McINNES WARNS ABOUT DELAY IN POWER OF ATTORNEY CASES (Alison McInnes)

Alison McInnes <info@alisonmcinnes.co.uk>

McINNES WARNS ABOUT DELAY IN POWER OF ATTORNEY CASES

December 26, 2011 12:01 AM

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP has raised concerns about significant increases in waiting times for Powers of Attorney to be processed by the Office of the Public Guardian.

A large increase in the numbers of Powers of Attorney submitted has coincided with a 12% reduction in staff numbers which means that the Office's target to process Powers of Attorney within 30 days has been blown out of the water and people are having to wait up to 14 weeks.

At the beginning of the year 99.9% of Powers of Attorney were registered within 30 days but by the end of September only 17% of registrations were achieved within a 30 day period.

Mrs McInnes is concerned about the difficulties that these substantially increased registration times could cause for older people and their families who are wishing to put financial or property affairs in order.

The North East MSP commented: "It is clear that a rise in demand coupled with a 12% reduction in staff has resulted in huge increases in the time taken to process Powers of Attorney.

"With people having to wait up to 14 weeks for these documents to be processed I am concerned about the impact that this is having on older people and their families, for example in situations where people are moving into care homes.

"It is vital that these delays don't lead to people who are waiting to move into a care home being stranded in hospital or ending up in debt while their financial situation is sorted out.

"The Office of the Public Guardian has taken steps to try and tackle these waiting times but with less bodies to do more work it is important that the Scottish Government examine what other steps can be taken.

"It is hoped that an on-line registration system will speed up the Power of Attorney process, Ministers should ensure that this is implemented as quickly as possible."

The percentage of powers of attorney the Office of the Public Guardian has registered within 30 days in each of the last four quarters:

July 2011 - Sept 2011	17%
April 2011 - June 2011	34%
Jan 2011 - March 2011	99.9%
Oct 2010 - Dec 2010	99.9%

A notice on the Office of the Public Guardian website updating the Power of Attorney position as of November 2011 states: For some reason in March, and continuing, there has been a stepped increase in the numbers of powers of attorney submitted (250 per day from an historical average of around 200 per day). Administering this additional number would have stretched us in any event but the timing was particularly problematic as it coincided with a reduction in staffing number. As with all public sector bodies, we have had to respond to the Government's need to make significant savings and this year our staffing complement has been reduced by 12%. This reduction is in addition to the regular annual leave, maternity leave, sick absence etc that any organisation must bear.
The Office of the Public Guardian website is updating the public weekly on waiting times for powers of attorney to be processed - the update on 24 November stated that those being processed that week had taken 14 weeks to process: http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/news/index.asp