Lasting Power of Attorney - why so expensive and why isn't everyone nudged to do one?

[housemonkey]

My parents have been filling in their LPAs, which are inherently useful and mean that it's clearly set out what they want done in case of serious illness. In their case, they don't want anything at all.
https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-lasting-power
But why on earth is it such a ball ache and why on earth does it cost £92??
If my grandmother had filled one of these out, it would have saved the NHS literally hundreds of thousands of pounds for an utterly joyless extra month in her nineties that she didn't want.
But these forms are complicated (they're on it and organised, but have struggled) and not everyone has £92 lying around! Why aren't they readily available (and you could just be referred by eg your GP if it was something you were interested in?). It's crazy! I totally understand that not everyone would want one (and that's obviously fine), but if you are, it should be straightforward and free.

If you're on certain benefits you don't pay. I sorted my Mum's and as she's on pension credit she didn't pay.
My 80 year old MIL did hers and FIL and didn't find the forms overly complicated as the guidance is very clear.

They are a really important legal document and have to be set out and authorised and lodged as such. That costs.

Can you imagine the abuse that could happen?

Seems a reasonable cost for the administration time required to be honest. When are GP’s going to have time to give out appointments and free admin time to this?

IME when things are completely free they get overloaded by time wasters.

Because a lot of people have abusive families and a lot of people who don't think they have financially abusive children find out that they, in fact, do.

My parents had to pay -- and they're not esp well off albeit not on pension credit. It definitely wasn't something they wanted to spend almost £200 on and that nearly put them off. And let's be honest, if something bad happened to either of them, the cost to the NHS would be more than £200 just to get them to the hospital

Sorry, just to clarify, I'm talking about the health and welfare one.

My point is that by not charging £200 at that point, you end up not spending potentially vast NHS sums not far down the line!

Plus they've had to go and see the GP twice to arrange this, so the GP time is wasted anyway. I don't see that this is something that necessarily needs to be done by GPs anyway. It could be done through the surgery, but not necessarily by a GP.

I had medical and financial ones made up when I was 25 - I don’t think that that cost is prohibitive or extreme for the importance and care that goes into it.
Mine’s nearly twenty years old and I haven’t had to change it or pay anything more. I would say I’ve got my money’s worth out of it, though maybe not as it’s never been needed.

edit to add that in my country it was completed by a solicitor not a doctor

My FiL kept putting off doing it so my MiL took the lead, went to a solicitor and ended up paying £1000 for them to sort it. My FiL has learnt to stop procrastinating 😅 Shocking price! What's more, the solicitors made so many mistakes and took forever to get it done.

My parents still haven't done theirs. Apparently my dad printed off the forms in 2013, and he still hasn't filled them in (I've told him to print updated ones!).

Both sets of parents are in their early 80s.

Well without knowing actual costs of not having one that’s just a guess to say it will save thousands really isn’t it? Not everything can be free all the time.

£92 is comparatively cheap. I have just spent over £4k with a solicitor going through a Deputyship Application for finances only.

Sure. But I'm in my forties and I definitely can't be bothered to spend £92 on a health and welfare LPA. I'd absolutely fill one in if it was free though. My husband's in his fifties. He'd do it if it was free. But our budget doesn't have £92 each in it. My father is in a care home costing the state an ABSOLUTE fortune (and has been for five years now - he's DNR but would not be alive if he had signed my parents's LPA (for clarity, I am talking about my mum and stepdad who have just done the LPA!)). My father would probably have filled one in. It literally pains me to think how much his care has cost and it has given him zero zero zero joy or anything else. It's just the maddest "saving" that potentially costs the state hundreds of thousands down the line.

Well looking at the country's NHS and social care bill, it's not a guess is it?

I don't understand why they've had to go x 2 to the GP? Sorry if I'm missing something.

I don't either TBH, but they have. They went in to discuss it and they have to go back to get it signed by a doctor too?

As far as I can see you don't need a doctor to witness/sign, just someone who's known you for 2 years. Pretty sure my in-laws didn't. However, you do need a Certificate Provider.
This is what Google says:
A certificate provider is an independent person who signs the LPA to certify that you understand what you are doing and that no one is pressuring you into making it.
Who can be a certificate provider?
In England, Wales, or Northern Ireland: It can be a professional (like a doctor, social worker, or solicitor) or someone who has known you personally for at least two years and is independent.

I've done both financial and health LPAs. Never went to a GP or asked GP anything, it wasn't necessary.

It sounds like they've used the GP as the certificate provider. Such a shame as extra cost and faff.

Ive had LPAs since my mid 50s and had to redo them last year due to a change in circumstances. Cost £160 for both financial and health.
Money well spent in my opinion. Depends what your priorities are.

Presumably they're using the GP as the form doner, who can actually be anybody known to you (but not a casual aquaintance or a relation), or a professional like a solicitor, doctor or chartered accountant, who signs the form to cerify that you know what you are doing and are not being coerced. I used a friend who I had known since my time at university. I expect the GP is going to charge as well, as it's not part of the NHS contract. Personally I think the financial POA is more important than the medical one.

GP is not needed.

It's good value, to be fair - it's just the process is very bureaucratic with lots of waiting etc. for things to be signed, approved etc. But FAR cheaper than asking a solicitor to do it, or using a solicitor if needed in the absence of an LPA.

I do think they should combine the two types of LPA, though.

I have shared LPA for both parents with my 2 sisters so that's 3 sets of forms for each parent for each of the medical and financial side. Plus I had to do a set for my fathers business affairs too! There must be a simpler way to do it?

And am I correct that the LPA can be ignored in some circumstances? I thought I had seen something in the media (might have been on mumsnet!) where someone carrying out their parents wishes - possibly DNR) was over ruled by the hospital?

We did ours recently- we just filled in the forms , sorted the witnesses and sent it off- didn’t need to talk to a GP?

We are early fifties and are just doing ours at the moment, after paying £450 to get proper solicitor done Will earlier this year and £150 odd for a civil partnership. Happy to pay for all this. After going through a year of paperwork sorting out someone's estate as executor and family court for the children as legal guardian (cost £500 odd) its money well spent imo to organise all this upfront and not put my children through what I've just been through, believe me!

Only positive is that I have doen so much paperwork and admin as an Executor and Guardian this year that the LPS process is now a doddle to me and Im doing the LPAs myself (no need to pay a solicitor imo).