£72.50 for a passport renewal - wow!

daveyjp

PompeyPete wrote: »

Yep, British children born after 4 October 1998 need their own passports. The Labour government must have make a mint!

The steep increase in price was due to moving the burden of the operational costs of Foreign Embassies from the general tax pot to those who benefit from them, i.e. Travellers when buying a passport.

PompeyPete

daveyjp wrote: »

The steep increase in price was due to moving the burden of the operational costs of Foreign Embassies from the general tax pot to those who benefit from them, i.e. Travellers when buying a passport.

I thought that moving the burden on the tax pot was for passports issued by our Consuls abroad, which usually cost considerably more.

Can't see what a passport being issued in the UK has got to do with the operational costs of British Missions abroad!

DigForVictory

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Surely if someone cannot find the money for a passport over 10 years, then they cannot afford the travel.

They may be given an opportunity that the £75 is a barrier to.
Which hurts.

Undervalued

DigForVictory wrote: »

We "legalised our kids". Then never needed passports. Now it'll cost us the best part of £300 to get the whole family paperworked & that's renewals, not from scratch.

"Families do not have to holiday overseas!" - no & just as well.
My lads have missed out on school & Scout trips because they didn't have valid passports though. We considered a rolling renewal program, but that would guarantee the child who was not up to date would get the opportunity!

Another way of spinning the same data.......

"We have chosen to spend the 2p per person per day that a passport costs in other ways."

OK, we could have fundamental debates about what the state should provide free of charge or to what extent, if at all, certain things should be subsidised for those with more limited means.

At the end of the day there is only so much money available and this country already spends far more than that!

daveyjp

PompeyPete wrote: »

I thought that moving the burden on the tax pot was for passports issued by our Consuls abroad, which usually cost considerably more.

Can't see what a passport being issued in the UK has got to do with the operational costs of British Missions abroad!

The consulates need paying for and making the potential users pay is a better way than making every person pay.

ERICS_MUM

I don't think £72.50 would leave much if any "profit margin" after the costs of processing a new or renewal passport.

I do think there's a case for free children's passports (16, 18, uni ???) and for people 80 and over. The costs to be rolled into the costs for the "paid for" passports (sorry, not very elegantly written hope it makes sense).

No point in passports for shorter periods because the cost would be the same (same amount of work involved).

Personally I see a passport as a privilege for which I am happy to pay, but that's because my Dad was a refugee from the Soviet Union and he brought us all up to appreciate the freedoms we take for granted. He was absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude and pride for his adopted country for the 45 years he lived here.

CharlieRabbit01

tomtontom wrote: »

Families do not have to holiday overseas!

We had upto 6 weeks overseas holiday each year when I was a kid (2 adults, 2 children).

It's all about priorities.

Even now I can choose to have a sky tv package or save that money for things like a holiday.

ferf1223

it's sometimes easy to forget how much a certain amount of money is to some people.

I don't think that the cost of a passport is outrageous, I am lucky enough to get plenty of value out of my passport ($110 renewal), I do see an argument for free or subsidized passports for certain ages (and I do see the potential issues with 'if X gets if free why not Y? where do you draw the line?') and I do see how say a family of 4 who do not have a significant amount of money left over at the end of each month might struggle with the cost of 4x£72.50 passports to go on one special trip knowing that they're unlikely to need the passport again for a good number of years due to their general financial circumstances...

So it's all quite relative. It is a small amount per year, but it's a relatively big amount as a one-off (I'm unaware of an installment payment plan so while it is pennies a day you can't pay for it daily) to someone who won't use it many times over the 10 years it's valid.

And I also agree that there are plenty of people who could cut other non-essentials to save up for holidays and associated costs if that was their priority.

But (shamelessly stolen) personally I see a passport as a privilege for which I am happy to pay. I can think of a lot of things I would cut out of my budget if I had to if it meant retaining my passport and the travel I'm able to do with it. But I do think there are some people out there who really are living as frugally as they can and have little they could cut.

benjus

What is a bit of a pain is that if you get a child a passport from birth and keep it renewed, you have to get 4 passports before they are eligible for a 10 year one. Why not grant 10 year passports from the age of 15 (or even 10)? I think in most cases the photo will be recognisable for the life of the passport - better than a 5 year old having a photo of a newborn baby as their passport photo, anyway.

angelil

flashnazia wrote: »

I agree with the op. It seems pretty steep for a little book. Feel sorry for families who may need to fork out for more than one.
I think about 30-40 quid is a fair price IMHO.
Before labour got in they weren't too expensive. If they were still in I reckon the price would be £100 by now.

Why? People have children by choice, and they choose to travel as well...

I agree with the person who pointed out that it's a mere £7.25 a year. Not outside the realms of being worth it imo. Not to mention that passports are frequently used for other things too - e.g. ID for those of us with no driving licence. I frequently have to take mine to the post office to collect parcels for example.

I also would prefer that we pay for our own passports than to have this be free. £72.50 x a population of 60 million people = £4.35bn of taxpayers' money that could be MUCH better spent elsewhere. Having taxpayers' money pay for passports also assumes that everyone wants/needs a passport: my grandparents, for example, never travel and therefore choose not to own passports. (Saying this, no idea what my gran does for ID as she doesn't drive either!)

I do agree, though, that there should be provisions for people to pay in instalments if they need to.