...to check the century.

[LurkingHusband]

Just had a call from DS. He needs his original birth certificate to post to DWP in respect of his housing benefit claim.

Why ? For the love of God why ? Why does one government department need to see the original (they could have a zillion emailed PDF copies I have) of a document issued by another government department by post in the twenty-first century ?

Or, to be more exact, Why does one government department need to see the original of a document which proves the square root of fuck all issued by another government department by post in the twenty-first century ?

Check the facts. I reckon your DS has made an oversight. Never heard of posting an original certificate for HB before.

normally you take them in and they copy them( a few years back this was)

Try applying for a mortgage nowadays if you think that is bad.

Ah, not impossible ... he's a little wooly at times . I know very little about HB ... my last encounter was in 1988 when I claimed it as a student - the last year you could, as I recall.

I think it can be a reissued bc, just not a copy.

So it can't be altered if its an original. That's the thinking anyways

Try doing anything with the DVLA. The last couple of years I have had to change my name and change my address twice. It was bloody easier actually getting married and moving house.

Funnily enough we applied for a mortgage last year, as we needed a new roof. The funniest thing was the need for a surveyor to come out ...

(I suspect - and you can bet it won't have made news - that some lenders somewhere in the past few years managed to lend money for mortgages on "properties" that don't exist. They only realise when they go to repossess.)

Will they not accept a 'Certified Copy'?

www.gov.uk/certifying-a-document

I'm doubting it's as extreme as lending money on houses that don't exist, but a lender isn't going to willingly lend more money than a property will be worth after the work they're funding is done.

It's awful. I had to submit my original marriage certificate (for which my Ex and I had paid) when I went for a divorce. It had to be the original with - obviously - original signatures. 20 years after the divorce and I thought I'd try to get the original back for a 'family history' project. Yes - I was told - I could have it for £40. For heaven's sake, I'd already paid for it in the beginning....

But who cares if it's altered or not ? The data is held by the government. Conveniently under my DSs name too. Rather than trust the claimant to provide the correct details, why not check what the claimant is telling you, with data you already have.

As a PP suggested, I need to check my facts. Although it's a damning indictment on my opinions of government that I could take the original issue at face value.

You could clain in 1989 as I remember living on fresh air in a mouldy basement waiting for it in my 2nd year. Not helpful on the bc front though.
That's because no one has quite figured out how to magic all the data together or how to pay for the work to do it safely.

There's no problem sourcing the document at the moment (that may change, if/when it gets lost in the post ). My AIBU is to expect things to be a bit different in 2015 - even for something as sclerotic and unfit for purpose as a government department.

Bear in mind, these are the same bright sparks that are working on Universal Credit. If their systems still can't work wit each other over something as pathetically basic as a birth certificate, how on earth are they going to deal with the 20,000,000+ changes a week to the records needed to make UC work ?

Your birth certificate is of course just a certified copy of the original entry, made by the Registrar, in any case. It's the original entry that counts and that's why they can run you off a thousand copies (at a price) if you so desire which are all equally official.

I have discovered that when they indexed the Registers (no doubt by candlelight and clerk back in the 1970s), they missed me off the index. I have pointed this out before but no one seems to have done an official correction. This means that although I have an original birth certificate, if someone tries to go to the Register index I apparently don't exist. They would have to go to the original Register in the archives somewhere I can give them the entry number and page number and lo and behold, there I am. But the index doesn't show me. I'll probably get deported one of these days.

HBrequirements

Check the link out OP, your DS will need to prove his identity but it doesn't have to be original BC.

Interesting pinkyredrose, thanks.

No prob