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.

An update if there is anyone out there interested. Some time after I was told the driving licence was with the medical department, Mum got a letter and a form to fill on. The only thing it asked about was a stroke she had a decade ago from which she recovered quickly. At the time we notified DVLA as required and were told she could drive as soon as her GP said it was OK. The form was bizarre, it asked questions only appropriate for some who had had a recent stroke. Luckily Mum keeps good files and we could answer.

Sent the form tracked and it arrived well within deadline (tight considering the postal service) deadline. Many weeks went by and then received a letter saying they had had no response, enclosing the form again. I rang up and has told they had received it and it remained with the medical department.

That was a couple of months ago and to be honest we had given up and were ready just to pay for another passport. Today she received her new driving licence.

I agree that DVLA should do checks when renewing licences for 91 year old drivers. However, in this case they didn't do this they just asked about one condition from years ago and didn't ask about anything else.

For anyone who doesn't read a thread properly Mum has no car, hasn't driven for 2 years and rarely drove in the few years before. My original post was purely about alternatives for ID. I imagine if this were solved, DVLA's medical department would need to deal with fewer cases.