When I took out Legal Power of Attorney for my aged aunt, the process required my witnessed signature along with the witnessed signature of at least two other people, which is important because it's a legal document.
Taking over my aunt’s affairs has elicited a bit of bureaucracy from some banks, and councils. However, the Pension Service is bureaucratic par excellence, because before accepting the registered power of attorney the Pension Service insisted it required my National Insurance number.
I can’t understand why the Service needs my NI number, when it's got the witnessed LPA and because there’s nothing to stop the LPA being held by someone who doesn’t work or live in England, or it could be held by a professional, such as a lawyer working for a large organisation.
Sadly, the Pension Service has already proved its intrusion into my affairs by now writing to me, not under the name in which I registered the LPA and that I use for almost all my affairs, and the name I used when I wrote to the service but under my married name. This proves the Pension Service has accessed information about me when it should be concerned only with information about my aunt.
Joined up government might be a worthy aspiration but this is inappropriate, intrusive joined up government that implies spying and surveillance of its citizens.
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