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.

£1000 Fine For Not Renewing Your Driving Licence Photo

Following up on a post by PCJ about the DVLA's licence renewal fiasco, I located this at Directgov which reveals that after 10 years you need to renew the photo on your licence card; in other words, renew your licence, which costs you £17.50. And if you forget, you face a possible fine of £1,000. Nice.

When to renew your licence
• Photocard licences are only valid for up to
10 years, although your entitlement to drive
will normally be valid until your 70th birthday.
• If you hold a photocard driving licence, by law
you must renew your photo every 10 years.
You could be fined up to £1000 if you don’t.

That's from the DVLA's own pdf. It required some poking around to find it.



This image on the Directgov site shows you what to look for on your card. The date at 4b is the expiry date of your photo. I don't remember receiving any information about this when I received mine years ago. I was, however, bemused to read the DVLA's reason for providing me with the old-fashioned bit of paper AND a plastic card: it was part of the government's drive to cut down the cost of paperwork(!).

What they failed to mention was that the move to change driving licences to plastic card format was part of the EU's plans to introduce a European driving licence, which was finally agreed among all member states in 2006. All national licences will have been phased out by 2032. I bet you didn't know that. And the reason for all this? Security and prevention of fraud, of course. What a surprise.

I also recall reading somewhere that when the UK government introduced the cards it didn't have the necessary computer equipment to read them, hence the continued issuing of the paper licence. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?