How quickly do the DVLA act on concerns about unfit drivers?

What if your MIL found out it was you?. She won;t anyway because all such reports to the DVLA are confidential.

Do you really want to have anything to do with her at all given how selfish she is and has been most of her entire life?. She won't be much of an example to your as yet unborn child.

Wtf?

If she can't manage the step into the shower how the hell will she be able to lift her foot onto the brake pedal in an emergency?

My mum had a chap drive right through her garden a few years ago, turns out he'd been having seizures and was still driving. Was subsequently told he absolutely couldn't drive but he still did, had an identical accident and died as a result.

I would have zero qualms about confiscating car keys in OP's case.

I emailed the consultant my Dad was under, I had been to all his appointments with him. (He had been told he couldnt drive for a year i think, in the first instance). I cant remember if she raised it at the next appointment, or whether she wrote to the dvla.

Weeks. Even with medical evidence and the concerns raised specifically from the consultant.

I used to have to report to the DVLA on the regular. I spoke to them once, and they advised if the individual won't listen to medical advice the best thing to do is wait until they are in the car and then call the police, tell them someone is driving against medical orders and give the reg plate and likely route.

Why isn't your dh dealing with HIS mum?

I reported DF in November as their gardener said he had reversed into their cart a number of times ( clearly it was too much to expect him to report it) but he was keen to tell me that DF shouldn’t be driving.
The letter came through last week, he’s already in a care home and hasn’t driven since the doctor told him not to in December.
it was a long form for him to fill
in, I tried to ring up to say he had relinquished his license but they wanted me to fill in a long form and email it so I will probably just wait for them to cancel it.
As with most things relating to elderly people family is expected to do everything and castigated if they don’t and authorities very reluctant to help in any way. I had to beg the GP to tell DF he couldn’t drive after hospital admission. He clearly had dementia but because he hadn’t been to memory clinic ( many months wait) it wasn’t officially diagnosed.

@WhatAMarvelousTune Thank you I appreciate that. I just wish there was a way of them acting as though “this is routine because of your age/health/medical conditions”. If they know they’ve been reported, even anonymously, it would be incredibly obvious where it came from.

In my experience, they received two letters about the two reports the DVLA had received about them. But they have no idea who reported them. They assume two neighbours, but I’m not a neighbour and I don’t know who the other person was.

You are being told by multiple people with experience, myself included, that those external services you seem to put so much faith in are UNRELIABLE. So don't rely on them. They aren't going to suddenly step up because your MIL has issues. They should act, of course, but they won't.

There is no alternative but to be proactive yourselves if you want to ensure that MIL cannot go out and drive. In the time it takes for external agencies to act she could have gone out and run over someone.

YOU are being quite rude here.

Just jumping on this if I can as in a similar situation. Very concerned about cognitive decline and worsening eyesight in a certain individual. Pretty sure we are on the road to Alzheimer’s too but it’s a really sensitive situation.

If you report to the DVLA or GP is the person made aware that someone has reported it - or can it be made out that due to a number of hospital referrals etc this is standard follow up?

That’s not what happened in my experience.

I reported someone, they were also reported by another person. They got a letter, but they weren’t assessed by anyone - they just had to confirm they didn’t have any medical conditions that disqualified them from driving, which they didn’t. And then it went away. They absolutely should not have been driving, and they crashed their car (into another car) so badly it was written off a few weeks later. Thankfully, this incident, combined with very strong words from their son, has persuaded them not to drive anymore.

There isn't external help. No one else can go and take keys or let down tyres or do connect batteries. Your DH could leave you in the company of a friend or relative who can support you for a few hours and take you to hospital if you need it. Or you pay for a carer to come and sit with you for the time it takes him.

DVLA are a slow moving government agency. They cannot manage this as an urgent process.

You can contact her GP and tell them about both the state of the house and the driving concerns.

I'd also suggest you report the same issues to police via the 101 online service for her area and give them the number plate and her details as well as describing the squalor.

You could also contact her car insurance company if you know them and raise the issues of her health with them.

You need to speak to social services about the state of the house and the MH of both occupants. Plus their inability to keep themselves healthy, resulting in her most recent hospital trip - your other thread I think said she'd been very unwell for days and her other son didn't recognise it as an issue?

Also if it's a hoarding situation, please speak to the fire service for her area - they can make checks and look to manage the risks if they are called their in future.

If, after all is said and done they both wish to live in their own faeces and cannot be stopped driving, at least you'll both know you've done all you can.

Indeed 😂

“Please don’t respond if you aren’t going to be kind and caring”

lol the irony.

Rude poster? Several PP have made exactly the same argument.

And if your MIL runs over and kills someone else’s baby in the meantime? Others have already explained how slowly the state’s bureaucracy works here; for the sake of the safety of others, you’re going to have to be proactive, even if that means your husband leaving you alone for a couple of hours.

My experience is, unfortunately, that the DVLA can be very slow to act.

Last August we notified them, as we were required to do, that my DH had just been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. At Christmas we got an acknowledgement of our report but nothing else.

In March this year my DH died. He'd been getting worse for weeks and hadn't driven for a long time anyway. It was after his death, and after we had also used the Tell Us Once service to inform all government departments that the DVLA, in their wisdom, informed us that they were writing to his neurology consultant for advice on whether or not he could be considered medically fit to drive!! They did this two or three more times too.

My eldest daughter eventually phoned them, pointed out the Tell Us Once notification (which they already had, they had even cancelled his licence too) and suggested that they drop it.

So, I have to say, I have very little faith that you will get what you need from the DVLA. Not for a pretty long time anyway.

You'll have to take your MIL's keys from her, or disconnect the battery.