockdown announced Feb. 2021

  6. changes made to the welsh translation after PMs announcement of 4 January

  7. changes due to Lockdown 3

  8. changes to welsh version

  9. Covid 19 timescale update 10 Dec 2020

  10. changes for local tier restrictions from 2/12/20

  11. changes to welsh language version

  12. changes due to lockdown 5/11/20

  13. changed due to lockdown 5/11/20

  14. changes due to lockdown 5/11/20

  15. 12 October 2020 Covid changes

  16. changes to links to social distancing and local lockdown

  17. Changes to welsh language version

  18. Added translation

  19. Added translation and contact information

  20. Edited to include link to local lockdown requirements and for Scotland and NI LPAs

  21. Edited Signing the LPA section

  22. changes made in line with updated Covid regulations

  23. Edited information on signing and witnessing due to changes in social distancing rules from 4 July including link to gov.uk page

  24. Updated to clarify that it is currently possible to make an LPA

  25. Added translation

  26. First published.

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