The tip of the iceberg glimpsed through the fog
The short and accurate answer to this question is: we don’t know … But that would make for an uninteresting and unhelpful Blog.
So what do we know? Are UK government ministers correct in saying that abuse by LPA attorneys is ‘extremely rare’?
This blog post explores what estimates are available, and also speculates what new data or research might give us a better answer.
Numbers from the OPG
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), which is the government agency (in England and Wales) that registers and oversees Lasting Power of Attorney, also has a function to investigate safeguarding concerns about an LPA attorney abusing the donor.
Each year, the OPG receives thousands of referrals of concerns about LPA attorneys (or about Deputies). In the 2022-23 reporting year, nearly 8,000 referrals were made (response to FOI request). However, only between a quarter and a third of these get fully investigated, and even fewer lead to Court of Protection action (that might lead to the LPA being revoked).
The graph below (using data in the OPG annual reports and FOI requests) shows that the number of these referrals and investigations have been increasing substantially year on year. The number of investigations increased 28% between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Nearly all of these referrals relate to LPAs (rather than Deputies, which are also overseen by the OPG).
Data from national Helplines
Another important possible source of data is the information collected from helplines for victims of abuse. The national elder abuse charity, Hourglass, runs a 24/7 telephone helpline (including the option to contact them by text or chatting online).
Of the concerns about abuse raised with the Hourglass helpline between 2019 and 2024, some 1,066 involved LPA attorneys and victims; furthermore, of the 3,436 that mentioned Lasting Power of Attorney, 2,251 ‘related to suspected economic abuse’ (i.e. financial abuse). [Source: Hourglass, reported in Hansard, 12 November 2024].
However, these are likely to be underestimates – both because LPA abuse is not directly asked about on these calls, and because even when abuse is suspected, concerned relatives or members of the public may instead call Citizens Advice (Advicelink), Age UK, the Alzheimer’s Society‘s Dementia Support Line or their local social services adult safeguarding team. Also, witnesses of abuse may not know whether the alleged abuser has gained LPA powers over the person being abused.
For various reasons, these figures from the OPG and from helplines are very likely a gross underestimate of the true scale of abuse by LPA attorneys.
Firstly, many suspicions or allegations of LPA abuse (especially financial abuse) do not arise until after the death of the donor – for example, when executors of the donor’s Will try to determine what money and assets should be in the estate. In these cases, the OPG no longer has responsibility or jurisdiction to investigate.
Secondly, even if abuse by an LPA attorney is witnessed or suspected while the donor is alive, the OPG will only investigate particular types of abuse AND if the donor has lost mental capcity. While there are at least eight different types of elder abuse, and all would breach one or more duties of an LPA attorney, in practice the OPG will only investigate the attorney’s specific actions towards the donor – not any other person. Consequently, in general the OPG only investigates allegations of financial abuse or physical abuse [source: personal correspondence with OPG].
For example, if an abusing LPA attorney prevents the donor from seeing family members or friends, or prevents the donor from speaking for themselves e.g. by taking their phone away (both recognised forms of family abuse), reports of victims and concerned loved ones suggest that these forms of abuse are not usually investigated by the OPG. The official description of how the OPG investigates safeguarding concerns is here.
Thirdly, the type of abuse that the OPG most commonly investigates – financial abuse by the attorney – requires clear evidence of the amounts taken or misspent, and precise dates and times. Yet this is usually information only the attorney typically has access to (and has complete control over).
This ‘Catch-22’ – that when the abuser is also the victim’s LPA attorney for finances, they completely control access to the evidence that would show their abuse – lies at the heart of the hidden nature of abuse by LPA attorneys.
Finally – perhaps most obviously – given that many donors will have lost mental capacity, they will typically be unable to recognise and report abuse by their LPA attorney themselves.
It is likely that many real instances of abuse by LPA attorneys never get reported to or recorded by the OPG. In any case, the Annual Reports of OPG (for England and Wales) no longer report how many safeguarding concerns are raised with them; it only reports the annual number that warranted a full investigation. Furthermore the OPG does not report the reasons for not pursuing a full investigation. It is not known how many were deemed to fall outside the OPG’s legal jurisdiction, whether there was deemed to be insufficient evidence for them to investigate, or how many were referred to other agencies (police, social services).
Summary and next steps for obtaining better estimates
At best, the number of safeguarding cases reported by the OPG or concerns about abuse captured by telephone helplines are likely a significant under-estimate of the true scale of abuse by LPA attorneys. What is more, all indications are that the numbers are increasing – unsurprisingly, given that there are now over 8 million LPAs registered with the OPG (just in England and Wales).
It seems reasonable to believe that the vast majority LPA attorneys act with honesty, kindness, competence – and genuine commitment to the specific duties and responsibilities that they agreed to undertake. At the same time, there seems little justification for government ministers repeatedly claiming that LPA abuse is ‘extremely rare’.
Moreover the presumption of the rarity of abuse by LPA attorneys may compound the hidden nature of the problem, as well as perpetuate government inaction to increase safeguards that could better protect donors.
So where can better estimates of the true scale of LPA abuse come from?
It is probably inevitable that abuse by LPA attorneys comes to light in different ways, and is reported to different agencies. This is the core challenge of identifying all instances of abuse. However, better data (and therefore understanding) of abuse by LPA attorneys might come from:
- The OPG (and equivalent agencies in Scotland and N Ireland) collecting AND reporting minimum data on those referrals with safeguarding concerns that are not fully investgated (due to reasons of lack of evidence, or being beyond remit and/or referred to other public agencies).
- National telephone helplines, such as those for elder abuse/dementia or older people, having a standard approach to recording concerns/allegations of abuse – including a ‘flag’ when the suspected perpetrator is in a position of trust such as an LPA attorney, Deputy or a solicitior. This would be a first step towards potentially combining (anonymously) such data, to get more accurate estimates of this issue.
- A new national survey of the experience of abuse by adults, for example by the Office of National Statistics. The last such survey was conducted in 2006 – and showed a prevalence of 2.6% of adults aged 66 and over living in private households reporting that they had experienced mistreatment* during the past year (*involving a family member, close friend or care worker, i.e. those in a traditional expectation of trust relationship; but the sample excluded those with living with severe dementia or livining in residential care) [O’Keefe et al. 2007]
- More detailed analysis of (Care Act) Section 42 referrals. A Section 42 safeguarding referral is a formal investigation into an adult’s potential abuse or neglect. It is triggered when a local authority has reason to believe an adult with care needs is at risk of abuse or neglect. Current reporting (by NHS England) shows how many enquiries involved an adult at risk who lacked mental capacity (56,495 in England, or 34% of all S42 enquiries). Also, for concluded S42 enquiries in which the source of the risk was someone known to the individual the leading types of abuse were: Neglect and acts of omission (22,875 enquiries), Physical abuse (22,570) and Financial abuse (21,445). However, there is currently no separate reporting of enquiries where the source of the risk was a person’s LPA attorney.
AbuseByLPAs.net 
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