View a Lasting Power of Attorney online

The Office of the Public Guardian has launched the View a Lasting Power of Attorney online service.  This means that you can send a digital code to an organisation so they can view the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) online.  It only applies to certain LPAs so, read on to learn more.

An LPA can be verified by using the paper document or the online service but, using the government’s secure online service will save a lot of time and effort.  The restriction at the moment is that only LPAs registered on or after 1 January 2016 can be verified on View an LPA.  For details on this see our article on Activate the LPA.

The View an LPA service

The View an LPA service shows the organisation that you, the attorney, can give it the following information:

• the donor’s details – name, address and date of birth
• the attorneys’ details – how many there are, their names, addresses and dates of birth
• how decisions are made by the attorneys
• the donor’s choice on life sustaining treatment, if the LPA is for health and welfare
• any instructions and preferences written by the donor, which could affect or even disallow what the attorney intends to do
• whether the LPA is still valid and registered

The organisation can also download a copy of the LPA summary, to store.

An organisation can only use the View an LPA to access LPAs registered in England and Wales. It doesn’t show LPAs registered in Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad. It also doesn’t show enduring powers of attorney (EPAs).

Using the View an LPA

If an organisation wants to view the LPA, you will need to give them an LPA access code.  If you are unsure about how to provide an access code, see the section Access Codes below.  This can be supplied by either the attorney or the donor but, most likely the attorney.  The access code is 13 characters long and starts with the letter V.

These are the following steps to take to view the LPA:

1. Click the START button
2. Enter the donor’s surname
3. Enter the 13-character code starting with V e.g. V-RTOY-HN8T-LPMN (this is not a real code)
4. Click CONTINUE

The next page will tell the organisation the name of the individual, the type of LPA, whether it is health and welfare or finance and property.  It will also show when the code expires which is usally in 30 days.  The organisation must enter their name so the attorney can identify that the code has been accessed.

When viewing the LPA the organisation can check the full name, the date of birth and the address of the donor.  If any of this information is incorrect the organisation must ask the attorney to re-send the correct LPA code.

Checks for the organisation

The attorney needs to make sure that they are sending the correct LPA for the decision to be made, i.e. whether it is finance related or health related.  If the code is for the wrong LPA, a new code must be obtained.

Access Codes

If you, as the attorney, are unsure about how to provide an access code to an organisation you can look on this page: Using the donor’s LPA: access codes and View an LPA.

An access code can be given to any organisation that needs to see the donor’s LPA, instead of showing them the registered paper version. You, the attorney, can create these on the digital service use a lasting power of attorney service (Use an LPA). When the LPA was registered, the letter you received had information on how to set up an account on Use an LPA.

Why use the View an LPA service?

Some organisations might still be reluctant to view the LPA online but, there are some good reasons why they should use the online service.  The online summary contains all the information needed to confirm the LPA can be used and to verify an attorney on it. This is more efficient, because:

• the essential information is summarised on one page online, whereas it is found throughout several sections of the paper version
• if the organisation needs a copy of the LPA for their records, it can download the PDF. With the paper version, the necessary pages of the paper LPA must be scanned in
• a posted LPA could take days to arrive and be returned, and could leave the customer, the donor, without someone to act for them in the meantime
• if a replacement attorney needs to start acting for the donor, the paper LPA must be returned to the Office of the Public Guardian to be amended and then sent back to the attorney. With the online summary, the organisation can see the update much sooner

It also offers extra security because it is more up-to-date than the original paper version if any changes have been made.