Passport Rip off

flashnazia

Passport fee is set to rise AGAIN! Last years rip off rise wasn't enough (£51 from £42). This year it will rise to £66 from £51. What can we do about this? And they charge you 0870 to ring them! Don't lose your passport either because the con artists make you pay for it all over again!

rosysparkle

It's a ridiculous increase - over 29%

My passport and two of my children's passports run out in early 2008, I expect there will be yet another increase before then.

cmjohnson_86

Bloody hell. Mine runs out next year. Whats this country coming to?

im gonna sell mine to an illegal when it runs out and say i lost it




Joking before anyone takes it serious

Kilty_2

OMG that is awful :mad:

Why must British citizens have to pay to get a document that proves they are British citizens?

£51 was a joke, £66 is taking the p*ss :mad::mad:

paulie558

You can actually apply for a passport up to 6 months before it runs out.
My wife and I did this 2 years back just before they increased from £34 to £41,getting 10 years and 6 months validity.
So if you havent got long left get em in quick.

poppy_f1

im so glad i renewed mine last year after reading about this increase today

taxiphil

It is absolutely shocking and disgraceful. £264 for a family with two kids to get passports for a week in Spain - perhaps the government would care to explain how people on low incomes are supposed to afford this? (That's a rhetorical question, of course, since we all know this government stopped caring about about hard working low income people a long time ago).

We shouldn't even need passports to travel in and out of Europe - it's supposed to be a borderless state where we have freedom of movement as European citizens.

A large part of the charge is to cover the long string of massive c0ck-ups made by Siemens who are paid £120 million (of OUR money) to run the whole thing.

If you or I paid a private contractor to do a job, and they messed it up so spectacularly, we'd ask for some of our money back or withhold payment. But what do the government do? Renew Siemens' contract for another 10 years, and pass the cost of the mistakes on to us... and Siemens laugh all the way to the bank.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Isn't it still cheaper in real terms than it was 30 years ago?

pondie1

ours have expired,my hubby now needs his,when do they go up?mine must be renewed now aswell at those type of increases

Voyager2002

taxiphil wrote:

It is absolutely shocking and disgraceful. £264 for a family with two kids to get passports for a week in Spain - perhaps the government .

If pennies are that tight, why not have a holiday in Britain? Foreign travel is a luxury, not something that should be subsidised by the taxpayer.

taxiphil

Voyager2002 wrote:

If pennies are that tight, why not have a holiday in Britain?

For the very reason that going on a £99 last minute deal to Spain often works out cheaper than holidaying on the island of rip-off Britain for a week. Hence this is a double whammy: stay in Britain and get fleeced for everything or pay the goverment a levy of £264 for a family of four to have the privilege of leaving and re-entering their own homeland.

Voyager2002 wrote:

Foreign travel is a luxury, not something that should be subsidised by the taxpayer.

As a moral issue, why should poorer people have their liberties curtailed like you are suggesting? I don't agree that freedom to move in and out of the borders of one's own country is a luxury for which we should pay the government vast amounts of money. Free movement of European citizens between European countries should be a fundamental human right, which is recognised fully by the other 26 countries of the EU who signed the Schengen Agreement.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "subsidised by the taxpayer" - I was suggesting that British citizens should be able to move freely between European countries. How would that cost the taxpayer money?