Extension or Permanent Waiver of Application Fee for Lasting Power of Attorney Form 1

33 Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether the Ministry intends to further extend or permanently waive the application fee for the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Form 1 beyond the 31 August 2018 extension; and (b) how many new LPA Form 1 applications have been received by the Office of the Public Guardian since the August 2016 announcement of the extended fee waiver for LPA Form 1 applications for Singaporeans.

Mr Desmond Lee: More Singaporeans are taking steps to safeguard their future by making a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). The LPA empowers a person to appoint someone reliable and trustworthy to act on his behalf should he lose the capacity to make decisions.

We first waived the LPA Form 1 application fee from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2016. We subsequently extended the fee waiver from 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2018. From 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2017, we have received 11,503 unique LPA Form 1 applications.

We are currently studying how effective the application fee waiver and other measures have been, so far, in encouraging people to make their LPAs early.