Why Nearly 1 in 10 LPA Applications Get Rejected — And What It Means for Your Family
Setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney is one of the most important things you can do for the people you love. It's the legal document that puts the right person in charge of your finances and healthcare if you ever lose the capacity to manage them yourself. Without one, your family may have no legal authority to help you — however long you've been together, however much they love you.
More and more families across North Somerset and Bristol are waking up to that reality. According to the Office of the Public Guardian, 1.37 million LPA applications were received in 2024/25 alone — a record high, and a sign that awareness is genuinely growing.
But here's something that surprises almost everyone who walks through our door: getting an LPA is not simply a matter of filling in a form.
In 2023–24, more than 50,000 LPA applications were rejected by the Office of the Public Guardian due to errors in the paperwork. That's nearly one in ten. And in 2024, rejections had risen by 199% compared to 2021 — despite the total number of applications also rising sharply.
That means tens of thousands of families who thought they were protected — weren't. And many of them didn't find out until exactly the moment they needed the LPA to work.
In this article, we'll explain why so many applications fail, what the consequences are, and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
What Is a Lasting Power of Attorney — and Why Does It Matter?
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you — while you still have full mental capacity — to appoint one or more trusted people (your "attorneys") to make decisions on your behalf if you ever become unable to make them yourself.
There are two types, and most people need both:
Property and Financial Affairs LPA — covers your bank accounts, bills, investments, pensions, and property. This LPA can be used as soon as it's registered, with your permission.
Health and Welfare LPA — covers decisions about your medical care, living arrangements, and day-to-day wellbeing. This type only comes into effect once you've lost mental capacity.
Without either of these documents in place, your family has no automatic legal authority to act on your behalf — even if you've been married for decades. If something happens to you without an LPA registered, your loved ones would need to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order: a process that can take many months, cost thousands of pounds in legal fees, and cause enormous stress during what is already an incredibly difficult time.
The importance of getting an LPA in place is clear. What's less well understood is the importance of getting it right.
The Scale of the Problem
The numbers are striking.
According to Freedom of Information data obtained by Which?, 50,918 LPA applications were rejected by the Office of the Public Guardian in the 2023–24 financial year alone. Of those, 60% related to Property and Financial Affairs LPAs. Over the past five years, a total of more than 162,000 applications have been rejected.
And the trend is heading in the wrong direction. In 2024, LPA rejections rose by 199% compared to 2021 — even as total application numbers grew. As more families attempt to set up their own LPAs without professional guidance, the rejection rate is climbing alongside them.
More worrying still: 55,053 applications had already been rejected in the first part of 2025 alone, according to figures obtained by law firm WSP Solicitors.
Each of those rejections represents a family who delayed, stressed, and paid again — at a time when they may already have been dealing with illness, bereavement, or crisis.
Why Do So Many Applications Fail?
The LPA forms are more detailed and demanding than they appear. They require precise information, completed in a specific order, signed in a legally prescribed sequence, with witnesses and certificate providers who meet strict eligibility criteria.
Any deviation — however minor — can result in a rejection.
Here are the most common reasons applications fail:
- Incorrect signing order
The LPA must be signed and dated in a precise sequence: the donor first, then the certificate provider, then the attorneys. If any section is signed out of order — or if the dates suggest the wrong sequence — the OPG will reject the application. This is the single most common cause of rejection, and one that is entirely invisible to someone who doesn't know the rules.
- Missing or incorrect names
Full legal names must be used throughout — not initials, nicknames, or shortened versions. Witnesses must provide their full name including middle names. Even a minor spelling discrepancy — "Carol" instead of "Carole," for instance — can cause problems. The OPG may register the LPA despite a small error, but when your attorney presents it to a bank or care provider, the mismatch with their ID may mean it's refused on the spot.
- Incomplete sections
Every section of the form must be completed in full. Missing signatures, undated boxes, and skipped fields are all common causes of rejection. It sounds straightforward — but the forms are long, technical, and easy to misread, particularly for someone completing them for the first time.
- Wrong certificate provider
An LPA requires a certificate provider — someone who confirms that the donor understands the document and has not been pressured into signing it. This person must either have known the donor personally for at least two years, or be an eligible professional. Using someone who doesn't qualify is a common and easily overlooked mistake.
- Unworkable or contradictory instructions
The donor can include instructions about how their attorneys should act — but those instructions must be legally consistent. A common error is appointing attorneys to act "jointly and severally" (meaning independently or together) while also including a clause requiring a majority vote on decisions. These instructions contradict each other, making the LPA unworkable and therefore rejectable.
- Using an outdated form
The OPG updates its forms periodically. Using an old version — even one downloaded fairly recently from an unofficial source — will result in automatic rejection. Only the current forms from GOV.UK are valid.
- Correction fluid or pencil
Mistakes on the form cannot be corrected with Tipp-Ex, correction tape, or pencil. Any such correction will invalidate the form. If an error is made, the affected page must be redone in full.
Real Consequences for Real Families
A rejection is not just an inconvenience. It has real, serious consequences — particularly if the donor's health changes during the delay.
Financial cost. LPA registration fees are currently £92 per document — £184 for both types. If your application is rejected and you fail to resubmit within three months, you pay in full again from scratch. Even within three months, a reduced reapplication fee applies. The costs accumulate quickly.
Delays when it matters most. Even a straightforward, error-free LPA currently takes 8 to 10 weeks to register with the OPG. A rejected application adds further weeks — sometimes months — to that timeline. If the donor loses mental capacity during the delay, the LPA cannot be created. The family's only option at that point is the Court of Protection — the very outcome the LPA was designed to prevent.
Hidden errors that only emerge later. Perhaps most troubling of all: some LPAs are registered by the OPG despite containing errors that will render them unusable in practice. A name misspelled by one letter. A date of birth entered incorrectly. A provision that contradicts another clause. These hidden problems may not surface until the moment an attorney tries to use the document — at a bank, a care home, or a hospital — and is turned away.
Why Professional Guidance Matters
The case for getting professional help with your LPA is not about distrust of your own abilities. It's about the nature of the document itself.
An LPA is a highly specific legal instrument. The forms were designed to be completed correctly — not to be forgiving of well-intentioned errors. The OPG applies consistent technical standards to every application, regardless of how sincerely the donor's wishes are expressed.
When you set up your LPA with us, here is what that means in practice:
We complete all paperwork accurately and in full — using the correct current forms, with every field, signature box, and date completed properly. We guide you through the signing process step by step — at home, at your kitchen table, with no rushing and no confusion about what goes where. We verify that your certificate provider and witnesses meet the legal requirements before a single signature is placed. We submit your application to the Office of the Public Guardian on your behalf. And we follow up until your LPA is registered and returned — ready to use, without hidden errors, without delays caused by avoidable mistakes.
Most importantly: if anything needs correcting, we handle it. You don't pay again. You don't start again. You don't discover the problem at the worst possible moment.
The Right Time to Act Is Now
There is one rule about LPAs that overrides everything else.
An LPA can only be created while you still have full mental capacity. Once that capacity is lost — through dementia, a stroke, an accident, or any other cause — it is legally too late to make one.
You cannot fast-track the process when a health crisis strikes. You cannot create an LPA retrospectively. And you cannot rely on your family to step in without one, however close you are and however much they want to help.
The families we see most often in the most distress are not those who started the LPA process and encountered a complication. They are the ones who kept meaning to get around to it, assumed they had more time, and found themselves dealing with the Court of Protection in the middle of a medical emergency.
Setting up an LPA now — correctly, professionally, and at home — takes two appointments and a few weeks. The protection it provides lasts a lifetime.
Talk to Us
We help families across North Somerset, Bristol, Bath, and the surrounding area set up both types of LPA — Property and Financial Affairs, and Health and Welfare — clearly, affordably, and in the comfort of their own home.
We come to you. We explain everything in plain English. And we make sure your LPA is done right, first time.
Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation consultation. Your family deserves to know that if the worst happens, everything is in place.
📞 01934 442030 📧 info@futuraplanning.co.uk 🌐 www.futuraplanning.co.uk
Futura Planning Ltd is a specialist estate planning practice based in North Somerset, serving families across Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, and the surrounding area.
Related articles you might find helpful:
- What is a Lasting Power of Attorney — and do I need one?
- Health and Welfare vs Property and Financial Affairs LPA: what's the difference?
- What happens if I lose capacity without an LPA in place?
- When Should I Set Up a Lasting Power of Attorney?
