ID advice

[FredaFox]

My mum is 81, housebound, currently bedbound
She is due to pay her tax bill on her pension (a grand which she can ill afford thanks to paying for carers but that's a separate issue

I'm also looking into a council tax reduction for her due to her medical conditions

Both are asking for photo id, her passport which have expired 12 years ago and she's no longer allowed to drive and I can't find her driving licence, maybe it was returned?

What do people do in these situations? It seems ridiculous to pay for a passport she won't use and it's money we don't have

Any advice greatfully received

Check with them - expired passports can't be used for travel, but some organisations still accept them for ID purposes.

Expired passport might be fine for this. I know she's bedbound now - but did she have a bus pass before she became bedbound? I am 43 and can't drive due to disability. Often people will say I need to show my driving license and I will show them my disabled bus pass ... explaining that I can't drive due to disability, so that is my alternative! The number of people that take a minute to wrap their heads round the fact you don't have a driving license if you aren't licensed to drive worries me, but anyway it usually works!

My mom doesn't drive and has no passport. She uses her bus pass for id. Or she can apply for a citizen card online.
https://www.citizencard.com/apply-for-a-uk-id-card-online

Does she have an expired passport or disabled badge?

DH recently managed to get through customs after losing his passport on the basis of an expired driving licence. Apparently there's a database.

Does she have or did have a blue badge? We use that

Blue badge, bus pass?

If you've really got nothing that has been suggested about, a £50 provisional driving licence would be cheaper than a passport

Edited to say ignore the above

Thanks all
We have her expired passport but the government gateway (for her tax bill) want 2 forms of ID and won't take the expired passport
She had a bus pass years ago so I'll see if she still has it but think she gave it up for her blue badge, her council only let her have one at some point I think.
No idea where that is but got an idea.

I'll call hmrc tomorrow in the hope they will take payment over the phone and will ask if they take a citizen card but that wasn't on the online list.

Things like this stress me out! Nothings simple! 🙈

It's a real problem, a friend who lives with his VERY elderly mother was complaining about this too. When you have capacity but no mobility - when you are so frail that even someone else driving you places is agonizing and exhausting - it seems a kick in the teeth that to use the online services you have to first... Go out to get the id!

TBH I think the government (which already has the shared database underlying passports and driving licences!) should stop equivocating, and say, yes, we are going to have a national id card. Basically a non-driving licence. Provide them for free to those who don't have passports and don't drive; oblige councils to sort it out for the housebound - have an officer who travels round checking birth certificates or whatever and taking photos. And throw the little left fingerprint in there to discourage fraud.