Identity problem

peter021072

Brie said:

Did they say why it needed to be an original birth certificate??  Have you phoned them about it??  If you send it to them recorded delivery will they return it the same way??

I used to work in pension admin for a large company and we often got sent birth certificates, passports, etc but would accept properly certified copies.  The post office was the go to for this as they would certify up to 3 documents for a flat fee of £7 (may have increased).  Legally this was the only place to get these documents certified - if they were British.  Other countries will have their rules but the post office will be happy to certify other countries docs as well.   I've had my foreign passport certified by a solicitor for a bank overseas so if your birth certificate is foreign a solicitor may be able to certify it but potentially the pension scheme may not accept it.

Yes, I told them they were antiquated wanting the original birth certificate.

They accepted a passport, or marriage certificate verified by a professional or post office verification, but not birth certificate. My passport is out of date .

xylophone

only posession of this first copy is really of much use for verifying id,

Even then it could have been stolen/fallen into somebody else's hands by loss/accident.

It's surprising what people use as bookmarks in library books..........

Flugelhorn

I had to send birth certs and marriage cert for NHS pension - I got certified copies from GRO so did not have to send "originals" 

p00hsticks

Flugelhorn said:

I had to send birth certs and marriage cert for NHS pension - I got certified copies from GRO so did not have to send "originals" 

Those would verify your date of birth and the fact that  you had got married, which is presumably why they wanted them, but would be useless for proving your identity, as anyone could just as easily have ordered them from GRO.

Silvertabby

xylophone said:

only posession of this first copy is really of much use for verifying id,

Even then it could have been stolen/fallen into somebody else's hands by loss/accident.

It's surprising what people use as bookmarks in library books..........

People 'lose' their original birth certificates for all sorts of reasons.

In my case, when my sister was 14 she decided she was sick of being told what to do and got herself a live-in job as a chambermaid in a crummy Blackpool hotel.  Using my birth certificate as proof of her (over 18) age.

Fortunately, her sensible friend bubbled her and the police hauled her back safely after just one day - but I never did get my birth certificate back.

I had to have a copy made when I joined the WRAF, and have used that copy when claiming both of my pensions - without any problems.

Add:  I just HAVE to add a funny story from my LGPS days which still makes me smile...

I had requested a birth certificate from a lady who was in the process of drawing her LGPS pension.  She rang me in a right state, believing that she would be denied her pension because her birth certificate wasn't in her name.

Usually this means that the birth certificate is in their maiden name, which is easily resolved by the addition of the wedding certificate - but this was a little different.

Seems her parents had decided to call her Florence (name changed to protect the innocent!).  She had been christened Florence, had always been called Florence, and all her employment/pension records were in the name of Florence.

But dad registered the birth after wetting the baby's head rather too liberally - and her birth certificate said 'Flossie Baby'.

I was able to reassure her that it wasn't a problem and, yes, she did get her pension!

westv

Flugelhorn said:

I had to send birth certs and marriage cert for NHS pension - I got certified copies from GRO so did not have to send "originals" 

GRO?
.....

QrizB

westv said:

Flugelhorn said:

I had to send birth certs and marriage cert for NHS pension - I got certified copies from GRO so did not have to send "originals" 

GRO?
.....

It's a typo, they meant GRU.

Flugelhorn is a deep-cover sleeper agent from the former Soviet Union, all their documents are counterfeit. When they lost the originals they had to get duplicates from the Motherland.

p00hsticks

westv said:

Flugelhorn said:

I had to send birth certs and marriage cert for NHS pension - I got certified copies from GRO so did not have to send "originals" 

GRO?
.....

General Register Office

https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

peter021072

Of course we can look at this from the other direction. If no bank, BS or anyone else never requested an original birth certificate are they doing their money laundering checks properly? I've opened dozens of accounts. From memory they usually require a copy of a passport and utility bill, sometimes not even that.

Also should I be trying to rectify the identification problem on whatever database they are using?  Presumably this might happen again with other organisations?