‘If I am no longer alive by July 15, could someone kindly return my cheques?’

Ginny Besley, 78, a widow, who lives in Suffolk, posted her application for her children to be given powers of attorney in February.

She paid the £164 application fee for two documents – to cover healthcare issues and finances – sent them first class and waited. And waited. She heard nothing and no sign of a payment being taken from her bank account. She rang the helpline and got the recorded message telling her to expect to wait 20 weeks. Mrs Besley wrote to The Daily Telegraph complaining: “If I am no longer alive by July 15 and someone is going into the [OPG] office, could they kindly return my cheques?”

She received a letter “following your letter in The Daily Telegraph” from Stuart Moore, a senior member of the leadership team, in which he wrote: “I’m sorry for the length of time it’s taken to process your applications and contact you.” Mr Moore said front-line staff had been in its offices to process applications but that the OPG’S “capacity was reduced as we adhered to social distancing rules”.

He said an increase in applications had “added to our existing backlogs”.

Mrs Besley said: “The pandemic is essentially behind us but there must be an awful lot of people who have got awfully used to working from home.”