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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think ID cards would have been a good thing

35 replies

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:11

Because then sodding royal mail and van hire companies wouldn't demand utility bills as proof of address.

I don't get paper bills aside from my council tax bill and seeing as they want one that's less than 8 weeks old it's ruled that out. I have a passport, credit card and driving licence and still they're insisting on documents at 10 year old could forge on a computer if they wished.

ID cards would be so much simpler
Because then sodding royal mail and van hire companies wouldn't demand utility bills as proof of address.

ID cards would be so much simpler

OP posts:

AgentZigzag · 25/08/2011 14:13

You'd give up all your civil liberties so you can get a parcel easier?

Fucking ridiculous.

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:21

I don't see ID cards as giving up civil liberties.

OP posts:

NotJustKangaskhan · 25/08/2011 14:33

They likely wouldn't take it as proof of address if they don't take a driver's license as one.

Am also very confused as I deal with a lot of packages and I have never been asked for proof of address from posties or other people. Surely not often enough that I'd allow the government to put in such a discriminatory piece of legislation.

Helenagrace · 25/08/2011 14:33

You might wonder what you've given up when the reader spits out your ID card and, as this is the gold standard for ID, nothing else is acceptable, leaving you without ID while some civil servant somewhere takes weeks to sort it out.

Or maybe when someone clones your ID card and helps themselves to your identity.

Or when some halfwit in a government department puts the data on a memory stick, which disappears in the post, leaving you wondering just who now has your life story and identity.

Or maybe you could just ponder whether we have a spare £500 bn to spend on ID cards so you can get your parcel easier.

ID cards won't actually have your address on so you'll still need to produce something that links you to the actual property.

For so many reasons ID cards are a stupid idea but I think this might just be the stupidest reason ever for introducing them.

gazzalw · 25/08/2011 14:34

Just get the things redelivered to your house or office....And if you've got a credit card with your name on it how likely is it that it's not you? You must be getting a Jobsworth!

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:35

This is proof of address for mail redirection as we're moving house.

OP posts:

cardibach · 25/08/2011 14:37

As far as I remember the ROyal Mail ask for photo ID to collect a parcel. Mine don't, actually, they usually accept the card they put through the box, but I'm sure that's what it says.

Odd posties round your way...

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:41

It's not about collecting a parcel. It's about getting mail redirected for a month to ensure nothing important gets sent to an address where somebody else is now living.

OP posts:

OddBoots · 25/08/2011 14:41

If they won't take a driving licence or passport they'd not take an ID card - the problem is with the re-direction rules not with ID cards.

malinois · 25/08/2011 14:46

The scrapped UK ID cards didn't have your address on them so they would not have been any use in this case.

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:49

They'll take them as one form of identification but still require another.

And despite being able to hire vehicles abroad with just a passport, licence and credit card apparently I need recent utility bills to hire a van in this country.

They'll take them as one form of identification but still require another.

And despite being able to hire vehicles abroad with just a passport, licence and credit card apparently I need recent utility bills to hire a van in this country.

OP posts:

eurochick · 25/08/2011 14:51

This is going to become problematic with the move to paperless billing. But as others have said, ID cards would not help in this situation and I wouldn't want them even if they would.

Can't you just ask your utility co to send you a letter confirming you are moving out or something?

LemonDifficult · 25/08/2011 14:53

YABU. They weren't going to be free. And it's not like most people (or the government) have much cash going spare right now.

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 14:55

I understood that the ID cards were linked to an address (even if not displayed on the card itself) unlike a passport, perhaps I was mistaken?

OP posts:

Xales · 25/08/2011 15:07

I wouldn't trust a UK government body as far as I could throw them to actually sort out a safe ID card.

It is just an additional form of identification when most people have quite a few already floating around in a draw readily available for any burgler.

They would be stolen, forged or cloned etc in no time. You would then have to prove who you were by some other methods to get it cancelled and a new one (with all your same ID on it again) reissued.

If they stop working you are buggered until you get a replacement.

You would have to pay out for replacements every 10 years like driving license and passports involving figuring out who can sign it for you or paying the Dr a fortune for the pleasure. Or when ever you lost one.

Some incompetent idiot would leave the data base on a train.

They would eventually sell off the list to make a few ££ just like the DVLA or the local councils.

You would have to enforce it with fines like the council lists, have that monitored, maintained by underpaid, understaffed people like the CSA or working tax credits.

Then it would be palmed off on some revenue making company to take over who would not have had to pay any of the initial set up costs which would be astronomic but would take any profits from them for the future.

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 15:13

There's got to be a better way than utility bills though. They're hardly the most secure of documents

OP posts:

coppertop · 25/08/2011 15:13

Many places will only accept either a passport or a driving licence as ID. If you don't drive and don't go abroad it can be very difficult. In those circumstances ID cards would be useful but as they were going to cost a small fortune anyway then people would've been no better off than if they'd just applied for a passport.

As others have said though, it would make no difference when it comes to proving where you live.

mousymouse · 25/08/2011 15:22

YANBU, other european countries have ID cards in addition to passports and it works very well (germany, italy as examples).
for travel within europe the ID card would be enough which would be much much cheaper than having a full passport.

woollyideas · 25/08/2011 15:22

YABU. ID cards were an awful proposition.

malinois · 25/08/2011 15:27

tyler80 your address would have been stored on the central government ID database, not the card itself. So unless every post office was given access to a highly secure (one would hope) government database, it would not have been any good as proof of ID.

The entire system was a complete joke and even disregarding the civil liberties issues, it was simply a way of giving 18 BILLION pounds to the usual list of rip-off artists: CSC, IBM GS, Atos, CapGemini etc.

malinois · 25/08/2011 15:28

duh, meant as proof of address

malinois · 25/08/2011 15:29

mousymouse what was proposed for the UK was nothing like the ID cards used in France and Germany. In fact the ID cards were fairly peripheral to the whole project, the key component was the ID database.

nocake · 25/08/2011 15:36

The government has a terrible record of holding personal data securely. Just think of the damage they could do with a database holding the details of every person in the country. It makes me go cold just thinking about it.

malinois · 25/08/2011 15:39

Looking back on it, it really was madness. Did they really expect every single person in the country, all 60-odd million of us, to report to 'ID Centres' to have our fingerprints and retina scans taken?

Original poster

tyler80 · 25/08/2011 15:50

Other countries manage. In Denmark everyone is issued with a personal identification number. So is it the UK is too big, or too inefficient or what?Other countries manage. In Denmark everyone is issued with a personal identification number. So is it the UK is too big, or too inefficient or what?

OP posts:

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