Bloody officialdom....

[Phil Pascoe]

Same here. I renewed mine last year at about the same time (October) and the whole process took less than a week. It amazes me that every year people are surprised that the waiting time is much longer just before the holiday season starts.

Actually, it amazes me less each year, as it becomes clearer how many stupid people there are.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then imagine that half the people are stupider than that!" - George Carlin

 

[pgrbff]

Had a reminder to renew my driving licence yesterday.
"Save time, do it online!" suggested the document, adding "Having your driving licence, national insurance number and passport (if you have one) details will help your online application".
Note the "if you have one" bit...

So, name and address completed, date of birth, place of birth, mother's maiden name, driving licence number, NI number...then came to the passport question. I haven't got one.
Well, I have, but it's expired.

The form says "press next" if you haven't got one.....so I did.....and that's when it confirmed that the system couldn't confirm my identity.
A bit of swearing on my part, before I started again, this time filling in the expired passport number. After all, it doesn't actually state that it must be current....
Same result.

So even though the system knows my full name, address, birth date and place, my NI, my mother's maiden name, and the fact that I'd once had a passport (for which I must've proved who I was, perhaps even with a copy birth certificate?), the system doesn't know who I am....

Apparently I now have no option to apply by post, once I've managed to buy some new photo's somewhere.

What a waste of bleediin' time....

You want to come and live in Italy where renewing your licence involves paying an agency, your GP and a doctor at the agency to do nothing but tick a form. You have to make at least one trip by car and do it every 5 years I think. The DVLA equivalent is regional and the guy sitting behind the desk decides what hoops you have to jump through even if they totally contradict the Ministry instructions. You don't know how good you have it.

 

[llywmog]

I detest any form of site or officialdom who assume that you either have a passport or a driving licence with a photo. In fact, I will go out of my way to make them go through hoops to find a way to accept I am who I am. Not for my sake but for all the other poor sods out there who have neither.

Similar thing happened during the Covid pandemic and getting Wimbledon tickets. You needed to provide proof that you had an up-to-date vaccination. I was on a vaccine trial and the trial system wasn't joined up with the NHS Covid Pass system. Ergo no Wimbledon ticket. I politely asked why were they discriminating against people taking part in the vaccine trial. They changed the rules.

I also hate sites that assume you have a mobile phone because even if you have one, out in the sticks the mobile signal can be useless.

Good reason for us to have identity cards. One form of ID - no need for a passport or driving license etc and everyone would have one.

And before anyone replies about not wanting to give up information or worries about loss of freedom and rights, just remember that people already other forms of ID (like passports and driving licenses) and majority freely give up their data when they sign up to social media sites including this one.

 

[akirk]

DVLA renewals are normally easy, but there is a new twist. When you applied for an old EU style passport you submitted your signature which was held by the passport office, printed on the passport and could be accessed by DVLA to print in your driving licence. The new proud to be British blue one (which we could have had all along, Denmark is an example) arrives unsigned and you sign it on receipt. That means the passport office doesn't have an electronic version of your signature, so DVLA can't access it, so you have to apply for a driving licence by post. If you had an old passport and renewed before it expired it might still work, or it might not. If you applied for a new blue one from the start it won't. This came as a surprise to DVLA, after all why should the Home Office tell the Dept of Transport that their previously linked systems would no longer work. DVLA are trying to find a workaround with no sense of urgency and are facing an unexpected surge in postal applications. Another Brexit bonus.

All correct
but not sure that has anything to do with Brexit - I would assume that incompetent civil servants who can't do joined up thinking existed pre and post brexit

 

[stuart little]

You didn't provide your inside leg measurement.

Nor hat size!

 

[stuart little]

Had a reminder to renew my driving licence yesterday.
"Save time, do it online!" suggested the document, adding "Having your driving licence, national insurance number and passport (if you have one) details will help your online application".
Note the "if you have one" bit...

So, name and address completed, date of birth, place of birth, mother's maiden name, driving licence number, NI number...then came to the passport question. I haven't got one.
Well, I have, but it's expired.

The form says "press next" if you haven't got one.....so I did.....and that's when it confirmed that the system couldn't confirm my identity.
A bit of swearing on my part, before I started again, this time filling in the expired passport number. After all, it doesn't actually state that it must be current....
Same result.

So even though the system knows my full name, address, birth date and place, my NI, my mother's maiden name, and the fact that I'd once had a passport (for which I must've proved who I was, perhaps even with a copy birth certificate?), the system doesn't know who I am....

Apparently I now have no option to apply by post, once I've managed to buy some new photo's somewhere.

What a waste of bleediin' time....

Just like 'ebay'.!

 

[pgrbff]

Good reason for us to have identity cards. One form of ID - no need for a passport or driving license etc and everyone would have one.

And before anyone replies about not wanting to give up information or worries about loss of freedom and rights, just remember that people already other forms of ID (like passports and driving licenses) and majority freely give up their data when they sign up to social media sites including this one.

I have not renewed my Italian identity card as you now have to be fingerprinted. How many in the UK would agree to be fingerprinted for ID?

 

[Fordgate1]

Have had no problems in renewing OAP driving licences or passports. If budgets are cut, there are staff cuts and cheaper computer programmes bought. Not "bloody" officials.

 

[Richard_C]

All correct
but not sure that has anything to do with Brexit

Had it not been for Brexit and the wholly wrong and irrelevant jingoism from Johnson, Rees Mogg and others about having our own very special blue passports which we could have had all along, the passport office would still be operating as they had for 40+ years and the disconnect wouldn't have happened.

The rush to post Brexit symbolism (after all there was precious little else to show off about apart from queues at borders) meant a botched implementation. The passports themselves are produced under contract by Thales, a French service provider, and most are printed in their facility in Poland. Good job there's no import duty to pay on printed goods, but the corporation tax income on the profits from the service contract go to the exchequer in France and Poland, as you would expect. Johnson never painted that on the side of a bus.

I'm sure we all feel better now and glad to be free of such nonsense as a system that worked.

 

[RogerS]

Just like 'ebay'.!

Ah, eBay. Who a year or so ago changed the order confirmation email from "You've ordered a Forstner drill set" which is eminently useful when browsing down the email list to this utterly stupid and effing pointless rubbish

 

[Spectric]

I have not renewed my Italian identity card as you now have to be fingerprinted. How many in the UK would agree to be fingerprinted for ID?

Only those with nothing to hide or not involved in criminality, an ID card would be really good as it would simplify so much but going by previous government IT catastrophes it is something way beyond any chance of a successful delivery.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I'm sure we all feel better now and glad to be free of such nonsense as a system that worked.

Did you read the comments about Italy earlier in the thread?

 

[Cozzer]

Have had no problems in renewing OAP driving licences or passports. If budgets are cut, there are staff cuts and cheaper computer programmes bought. Not "bloody" officials.

My point still exists, though.
If you aren't in possession of a current passport, there's absolutely no point in wasting your time doing it "online".
If "they" can't trace me from name/address/NI/DOB/birthplace/driver number/mother's info, God help us.
Bet they'd soon find me and stop the pension if I snuffed it tomorrow, though....

 

[Terry Kiely]

I changed my DL picture a year ago and was promised I'd be able to update online from now on....

Tried to change address and went through this whole thing like OP...

I do not have nor need a passport!! or maybe now I do it seems!? grrr

 

[Mikebart]

I changed my DL picture a year ago and was promised I'd be able to update online from now on....

Tried to change address and went through this whole thing like OP...

I do not have nor need a passport!! or maybe now I do it seems!? grrr

Sign of the times.
We got a gas bill for 16days usage of £3830 spent all day on the phone with British Gas before they sent the correct bill for £60.
My stepson got a request from the Dept of Work and pensions that if he didn’t start paying his loan of £3600 he would be taken to court. He has never had any loan from the DWP. When he eventually got through to the DWP he was told it must be a mistake don’t worry about it.
As he used to be a bank manager he knew how to check any outstanding loans on his name and a credit check on himself.
Any system is only as good as its designer or its implementation.
Welcome to the modern world.

 

[Cozzer]

The saga continues....
To save a trip to the town bigger town - and parking therein - I thought I'd source out a photo machine locally...if indeed there is one.
"Ah", said a pal, "The local sports centre has one. It makes sense, because you have to have a photo ID to become a member..."
You'll probably guess what's coming.
"No. We used to have one, but that was years ago...have you tried the post office?"
You can never park anywhere near our PO, so I paid £2.00 at the local rail station car park, and hoofed it.
"It's out of order, I'm afraid. It's actually nothing to do with us. We reported it being faulty a week ago, but nobody's been yet....Have you tried the sports centre?"
I put them right about the sports centre, before he added "Do Sainsburys have one? Near the coin change machine?"
Back to the station car park, drove to the nearest Sainsburys.
Yes! Yes, they have one! Out of interest, how much is it?
The poster outside informed me how marvellous a machine it was for all sorts of ID photo's....everything, in fact, except the cost. I'll add that the cost isn't an issue as such, but I'd only got a few pound coins and the odd fiver on me at the time...
Eased the entry curtain back. Still no price displayed.
Or, in fact, a coin slot.
Payment by card only.
Tapped my wallet pocket....that's OK, I have it.
Hang on, though....there's no card slot either.
You're ahead of me, aren't you?
You can only pay - and I've still no idea how much - by using the contactless facility.
And my card doesn't have the required symbol.

There's just 2 hours of my life I'll not get back.

 

[Geoff_S]

Just sell your car

 

[Cozzer]

Just sell your car

...or drive without a licence.
From what you read, enough folk do.
But what if I want to join the sports centre?!

 

[Geoff_S]

...or drive without a licence.
From what you read, enough folk do.
But what if I want to join the sports centre?!

Well, if you sell your car, you’ll be doing a lot more walking so won’t need to join the sports centre.

No no, don’t thank me, you’re welcome

 

[Terry - Somerset]

This is nothing (or at least not very much) to do with officialdom or stupidity - it is the Meldrew syndrome, better known as growing old.

The world moves on and we don't. My grandfather never learned to drive despite being able to comfortably afford a car. For my parents, programming a video recorder was a complex task best left to the kids.

My current gripes - apps - particularly parking. My brain is full up with irrelevant data and skills accumulated over decades leaving little room for anything new.

But the sad reality is that the days of real money are numbered, and interaction with the rest of the world relies upon the interweb. Fail to adapt and you will be marginalised.