LPA applications drop 26% during pandemic

Government plans to digitize the process

Ayesha Venkataraman
clock • 2 min read

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) registrations fell by 26.5% during 2020-21 as lockdown measures made the outdated process, which requires many paper-based tasks, more onerous.

A freedom of information (FOI) request to the Ministry of Justice, submitted by Canada Life, showed a significant fall in LPAs registered between 6 April 2020 and 5 April 2021. The provider of group insurance solutions pointed to the the "processing changes that needed to be made at the start of the pandemic and the resulting backlog caused" as reasons for the dip, according to Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life. The total number of LPA registrations over FY 2020/21 totalled a little more than 635,000 split between 282,883 health and welfare and 353,745 property and finan...

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