Driving license used as photo ID, does my DM have to loose it now she has Alzheimer’s?

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

My DM has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, not really a shock but still sad. She has a car which she never drives, she is a very anxious driver anyway and I usually take her to the shops or others help her. Her car battery is dead currently, she can’t drive it and while she is not so far advanced that she would suddenly decide to it’s unlikely as she has always hated driving and had a lot of anxiety around driving.

Anyway I have my list of admin jobs to do and one of them is informing the DVLA. We do use her driving license as photo ID, she does have a passport somewhere but keeps it hidden, driving license is always in her purse so accessible and she is less anxious about it. It’s proven very handy in the last few years for photo ID, I don’t have power of attorney (please don’t tell me I must, that’s another thread on its own). If I tell DVLA will they take the photo ID away? Not having it would make life a lot harder right now. There is absolutely no way she would start driving again, so there is no danger to her or anyone else.

We didn't tell the DVLA when either of my parents was diagnosed. Neither were still driving we just allowed them to expire. After a certain time they have to be renewed every three years, we just didn't bother to renew them.

Hope that helps.

I don't know. I was under the impression that the Drs themselves let DVLA know. So DVLA may be in touch regardless. My own Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers and vascular dementia last week. SHe understands she is emphatically not allowed to drive though and hasn't done since the tests started. She scored very badly on the rookwood.

www.gov.uk/giving-up-your-driving-licence It looks like the licence has to be sent in.

Don’t they write to you every three years and you have to update the medical info? My elderly mother was just sent hers and has decided not to drive any more and we had to return her license by post.

Maybe but my Mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimers at the age of 57 so the DVLA would not be thinking of checking on age grounds with her just now....

Don't tell. them. As long as they never drive, no harm done.

DW was told not to drive (MS) back in 2007. Being a good citizen she surrendered her licence even though she would never have driven again.

It's been a real PITA since.

I wonder why you need to tell the DVLA you have stopped driving?
It could be a lifestyle choice, it could be (and frequently must be) such a gradual shift of circumstances that you don't even realise you've stopped for good until someone mentions it.
I fully understand letting the DVLA know if you have been advised to stop driving so have stopped, but if you just never drive again, what difference does it make?

I wonder why you need to tell the DVLA you have stopped driving?

It's more a question of how would they know ?

If she isn't driving anyway then I don't see any harm in not telling Dvla.

Or if you do tell them say it is lost.

She is not going to drive. She would previously only drive with me in the car and she needed written instructions on how to start the car every time. Plus the battery is dead. The only reason I am loathe to give it up is the ID side of things. When my step dad died and I inherited their admin it was invaluable! Passport will expire one day, is expensive and a difficult form and not something she would be happy to carry around in her handbag on the off chance. God, I really wish ID cards were a thing, had the same problem with my non driving, never been abroad Nan when my grand died. This was before data protection too. Urgh!

It says pretty clearly on the DVLA website that if you are diagnosed with a condition that can interfere with driving ability or a DR tells you not to drive and you do not inform the DVLA and fill in the appropriate form you can be liable for a £1000 fine.

Telling DVLA about a medical condition or disability
You must tell DVLA if you have a driving licence and:

you develop a ‘notifiable’ medical condition or disability
a condition or disability has got worse since you got your licence
Notifiable conditions are anything that could affect your ability to drive safely.

You could be fined up to £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA about a condition that might affect your ability to drive safely. You could also be prosecuted if you have an accident.

Surrendering your licence
You must surrender your licence to DVLA if any of the following are true:

your doctor tells you to stop driving for 3 months or more
your medical condition affects your ability to drive safely and lasts for 3 months or more
you do not meet the required standards for driving because of your medical condition

It doesn't say you can be fined £1000 if caught driving, it says you can be fined for not telling them. I've asked my Dad to check with Mum's memory clinic team to find out if they inform the DVLA. I totally understand why a driving licence is a useful form of ID. My Mum lost hers years ago and we have tried repeatedly to get her to get a new one. Now we don't have to do that but we need to tell the dvla she lost it and it was still the old paper one. I don't think she has a passport, and if she does it's lost somewhere. Power of attorney is what we are going to try and get done asap.

I had an ID card when I lived in another country and it was so handy!

You could get her one of these. www.citizencard.com/valid-uk-id-card?gclid=CjwKCAiA0KmPBhBqEiwAJqKK43_SNvXTskUQeqthegv69erACtUJfAzXVLquuVV-xw-BJ6MC5UuTcBoCSkkQAvD_BwE

FWIW round here nobody informs DVLA of a diagnosis, it's up to you. Not informing the DVLA can result in a fine, and (if you are still driving) your insurance being invalid too, but I appreciate that's not going to be a problem.

If you can't get POA done quickly you won't be able to at all. But you can register yourself/dh/whoever with her GP as her carer which will help in the future.

You could inform the DVLA but I I remember correctly, there is a box to tick to tick to say you're returning your licence or that you are not because it's lost or stolen.
I recently had to stop driving due to a brain tumour and said I'd lost my photo card driving licence even though I hadnt, because I wanted to keep it for ID.

I am trying to get POA. A friend of hers (nob) told her that POA is surrendering all your rights and she believes that. I am trying to normalise it by getting others to mention it to her. Although she depends on me she also thinks I’m stealing from her when she looses stuff so I don’t want to be the only one pushing for it, I also don’t want to be the only one in case I get knocked down by a double decker bus. If I get POA will she still need photo ID? The dementia navigator said that her insurance would be invalid if she tried to drive and had an accident but nothing about a fine. The idea about saying we have lost the actual card is quite a good one.