Power of attorney is meant to work as a safety net for elderly and disabled people during some of the most vulnerable years of their lives.
It gives trusted relatives or carers the legal authority to manage bank accounts, pay bills, and make critical medical choices once a person no longer has the mental capacity to make those decisions themselves. When handled properly, it brings immense peace of mind to families, guaranteeing that a loved one’s hard-earned savings and personal wishes are kept safe from exploitation.
Yet, the official watchdog tasked with overseeing these legal powers is buckling under an unprecedented surge in registrations. With hundreds of thousands of new lasting power of attorney applications landing on desks each year, staff are overwhelmed by backlogs and procedural delays, leaving little time to carry out thorough background checks. Legal experts and charity campaigners warn that this strain on the system creates a massive blind spot, allowing predatory individuals, coercive relatives, and financial fraudsters to slip past the radar and drain the life savings of the very people the law was written to protect.
Applications have surged dramatically.
The number of power of attorney applications has climbed sharply over the past few years, rising from fewer than 700,000 annually to close to 1.6 million today. Part of that rise reflects a backlog finally clearing following the pandemic, when staff were forced to work remotely and processing slowed considerably.
A newer, easier to navigate online application system has also played a part, alongside a rush to apply ahead of a planned fee increase, which pushed the average number of new applications past 6,000 a day at one point last year. Combined, these factors have created an unprecedented surge in demand almost overnight.
Staffing levels haven’t kept pace.
Despite that surge in applications, staffing at the body responsible for processing them has grown at a considerably slower rate, rising by roughly 39 percent since 2018, compared with an 86 percent increase in applications over the same period. That growing mismatch has left the system stretched thin across the board.
The pressure has been particularly severe within the investigations team specifically, which is now widely missing its own internal targets. Concerns raised with the organisation jumped 17 percent over the past year alone, with more than 13,000 complaints received. The vast majority were redirected elsewhere rather than investigated directly, and those that were investigated now take well over six months to conclude, more than double the original target timeframe.
Genuine concerns are being dismissed too quickly.
According to solicitors speaking about the crisis, both the Office of the Public Guardian and the Court of Protection have become so stretched that concerns about alleged abuse by an attorney are increasingly being dismissed unless there’s already substantial evidence available to act on. In some cases, enquiries have gone unresolved for well over a year.
One solicitor working directly with affected families explained that a bare suspicion, without firm supporting evidence, often isn’t enough to prompt a proper investigation at all. Another described the experience of raising a concern as feeling like it simply disappears entirely, with enquiries going unanswered for months at a time without any real update or resolution.
A recent court ruling has added further complexity.
The situation has been further complicated by a Supreme Court ruling handed down in June, which changed the legal definition of what counts as a deprivation of liberty. Care homes previously relied on an established legal test that allowed liberty to be restricted in cases where a patient had lost mental capacity, even if that patient protested at the time.
Under the new ruling, care providers must now weigh up the extent to which a patient consents or objects, even in cases involving severe mental decline, introducing a legal grey area for care homes to navigate. According to solicitors, this shift has added yet another layer of complexity to an already overwhelmed system, at a time when clarity and speed matter more than ever.
The true scale of abuse likely goes underreported.
According to one solicitor working closely with affected families, the justice system overseeing these cases is facing what she described as a perfect storm of delays, with courts already backed up, and the guardianship body overwhelmed by sheer volume, all while cases flagged as potentially abusive continue rising.
She also warned that official figures likely understate the true scale of the problem considerably, with a significant amount of alleged abuse going entirely unnoticed by the authorities responsible for catching it. Given how difficult it already is to get a case properly investigated, it’s a troubling suggestion that the numbers making headlines may only reflect a small fraction of what’s actually happening.
Real cases show what’s at stake when abuse goes unchecked.
The consequences of power of attorney abuse slipping through unnoticed can be devastating. Earlier this year, a couple was jailed for six years after abusing the power of attorney they held over one partner’s elderly parents, selling their home and cars and funnelling the proceeds into their own accounts.
Over the course of less than a year, they made more than a hundred transfers from the victims’ bank account into their own, spending tens of thousands of pounds on a car, cosmetic dental work and multiple holidays, ultimately draining the account almost entirely. By the time they were caught, one of the victims had already died, and a judge later described their actions as a despicable display of greed and selfishness. In a separate case last year, a former banking executive was jailed for multiple counts of fraud after abusing power of attorney over an old friend living with Alzheimer’s, stealing well over £100,000 to fund holidays and home improvements while also diverting her pension payments and failing to pass on charitable donations named in her will.
What’s being done to address the growing backlog
In response to the mounting pressure, the Office of the Public Guardian has said it’s boosted resources within its investigations team, introduced AI tools to help support investigators, and launched a new dedicated form last year specifically for reporting concerns more easily.
A spokesperson acknowledged just how important it is for power of attorney arrangements to be used properly, and how distressing misuse can be for families affected by it. They stressed that all safeguarding concerns are taken seriously, with thorough investigations carried out wherever there’s sufficient legal power and evidence to act, and that while breaches of trust remain rare overall, the organisation says it won’t hesitate to take firm action where they’re identified.
Given how quickly applications have outpaced the system’s capacity to properly investigate concerns, anyone worried about a loved one’s power of attorney arrangement being misused may find it worth seeking independent legal advice early, rather than relying solely on the Office of the Public Guardian to act quickly on a report alone.
