Driving Licence Stealth Tax Fine Scam

Wife receives driving licence 'photo renewal' form; ie licence renewal, plus a demand for £20 with a threat of £1,000 for non-compliance.

I mentioned the cock-up over this 'not the licence but the photo' renewal scam last year, because the DVLA had forgotten that it needed to tell people with the new EU licences when it first issued them ten years ago. That would have come as a surprise to people with older licence because prior to New Labour there was no need to renew a full licence once you had obtained it. Neither was there a demand for cash and the threat of a fine.

The DVLA, as other bloggers have pointed out, has been turned into another money-making stealth-tax-collector for the government.

The legislation is driven by (of course!) the EU with its Directive on Driving licences (also here), but it's probably correct to asssume that the interfering, bullying cash-grabbing elements were added by our very own caring New Labour scumbags.

I would also like to know whether the government is legally allowed to make threats of a fine in this way.

Don't expect anything to change once the Tories get in, though.