Applied one passport, received two.

smudge56

Definitely hard to believe. Firstly, the passport would never have been sent out without a payment. Just wouldn't happen without higher authorisation the passport would also have been flagged up as being previously reported lost and cancelled.
Also, you would not have had to jump through hoops to replace your lost passport unless you had a history of lost passports. Once your nationality is established you would not have to provide documents again

lifemagic

I checked my accounts, I was never billed for the passport.

After it went missing I had to fill in a form about my nationality. My mother was a Belgian national who came in ww2 and never became British. My father was born a British protected person in Kenya, though his parents were Indian. I have no extended family in the uk and my parents are dead.

Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit about jumping through hoops. The form asked for evidence about my grandparents. I submitted nothing other than the application and a cover letter explaining the above. I worried myself sick and then received a passport two weeks later.