Hundreds of thousands of people who were overcharged when registering for power of attorney have yet to claim £45m owed to them by the Government.
Where claimants could once file for a refund online, the only way to do it now is by writing in by post – a move that has garnered criticism, with some accusing the Government of making it difficult for people to claim the money back.
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) overcharged around 1.7 million applicants registering for lasting power of attorney (LPA) by £69m between 2013 to 2017.
In 2018 the agency admitted to the error because its running costs fell but application fees were not reduced to reflect the cost of processing them, as is required.
The fee was lowered from £110 to £82 in April 2017, and a refund scheme has allowed people to claim back between £34 to £54, which factored in 0.5pc annual interest.
Those who applied for two types of LPA – property and financial, and health and welfare – could claim up to £108.
But only 330,000 applicants have claimed £16.9m, leaving around 1.37 million who are still owed money.
The number of people affected is likely to be lower because some will have filed more than one application, according to the Office of the Public Guardian.
Claims for refunds could only be submitted online until January 2021, but the OPG said they could now still be filed by post.
Gary Rycroft, a partner at Joseph A Jones & Co Solicitors, said many families registering LPAs – a legal document that allows someone to appoint another person to make decisions on their behalf – are dealing with challenges such as memory loss and need a process that is as easy as possible for them.
He said: “It is deeply cynical to move away from online refunds. It seems to me they don’t really want people to claim this refund and are just paying lip service to it.”
Mr Rycroft said the process for claiming a refund was too cumbersome, but it was also not possible to do it automatically because many people paid with cheques and other methods that were not linked to an ongoing digital account.
An Office of the Public Guardian spokesman said: “This refund scheme is still open and we have already paid out over £16 million in compensation.”
