I remember reading a guardian article about a lady in the US who had enormous problems when her identity got mixed up. It stated that this wouldn't happen here. Well it does, is worse, and in our case been going on for nearly 30 years with arrests, money taken from benefits to repay fines, bailiffs, and most recently, this week, carer's allowance being stopped as "he is in prison". He has no criminal record or debts. He's had to make a declaration to the court that it's not him, had the property surrounded by 6 policemen because there is a warrant for "his" arrest, been arrested several times for this other person that has an extensive criminal record. He's pleaded his innocence and the mix-up to police that respond by saying "that's what everybody says" until the fingerprint is checked. He looks nothing like this other person: height, tattoos etc. He's been told, by police, to always have his passport with him and he was given a letter, from police head of data, that he was not to be mixed up with this other person. Yet that doesn't stop his carer's allowance being stopped and they still have money for him that they took several years ago.
What can be done?
It needs to be stopped. It's causing a massive mental toll not to mention the time it takes to deal with. Everyone blames someone else, e.g. police blame the court services but no-one deals with it. In the past our former MP was involved. Solicitors have been spoken to but it's so complex no one wants to touch it.