Getting frustrated to be needing photo ID.

[Soubriquet]

I don’t have a drivers license as I don’t drive. I don’t have a passport as I can’t afford to travel. I also never bothered with photo ID because I don’t drink or smoke.

This seems to be changing lately. Birth certificate and marriage certificates aren’t enough. More places require a photo ID which is a pita for me as it’s an expense I shouldn’t have to fork out for.

Yes, I know it’s better for security and stuff but it’s annoying.

Considering all the things that are impossible or at least very difficult to do without photo id I find it weird that some people seem to think it’s something to be proud of.

2021, so definitely not the dark ages

That is not for you to comment on rudely. Bet YOU don’t have a full life full of photographic evidence. You protest too much. 😆

I think some people have genuinely not needed photo ID until now though. I have been in my job a long time and never needed photo ID to get the job. While I do have photo ID I have rarely needed to use it - mainly for travelling and as DD's guarantor.

I am far too old to need ID for bars, and TBH I don't frequent those kind of places anyway, and I haven't been to any other kind of venue that requires ID for many years.

I call bs

Most of the things that people claim you "have to have photo ID for" you actually don't. Yes it makes it easier if you've got photo ID. But almost all of those things are possible with a combo of BC/NI number/CT bill/benefit statement.

Then I would be incredibly concerned about both your lender and your solicitor. They are in breach of anti-money laundering regulations and ultimately, if both a lender and a solicitor were willing to collude in misrepresentation I’d have huge reservations about the legitimacy of the transaction. Certainly check your house deeds.

There is often another way, eg instead of passport or dl and 1 recent bill you'd need 8 bills and council tax.

When then clearly it’s becoming less and less of a mystery how you’ve managed so long without one. But you much realise that your situation isn’t the norm?

The lender is the bank I have been with for over a decade, solicitor had an additional form to fill in for checks and it's all good.

Either your solicitor and mortgage broker broke the law or you provided them with other documents to help prove your identity/address along with them doing some kind of online electronic identity check (which links to other databases such as passport, driving licence, banks, utilities, voting register, etc). One way or another your identity will have been checked otherwise the solicitor/mortgage broker risks a hefty fine, maybe prison sentence and almost certainly being banned from their professional body! You may well find that one of the disbursements you were charged (plus additional time costs), was to do alternative identity proving procedures that you could have avoided by providing them with photo id!

Yes, if you're legitimate, there's always a way to prove ID/address, but usually at a cost. Some organisations/businesses will charge more if they have to do additional checks, etc., simply because of the extra time they have to spend, added to the cost of online electronic ID checks. Some organisations simply don't want the risk and hassle, so will only accept official photo id - their philosophy would be best to lose a client rather than face risk of non compliance and/or additional costs to them. I've certainly seen solicitors charge an extra £50 on a property completion statement for ID checking!

It's quicker and simpler just to produce photo id. It cuts the timescales, cuts the costs/admin of the organisation, etc.

I had to show my passport to get my job to prove I was British with the right to work. I also needed photo id to visit my dd at work (military) and to buy a house

So many of you are able bodied with able bodied friends, and it shows.

So as I said, the presumption has been reversed to assume everyone's a liar.

If you were foreign you wouldn’t as you can’t get a job or any other benefits without a valid passport. It’s annoying AF as it costs £400 from the embassy every 5 years…. So I think you are unreasonable

Sure, if you want to see it that way. But unless you’re one of the tinfoil hat “Freeman of the Land” types, the presumption was reversed in law centuries ago.

I needed to show my passport when I applied for my current job.
Likewise to collect a 'click and collect' parcel from a shop and on one occasion to check into a UK hotel.

My parents and my son needed photo ID to purchase foreign currency. I didn't.

It's not about how I see it and it hasn't been reversed for many things.
There is an important issue here - the poster who said making 99% of people do something because 1% aren't legit wasn't a charade is wrong IMHO. We should deal with people who break laws appropriately, not simply assume everyone's a criminal.

I worked in a foreign currency exchange a few years ago....if you were buying over a certain amount we needed to see either a valid passport or valid uk photo driving licence....we did not accept provisional licences....you would not believe the amount of people thinking bus passes etc would be ok...
This is due to money laundering.

I have just tried to request a repayment on HMRC and they gave me 5 options on how to identify myself , I chose driving licence and passport , put in all correct details and still couldn't confirm me, so bloody frustrating, 3 other options were credit ref, self assessment and tax credits which couldn't confirm either, so looks like my refund will be sitting in my tax account for a while

We've just had new wills drawn up by a solicitor. First thing they asked for was photo ID - for obvious reasons. There's lots of things it is now needed for which causes major problems for people eg the elderly, learning disabled. My mother, mother in law and daughter had no photo ID which has caused many issues over the years - but not with voting as DM & DMIL have/had postal votes anyway.

If a man comes to your door and says he’s Detective Constable Steve Smith and he needs you to get into his car and come down to the police station as you’ve been implicated in a fraud, what do you do? Do you ask him for ID? Or do you follow and get into his car, reasoning to yourself that if he’s not the real deal then that can be dealt with appropriately after he’s smothered you with your own jacket and buried you?

If you’re hiring for a babysitter and a woman applies, telling you that she’s Louise Jones, born and bred in the UK, totally entitled to work here, no criminal record whatsoever, no siree. Do you shake her hand and tell her that she starts looking after your toddler tomorrow, because we shouldn’t be suspicious of 99% of people on the basis that 1% might be lying? Or do you ask her for ID and references?

It's the most practical way. Who do you think is going to go around hundreds of thousands of employers to check they're only engaging workers eligible to work in the UK? The police? Immigration officials? And when they do turn up at someone's workplace, how are they going to check? They're going to want to see passports, birth certificates, etc. So isn't it a more efficient way to get the employer to check and keep records and prosecute them when it's found they've not done that?

Ultimately, it's simpler, cheaper and more efficient for people to have their own photo id, whether it's for opening a bank account, buying a house, getting a job or picking up a parcel.

We could have had a national ID card system, but the general public didn't want it, so we're getting something similar by stealth, because it's needed.

So things are more complicated/expensive without photo ID.
Not impossible though like people claim.