ID without driving licence or passport

[ForPearlViper]

My Mum is 91. Her passport is lapsed and, as it is very unlikely she will leave the country again, we haven't renewed it. Her driving licence expired at the end of December. She gave up driving last year but we wanted to renew it just so that she would have photo id given she doesn't have a passport any more.

We sent off the renewal in December and I chased it up today to be told it is with their 'medical department' presumably because of her age. So far I haven't been able to get through to said medical department.

Govt departments are pushing for registration with One log in, etc, and it is hard to be without any id these days. I wondered what other seniors in a similar situation do about this?

there are several interesting facets to this discussion. The problem of ID is absolutely bonkers to me, i have dual citizenship (thanks to Breit) of an EU country with ID cards, Previously to having citizenship and thus an ID card, passports were of limited use as proof of ID which often needs to be coupled with proof of address (which is not on your passport).

Which is one reason I'm ok about ID cards. I am surprised that a Citizen Card isn't universally accepted, that is equally bonkers. My mum usually uses her buss pas for photo ID, but if she were to go into a care home, she may not renew that. So, stuck. I will cross that bridge when i come to it (her passport is expired and she has no interest in renewing, but i would if it was going to be the only acceptable proof of identity)

The other, and very concerning to me because this is definitely my mum, is that of Digital Exclusion. Which, of course, is not only related to age. My mum used computers for years, got an online connection before i did and was very much au fait with online banking etc etc. But now that has changed for various reasons, but there are things that just cannot be done (including but not limited to cancelling/changing her mobile phone contract). Given how the internet/power/infrastructure can be affected by everything from hackers through weather to war, we really need to have robust systems in place for everyone, but especially the Digitally Excluded.

Fraud involving the elderly is extremely common.

not them committing it, but other people taking advantage of their vulnerabilities.

my elderly aunt was defrauded of 100k by a relative. I believe that if banks took more trouble verifying ID this wouldn’t happen so easily. Funnily enough once the fraud was exposed the bank then insisted on seeing ID for every single transaction to make sure it was her and not someone with her bank cards and personal info.