A family hoping to go abroad for their summer holiday have said they are facing losing £1,000 as they wait for a passport renewal.
Jenny Craig told the Mirror that she sent off the renewal of her son Isaac's passport 12 weeks ago. This was so he could travel with the rest of the family to Italy in around four weeks' time.
However, they are now facing a race against time as three months after sending off the paperwork, the family still have not had Isaac's new passport arrive. If the trip does not happen, the family stand to lose just under £1,000.
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People around the UK are currently experiencing long delays for passport applications and renewals. The Passport Office is advising people to submit their paperwork 10 weeks in advance.
However, some people have said they have been waiting longer than the advised time period. This includes Jenny and her family.
The 43-year-old mum-of-two who works in communications said she already had to cancel a holiday to Morocco planned for Easter. As a result, they received a voucher for the flights they were unable to take along with a refund from the hotel they had booked.
Jenny said: “We waited until a week before we cancelled our trip to Marrakech - we knew it wasn’t going to happen. We are trying to go to Italy in May, in about four weeks’ time. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen.
“If we don’t get confirmation that the passport has been processed by the end of next week, then we’ll assume it won’t happen for us. Getting through to someone has got worse. I calculated that I’ve probably spent two days on hold.
“Each time I call, there is an average time of an hour and a half on hold. I don’t know how many calls I’ve made now.”
Many others have said they are facing similar issues to Jenny. One person tweeted the HM Passport Office's official Twitter account: “Trying to sort out my son's passport. It’s been 12 weeks!
"Been trying to call but lines are being disconnected and currently on hold for 1 hour 20 minutes. Hopefully I will get through to someone and won’t be disconnected after waiting this long!”
Another wrote: “Applied to renew my passport eight weeks ago. After 31 calls today I was able to get through to the call centre who told me to email the upgrade team and ask for fast track but that it was a ‘lottery’ and ‘unlikely’.”
The huge demand for passports following the Covid pandemic has been worsened by complicated rules following Brexit which mean some Britons cannot use their passport if it is near its expiry date. The rules state that passports must be under 10 years old from date of issue and have at least three months left before expiring, which causes a problem for some whose issue date is more than 10 years from the expiry date.
Recent research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates a 50% probability of a “successful and timely” passport renewal process for travellers based on current reports. “Data from the VisitBritain Covid-19 Consumer Sentiment Tracker shows that more than two in five are planning an overseas trip in the coming 12 months,” it said.
“Assuming that passport holders are somewhat more likely to have travel plans than the population as a whole and that a quarter of those will have made a booking leaves just under one million holiday makers at risk due to the delays.”
The number of valid UK passports fell by more than 2.5 million during the first two calendar years of the Covid-19 pandemic as people delayed applications. A total of 48.9 million passports were in circulation at the end of last year – 2.6 million fewer than at the end of 2019.
This is an abrupt change from the period before the pandemic, which had seen passport numbers rise from 50.0 million in December 2017 to 51.5 million two years later. The figures were obtained by the PA news agency from the Passport Office through a freedom of information request.
