Have you checked your Licence recently?

[calam]

CHECK THE DATES ON YOUR PHOTO CARD DRIVING LICENCE

If you have a photo driving licence, it's worth reading the following. 

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Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photocard driving licences expire

Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence.

They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photocard licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70.

The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998, just as the they start to expire.
Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life.

A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photocards were launched shows the imminent expiry date as item '4b'

They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed.

To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card - a charge which critics have condemned as a 'stealth tax' and which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years.

Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding.

With another 300,000 photocard licences due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine.

At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper version. Just below the driver name on the front of the photocard licence is a series of dates and details - each one numbered. Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means.

The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid to'.

Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or her 70th birthday.

A total of 25million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after 10 years.

Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue driving. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine.

AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photocard licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licences. People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it. It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay an extra £17.50.'

The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge.

Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences were valid until the age of 70. Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones.

Driving instructor Tony Carter, of Canterbury , said: 'It's outrageous; everybody thinks their driving licence is for life. Why - when you have already paid £50 for your photocard licence - should you pay the Government an extra £17.50 every 10 years? It's another stealth tax. Drivers will be very annoyed.'

Today the DVLA said the date of expiry was carried on the new-style licences, even though the AA says this is 'not clear'.

The Agency was unable to say whether motorists were told the licences would expire when they were first issued.

It said it was issuing postal reminders to drivers whose photograph was due to expire, to get the renewal message across. But a spokesman admitted this was the limit of the DVLA's publicity.

Experts say many drivers will slip through the net because DVLA records are inaccurate and many motorists have changed address, making it impossible to trace them.

A DVLA spokesman said: 'Previous experience has shown that wide-scale publicity is less effective and can generate enquiries and concerns from those not affected. Instead, DVLA focussed on targeted publicity to ensure that we got the message to the right person at the right time.'

The Driving Standards Agency is allowing L-test candidates with out-of-date photocard licences to sit their driving tests as long as they provide a valid passport. This concession will end in January next year, raising the prospect that some L-test candidates will be turned away.

The DVLA said no one had so far been charged with failing to surrender a licence.

[Driveby]

Ive still got the old paper license so theyre getting nowt out of me for a while yet :p

[nev520]

Just checked mine and it expires 2014 

What a f**king con!!!
why don't the powers that be not make motorists walk around bent over so it's easier for the government to shaft us. Everyday there is something new
for them to screw the driver with. Why is nothing out in the open now, it's all hidden away in small print or written so as you can't understand it.
F**king politicians a bigger bunch of lying, thieving scum you will not meet.

[fifegt4]

Mine is 2013.
If they can find an angle they'll f**k us over and if not they'll create one and f**k us over. What a shower of b*st*rds! my road tax is due this month so im p**sed off enough with the DVLA without finding this out lol 

[ChrisW]

In all fairness, there is no 'stealth' about this. For those who have a photocard style licence, it is clearly printed, in the same size text as the rest of it, far from being small print.

Next, everyone will complain that their passports have to be updated every ten years, which, guess what? Have a photo on and you pay for the renewal.

If you complain about £17.50 over TEN years then I suggest you stop in for ONE night extra during the same ten years to save yourself £20.

Does anyone actually consider why the photocard was introduced? Fraud and identity theft, but hey, no one would complain if the crime was prevented??

10p spent

[nev520]

Chris it's not just the licence thing it's everything, this country is so f*cked up it's unreal.
It's hard working honest people that get screwed all the time, yet there are junkie scum everywhere that haven't worked a day in their miserable lives get my f**king tax money handed out to them for sod all, free housing, free methadone, free f**king everything.  And when they step out of line and break the law, it isn't their fault it's societies and they get a slapped wrist and sent off on holiday!!
Then there is the PC brigade who say you cant call it a blackboard anymore it is a chalkboard, f**k off it's a blackboard!! I have several Black friends one was even best man at my wedding, and not a single one of them was ever offended by the name blackboard, THEY call it a blackboard for f*ck sake!!
The whole country is in a total mess and its ordinary working folk who get screwed every time, thats what gets me p*ssed off.  Politicians are a bunch of knob jockies!


and that's all party's not just the half wits we have in power now.

[calam]

funnily enough, if you have a change of details, you can inform them for free and they send out a new licence valid for another 10 years.

Go figure!

[ChrisW]

When you consider that the average homeowner moves every 7 years then it becomes irrelevant.

On the subject of PC gone mad, I was in the pub the other night and had quite an 'intense' conversation with a member of the BNP, who insists on being allowed to call people whatever he likes, no matter how offensive? I pointed out that just because someone has coloured skin, it does not mean they were born in Pakistan and wouldn't it be far more social to call a person by their name rather than the assumed country of origin, eh whitey/brit/scot/celt? I asked him to choose which he'd prefer, he insisted on being called 'Dave', so I insisted on highlighting his hypocrisy.
I think he gave up then as he pointed out that our views were 'miles apart', this was the only thing to come from his mouth that I could agree with.

Nev, you are right, this country is *BLEEP*ed up and always will be. Those on the receiving end are those with the social conscience. Don't get me started on the section of society that views a baby as a fashion accessory and a way in to a cheap council house, rather than actually having to earn an education then work for a living.
I shall step away before the keyboard catches light, grrrrrrrrrr

[Wiggy]

Speaking of licenses. I got pulled on my way back from visiting family in Blackpool over Chrimbo. I gets in the Range Rover on the M6 hard shoulder near Preston. The copper then proceeded to tell me I had no insurance on the CS, "yes I have" I said.. OK sir, I'll have to check now bla bla bla.....
While we wait he does a few more checks (as they do) and then tells me my driving license has been revoked...."WTF" I said..... How can this be and what exactly does it mean?
He said is something he can't look into and I need to sort it with the DVLA. He recons its usually for not sending your license in after speeding etc...
So then the phone goes and its knob jockey from the rozzers traffic departments saying, no, he doesn't have insurance...
So, my girfriend and daughter are sat there waiting, along with three dogs in the CS and I'm sat there acording to the pigs with no license and no inurance. I insist I do have insurance and he then goes back on the phone to get them to call my insurance company. So, phone call over again we carry on with my license not being valid. He then proceeds to tell me that when your license gets revoked, you have 12 months to legally drive while you sort it. I had run over this 12 months apparently. So, I'd been driving with no license for some time 
Phone goes again and they then come back and say, oh yes, sorry you do have insurance. The stupid insurance company had done a typo on the cover and changed a 6 to a G, k n o b s.....

So, thats sorted, still no license though.... Thankfully my girfriend is a named driver and mr plod (after checking) lets me go with my missus at the wheel. She then had to drive all the way to cornwall...lol

Moral is, ALWAYS tell the DVLS when you move. It ended up costing me £17.50 to renew my license with new photo but I could have been fined £100 for not letting them know. It was in fact an SP30 that I'd paid the fine on but forgot to send my license in for. because of this they also added an extra point (4 instead of 3) to my license..

gits 

[nev520]

Speaking of licenses. I got pulled on my way back from visiting family in Blackpool over Chrimbo. I gets in the Range Rover on the M6 hard shoulder near Preston. The copper then proceeded to tell me I had no insurance on the CS, "yes I have" I said.. OK sir, I'll have to check now bla bla bla.....
While we wait he does a few more checks (as they do) and then tells me my driving license has been revoked...."WTF" I said..... How can this be and what exactly does it mean?
He said is something he can't look into and I need to sort it with the DVLA. He recons its usually for not sending your license in after speeding etc...
So then the phone goes and its knob jockey from the rozzers traffic departments saying, no, he doesn't have insurance...
So, my girfriend and daughter are sat there waiting, along with three dogs in the CS and I'm sat there acording to the pigs with no license and no inurance. I insist I do have insurance and he then goes back on the phone to get them to call my insurance company. So, phone call over again we carry on with my license not being valid. He then proceeds to tell me that when your license gets revoked, you have 12 months to legally drive while you sort it. I had run over this 12 months apparently. So, I'd been driving with no license for some time 
Phone goes again and they then come back and say, oh yes, sorry you do have insurance. The stupid insurance company had done a typo on the cover and changed a 6 to a G, k n o b s.....

So, thats sorted, still no license though.... Thankfully my girfriend is a named driver and mr plod (after checking) lets me go with my missus at the wheel. She then had to drive all the way to cornwall...lol

Moral is, ALWAYS tell the DVLS when you move. It ended up costing me £17.50 to renew my license with new photo but I could have been fined £100 for not letting them know. It was in fact an SP30 that I'd paid the fine on but forgot to send my license in for. because of this they also added an extra point (4 instead of 3) to my license..

gits 

That sucks big time mate