Today's UK Government Farce - Passports

Lysander said:
No :mad: you must follow the narrative that the UK passport office is in meltdown. The Guardian said so.
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It's interesting that people keep posting 'narrative', 'strawman', 'toxic' in various posts across OCUK. Look back at the forums some years ago, and these words weren't being so commonly used. It's definitely something of an 'echo chamber' when it comes to use of language not just opinions.
 
I renewed mine in March, along with applying for 2 new ones for my kids (twins) - all 3 came back within 3 weeks, a few days of each other.

Must've been lucky I guess, all I've heard after from friends and co-workers is nightmares waiting on passports!
 
englishpremier said:
It's interesting that people keep posting 'narrative', 'strawman', 'toxic' in various posts across OCUK. Look back at the forums some years ago, and these words weren't being so commonly used. It's definitely something of an 'echo chamber' when it comes to use of language not just opinions.
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I was being lazy with my terminology.
 
I did a simple renewal and it took many weeks to receive my new passport. Despite it being just being a renewal they asked for another "professional" who has known me for over 2 years and has a valid passport to authenticate me. Really disgraceful how passport renewals have just turned into another way for the government to rake in the cash, they don't care whether you're a British citizen or a terrorist from al-Qaeda as long as they get their money,
 
Energize said:
I did a simple renewal and it took many weeks to receive my new passport. Despite it being just being a renewal they asked for another "professional" who has known me for over 2 years and has a valid passport to authenticate me. Really disgraceful how passport renewals have just turned into another way for the government to rake in the cash
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I know this is 11 years old but no profit was made when a passport cost £77.50.

Breakdown of Passport Costs (1st time and replacement)

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is required to generate enough income from passport fees to cover no more than the cost of issuing passports and providing support services such as our Adviceline, plus a contribution towards the cost of emergency consular assistance to British passport holders when travelling overseas.
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How much profit do you think the government makes 11 years later charging £75.50 (online) or £85.00 (paper)?

Energize said:
they don't care whether you're a British citizen or a terrorist from al-Qaeda as long as they get their money,
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And LOL.
 
Surveyor said:
I know this is 11 years old but no profit was made when a passport cost £77.50.

Breakdown of Passport Costs (1st time and replacement)


How much profit do you think the government makes 11 years later charging £75.50 (online) or £85.00 (paper)?


And LOL.
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Lol @ the below charges not being considered "profit".

Application Processing £31.60
FCO Consular Premium £15.62
Production & Personalisation of Book £10.79
Delivery £3.30
Overhead/Administration £16.19

Nice way to ignore the tax we pay for the service, seriously deluded to take the government propaganda figures at face value.

I would ask how many hours you think a minimum wage employee spends verifying a single passport, but it would probably be wasted breath to a statist.
 
Energize said:
Lol @ the below charges not being considered "profit".

Application Processing £31.60
FCO Consular Premium £15.62
Production & Personalisation of Book £10.79
Delivery £3.30
Overhead/Administration £16.19

Nice way to ignore the tax we pay for the service, seriously deluded to take the government propaganda figures at face value.
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You've claimed the entire fee is profit. So it costs nothing to run HM Passport office, process applications and provide passports and support overseas?

Some strange bias going on there. As it is HM Passport Office perhaps you can find a way to blame the The Queen.
 
Surveyor said:
You've claimed the entire fee is profit. So it costs nothing to run HM Passport office, process applications and provide passports and support overseas?

Some strange bias going on there. As it is HM Passport Office perhaps you can find a way to blame the The Queen.
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Yet you can't find a quote of me saying that, strange...

We pay taxes to cover running HM passport office.

If you like I will post something derogatory towards the queen.

 
Energize said:
Yet you can't find a quote of me saying that, strange...

We pay taxes to cover running HM passport office.

If you like I will post something derogatory towards the queen.

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Why do you insist that it is the tax payer that funds the passport office despite the charges funding it and it being revenue neutral?
 
Bear said:
Why do you insist that it is the tax payer that funds the passport office despite the charges funding it and it being revenue neutral?
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Well all fees that that go to the passport office are from the taxpayer. But ignoring that, because of the large amount of tax that goes to HM. What evidence do you have to the contrary?

And do you really believe some minimum wage employee spends 6+ hours going over every passport renewal? That's just pure fantasy, it's done by a computer.
 
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Energize said:
Well all fees that that go to the passport office are from the taxpayer. But ignoring that, because of the large amount of tax that goes to HM. What evidence do you have to the contrary?

And do you really believe some minimum wage employee spends 6+ hours going over every passport renewal? That's just pure fantasy, it's done by a computer.
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Well no, people that live on benefits can have passports too. That aside, I presume the current model is because not everyone wants or has a passport, so wouldnt be fair to come out of general taxation.

I have no idea how much people that work in the passport office earn

Edit: Salary range of people that work at the passport office. Rather out of date though https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ips-salary-ranges
 
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mid_gen said:
More Great British incompetence.....

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...als-forces-travellers-to-cancel-easter-breaks

I've got my first trip abroad planned for second week of June.....nearly 3 months I thought, no problem getting mine renewed, after all it only takes a few weeks, tops.

Now looks like I'll be lucky to get it back in time.

Reminder to anyone that needs theirs doing to do it ASAP, and would be good to hear of people getting theirs in less than 10 weeks....
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We applied for 2 new passports for the kids in April 2022.

Turnaround was 2 weeks for one, under 3 weeks for the other.
 
Bear said:
Bear said:
Well no, people that live on benefits can have passports too. That aside, I presume the current model is because not everyone wants or has a passport, so wouldnt be fair to come out of general taxation.

I have no idea how much people that work in the passport office earn

Edit: Salary range of people that work at the passport office. Rather out of date though https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ips-salary-ranges
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You do realise that benefits are taxpayer money though?

So let's assume £0 in tax goes to the passport office (I wish).

Obviously it doesn't help your case that such pitiful salaries of £9.50/hr are used in the passport office.

Let's be generous and say that £15 are for the production and delivery costs according to your cited figures and the other £60 are for staff costs, allowing for no profit at all, that means 6.3hrs of staff time are going to every passport, do you really believe that to be the case? Honestly I would be shocked if even 0.5hrs of human time was spent on each passport application which raises the obvious question, where is all the money going?
 
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Still not had our son’s new application back - at least they’ve received the documents. We’ve got another 2 weeks so keeping fingers crossed! Good to hear that people on here are getting theirs back in good time.
 
Booked an appointment for renewal in Newport, and took the passport last Tuesday, got the new blue one back on Saturday via TNT, 4 days, so I cant complain.
 
martin363 said:
Booked an appointment for renewal in Newport, and took the passport last Tuesday, got the new blue one back on Saturday via TNT, 4 days, so I cant complain.
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The website is currently stating that there are no appointments in person at the passport offices. In retrospect we probably should have gone down that route to start with!
 
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