- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^56) Money
Miles Brignall
Tesco has said it will no longer send
out paper Clubcard statements
or vouchers to customers, unless
they actively tell the supermarket
they want to keep receiving them in
that format.
The company is making the change
from the fi rst week of May. Any shop-
per who fails to opt back in will start
receiving statements and vouchers
by email instead.
Tesco’s announcement is the latest
move to get customers away from
paper statements that are expensive
to produce and post. Banks, utility
companies and supermarkets have
been pushing customers towards
going paperless, often to the dismay
of older customers.
Tesco customers who wish to
retain the paper option can do this
by signing in to their MyClubcard
account online , clicking on “state-
ment preferences” and changing it
back to “by post”. Users have until 5
May to do this if they wish to receive
that month’s statement by post.
Clubcard Tesco axes paper
statements for most users
Passports
Thousands face losing
holidays as delays go on
Travellers have been told
to apply as soon as possible
as MPs accuse agency of
running ‘absolute shambles’.
Anna Tims reports
A
couple this week
told how they face
having to cancel their
wedding because of
continued delays at
the Passport Offi ce.
Lucia Thompson and her
partner, both British nationals
who live in Australia, have been
told they must allow 13 weeks
for their newborn baby’s British
passport to arrive. They are due to
marry in the UK next month; the
ceremony was twice postponed
because of Covid.
“We applied for our son’s
passport in March as soon as
the birth certifi cate was issued,”
Thompson told Guardian Money.
“The helpline has told us we
should have allowed more time,
even though we had no control over
when our baby was born. The cost
of the wedding is about £40,000,
not to mention the cost to guests
fl ying in, and our insurance does
not cover us for passport issues.”
Meanwhile, thousands of
families face losing holidays they
have booked for this summer
because of the delays.
Weeks after the Guardian
reported problems at the
government agency, the backlog
has not been tackled, and this week
MPs accused it of operating an
“absolute shambles”.
The Home Offi ce is urging
travellers to get their passport
applications in “as soon as
possible” as the new 10-week
processing target is repeatedly
being breached.
Travellers have been left
hundreds of pounds out of
pocket because of being unable
to fl y after their new passports
failed to arrive in time. Some had
been waiting up to fi ve months
from application.
Holidaymakers have complained
of a system in meltdown, with
uncontactable customer services,
processing errors and a lack of
appointments for the premium-
price fast-track service. Others
claim that their applications
were delayed or even terminated
because the Passport Offi ce failed
to log supporting documents.
According to the Home Offi ce,
more than 5 million people have
applied for passports after the
ending of Covid restrictions. The
EU’s introduction of post-Brexit
rules that require passports
to have at least three months’
validity remaining has added
to the pressures, and MPs have
accused the Passport Offi ce offailing to prepare adequately for a
“foreseeable” increase in demand.
Simon Hoare, the Conservative
MP for North Dorset, told
parliament that the Passport
Offi ce helpline is letting down
applicants desperate to track their
applications. “Constituents going
abroad for a family funeral, for a
holiday or for business reasons are
not getting through to the offi ce,
and are lied to by offi cials when
they do,” he said.
Service shortfalls by the Passport
Offi ce’s contracted courier, TNT,
are compounding the delays, with
some deliveries taking weeks.
A Passport Offi ce spokesperson
told Guardian Money it has
increased staff numbers by 500 in
the past year to cope with demand
and processed a record number
of applications in March. It said
more staff were being recruited by
the private contractor that runs its
helpline to improve the service,
and Royal Mail and DHL had been
contracted to help with deliveries.
“We have been advising
people to allow up to 10 weeks
when applying for their British
passport as more than 5 million
people delayed applying due to
the pandemic,” a spokesperson
said. “We urge people who
need a new passport to apply
for one as soon as possible. The
vast majority of all passports
applications are being dealt with
well within 10 weeks.”
A TNT spokesperson said:
“We took a number of actions to
restore service levels across our
HM Passport Offi ce network –
including operational resources,
extra team support and additional
customer support resources – and
we are currently operating within
the service level requirements
agreed with the Home Offi ce. We
apologise to any customer who
has experienced a delay with their
passport delivery and we will
continue to work with HMPO to
resolve individual cases.”▲ Demand for passports has soared
since the end of Covid restrictions