The Times - UK (2021-12-18)

the times | Saturday December 18 2021 71

Money

Rehan Qayyum is among tens of thousands of people whose passports have been lost in the post for months

special delivery at a cost of £6.85 a

document. If it decided to do this for all

12,000 people who have complained

about delays online, it would have a

postage bill of £82,200 on top of the cost

of its TNT contract.

In her letter to the home secretary,

Hodge, 77, described the delays to the

delivery of passports as completely

unacceptable and said that the experi-

ence of three of her constituents

suggest a “near-total collapse in the

service”. These include one person who

had been waiting for their documenta-

tion since autumn last year.

“There is a human cost to this poor

service. Many of those affected will

have missed funerals or other occa-

sions abroad due to an inability to travel

caused by a lack of documentation,”

Hodge wrote. “TNT is failing British

citizens who are not receiving the pass-

ports which they have paid for. More-

over, your department is failing British

taxpayers for entering into a contract

that offers little value for money. I have

heard of cases in which the Home

Office is resorting to using expensive

Royal Mail deliveries to make up for

TNT’s failings — another needless

waste of taxpayer pounds.”

After The Times raised Qay-

yum’s case the Passport

Office said that it had

made “several” attempts

to deliver his passport

and that it had tried to

reach him on the

wrong mobile phone

number. It was finally

delivered on Thurs-

day.

The Passport

Office said: “Her

Majesty’s Passport

Office expects the high-

est standards from its

partners. We work closely

with our suppliers to ensure

that services are delivered in line

with our robust contractual

demands, which ensures that any issues

are resolved as quickly as possible. In re-

sponse to some delays, we have support-

ed our UK delivery partner to identify

solutions that are now helping to resolve

the recent pressures within its delivery

network. We only use Royal Mail in ex-

ceptional circumstances, such as where

a passport has been issued in error and

we are sending out a replacement that

needs to arrive by a certain time to

enable travel.”

TNT said: “As Covid-19 restrictions

have eased there has been a surge in

passport renewals resulting in signifi-

cant and unexpected volumes moving

through our dedicated HM Passport

Office network.

“This has regrettably affected our

service levels and we have been work-

ing closely with the passport office to

resolve the situation. We are now see-

ing significant improvements.”

Six months to get a new passport

The government’s

contract with the

delivery firm TNT is

in the spotlight after

months of delays and

chaos, says David Byers

R

ehan Qayyum has not trav-

elled since the pandemic

began. But as lockdown lift-

ed in the summer he became

more optimistic about the

safety of venturing abroad, and so on

July 8 the writer from Barking in east

London paid £75.50 to renew his

passport.

He had no idea he would have to wait

half a year to get the new one.

“I had an email from the passport

office telling me that my passport had

been printed and was ready on July 30,

which was only three weeks after I

applied, and that it was being passed to

TNT to be delivered,” Qayyum said.

“Since then, nothing. I just don’t

know what to do. My old one was sent

back to me in September, but nothing

has happened since.”

Qayyum, 42, is caught up in TNT’s

passport delivery crisis. The US-owned

company signed a £77 million three-

year contract in July 2019 to deliver

official travel documents for the Home

Office. But a shortage of delivery staff

after Brexit and Covid had caused huge

problems in the past year.

Tens of thousands of people have

complained that their passports have

been missing for months and that they

cannot get through to TNT or the Pass-

port Office’s overwhelmed telephone

helplines.

Some say that they face losing thou-

sands of pounds on holidays they have

booked, while hundreds have signed a

petition on the Change.org site calling

for an inquiry into the Home Office

contract.

Qayyum said he has only heard once

from TNT, when it emailed him in

September to say that its delivery driver

could not find his flat. He says he would

be willing to collect his passport from a

warehouse, but has been unable to get

through to anyone at the passport

office or TNT to arrange this despite

waiting for hours during “countless”

calls to both telephone lines.

He has now enlisted his MP, Dame

Margaret Hodge, who has written to

the home secretary, Priti Patel, to find

out what is going on.

The Home Office has admitted that

in some “exceptional” cases it is giving

up on TNT altogether, reprinting pass-

ports and sending them by Royal Mail

Bonfire of the perks at Barclays

B

arclays Premier customers now

have to navigate the call centre

like everyone else after losing

their access to a dedicated banker.

From this week they will no longer be

able to call their relationship manager

directly but will have to make an

appointment for someone from a cus-

tomer service team to call them back.

Barclays said: “We recognise that

having support is important to you and

although you won’t have a named

contact, you’ll be able to get in touch

with your new team directly.”

You can get a Barclays Premier

account if you pay in an annual income

of at least £75,000 or have £100,000 in

savings or investments with the bank.

As well as access to dedicated customer

service, it lets clients withdraw up to

£1,000 a day from cash machines,

rather than the standard limit of £300.

Barclays has been scaling back on the

Premier customer service. Last month

it was reported that it had axed 300

Premier relationship managers to cut

costs; it said that fewer customers were

phoning them during the pandemic.

Barclays said: “Customers have been

able to contact their relationship man-

ager by calling during working hours

Monday to Friday.

“This will change so that customers

can make an appointment for a finan-

cial guide to call them at a suitable time

over extended hours, including even-

ings and Saturdays. Less than a quarter

of Premier customers have a dedicated

relationship manager so this will bring

consistency.”

Andrew Hagger from the personal

finance website Moneycomms said: “It

simply looks like more cost-cutting.

More people are using digital banking

so they need fewer branches and

relationship managers. There’s not

much left in the way of Premier

benefits.”

Barclays is also changing its Blue

Rewards membership scheme from

April. For £4 a month at the moment

anyone with a current account who

pays in £800 a month and pays out two

direct debits can get £7 cashback — a

profit of £3. If you have a Barclays

mortgage, loan or insurance the cash-

back is higher.

From April, however, those with just

a current account will no longer make a

profit because the blue rewards fee will

increase to £5 and the maximum cash-

back will be cut to £5. Mortgage holders

normally get £5 cashback a month, but

this will fall to £3.

HSBC and NatWest also offer VIP

bank accounts. With HSBC you must

have a £75,000 salary and a mortgage,

investment or insurance product with

the bank, or £50,000 in savings or

investments. Its account comes with

mortgage and investment advice and

travel insurance for your family, as well

as credit cards exclusive to Premier cus-

tomers.

With NatWest you must have

£100,000 in income or £120,000 in joint

income, a mortgage of £500,000, or

£100,000 in savings and investments. It

offers “an enhanced level of insurance

cover” and a will-writing service.

Barclays said: “We have made some

changes to our Premier business which

reflect customer demand to use digital

channels for day-to-day banking and to

be able to have more in-depth conver-

sations about broader financial needs

at a convenient time.”

George Nixon

Give us more time to file

our returns, taxman told

T

he taxman has been urged to

waive late-filing penalties for

workers who do their tax returns

late, because of the chaos caused by the

Omicron variant.

Accountants are expecting staff

levels to plummet because of sickness

and unexpected childcare issues as the

virus spreads rapidly in the run-up to

the January 31 deadline for online

returns for the 2020-21 tax year.

Last year HM Revenue & Customs

left it until six days before the deadline

to announce that it would cancel

late-filing fines for 2019-20 as long as

people completed their returns by

February 28. There are 12.5 million

self-employed workers, businesses

and landlords, and

1.8 million filed

after January 31

last year.

Chris Ethering-

ton, a partner at the

accountant RSM,

expects another ex-

tension this time given

that HMRC is already

overstretched and could

suffer more staffing issues

because of the virus. He said

that HMRC’s performance statistics

were “more Christmas Grinch than

Christmas cheer”.

HMRC said it has invested signifi-

cantly to support staff working from

home during the pandemic, buying

more than 37,000 laptops, tablets and

phones in the year to September, and

said that it had no plans to delay the

deadline again at this stage.

Those who miss the January 31 dead-

line can be fined between £100 and

£900, depending on how late they are.

Last year fines for late filing were

deferred, but late payment penalties

were not. You will be charged interest

on any outstanding balance at 2.6 per

cent for the first 30 days, then 5 per

cent until six months and 10 per

cent after that.

“HMRC left it until January 25

to announce the extension last

time,” said Tim Stovold

from the accountancy

firm Moore Kingston

Smith. “The short

notice caused stress

and anxiety. It would

be cruelty to leave it so

late again.”

David Byers

Many of those awaiting

passports will have

missed funerals abroad

£75,000

income required for a Premier account

£5

Blue Rewards scheme fee from April —

the minimum cashback will be £5

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