Families tell of agony over passport delays

Eleanor Freeman stands to lose £1,400 if she has to change the date of her holiday

A surge in passport applications is threatening the holiday plans of families across the country.

The rise in passport applications is thought to be due to families putting off renewing while they could not travel during the pandemic. The Passport Office estimates five million people delayed their applications in 2020 and 2021.

Holidaymakers travelling to EU countries have also been warned to check their passports are valid.

Post-Brexit travel rules that came into force last year mean many EU countries are insisting passports must be more no more than 10-years-old from the point of issue and be valid for at least three months after the date you plan to leave the country you are visiting.

It has left people struggling to get hold of passports, meaning they could lose out on their holidays as a result.

MPs have warned constituents face missing out on weddings, funerals and job opportunities, even with the Passport Office's new 10-week target for processing applications.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Home Office minister Kevin Foster insisted the target would not need to be extended further.

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Eleanor Freeman, who applied for a passport for her nine-month-old daughter on 5 March, said she had "done everything in my power" to get her hands on it. At the time of application she said the government website stated an estimated wait of three to five weeks.

The mother-of-two, from Nottingham, said she is still waiting for her baby's passport and stands to lose £1,400 if she changes the date of her holiday to Spain, booked to depart on 3 May.

Ms Freeman said the application has failed to be processed, even after she paid £122 to fast track it and after spending "hours and hours" on the phone to the Passport Office.

She said: "Yesterday I waited on hold for two hours and I spoke to someone and she basically said 'you need to wait, there's nothing else you can do'.

"I followed the timings on their website, which advised three to five weeks so that's what I assumed was possible.

"Everything they've asked me to do, I've done. Everything they advised me to do, I've done. It's just got me nowhere.

"They just don't seem to have any idea what's going on themselves."

Ms Freeman said the holiday next month to Tossa de Mar would be the first holiday abroad for her four-year-old son and baby daughter.

"It took us a long time to save up for the holiday in the first place, it's a lot of money for us," she said.

She added she wants passport office bosses to be more transparent about how long it will take to process applications, and said staff needed improved knowledge of the system.

Fiona McKenzie is set to lose £3,200 if the passports of her two eldest children don't arrive in time for their holiday

Fiona McKenzie applied for passports for her eight-year-old son and two-year-old daughter on 21 March as her family are due to travel to Turkey on 4 May.

She paid an extra £224 to upgrade the applications to fast track, but is still waiting for them to be fully processed. The family is set to lose £3,200 if the passports are not issued in time.

The mother, from Glasgow, said she was at "breaking point".

She said: "I called and to my surprise I actually got to speak to someone after calling 130 times and spending 48 hours in total in queues.

"They gave me the upgrade team email address and told me to send proof of travel, and they assured me I'd have a call back within 48 hours, as I travel in less than two weeks. That was five days ago.

"I am really at my breaking point. I have been in tears for the last week, and had I had known it would be so chaotic I would have paid extra for the two-day premium service."

She added: "I also noticed that my children's passports had been sent to different locations - my son's was sent to Liverpool and my daughter's was sent to Corby [processing centres].

"To make matters worse I've been told I can't collect them even if they are completed, as they have to be posted because they have a 'no collection policy'."

Gillian Ellis said the passport office lost her old passport

Gillian Ellis was trying to renew her passport when, she said, her old one was lost by the Passport Office.

Ms Ellis, from Sunderland, is still waiting for a new passport, despite submitting her application on 10 February.

The BBC has seen a Royal Mail message showing the passport had been signed for on 15 February.

She said: "Not once have they accepted responsibility for losing it…

"They've fobbed me off and lied because I've been given misinformation pretty much every time I've rang."

Ms Ellis is calling for information about her application so she can decide if she should cancel her holiday to Turkey in June, before it was too late to amend dates.

"My job can be really stressful, so these two weeks for me are very important for me to get away from my work life," she said. "I didn't get a holiday last year and this has been booked since Christmas.

"I gave them [Passport Office] plenty of time and its fast approaching the deadline now."

The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.

Home Office minister Kevin Foster said staff were working weekends and overtime to work through passport applications

Responding to an urgent question by Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, Mr Foster said anyone travelling abroad this summer should submit new passport applications and renewals as soon as possible.

He insisted a "range of efforts" were being made to process applications, adding: "Staff are working weekends, incentivised overtime - and certainly we're confident we will not need to change the 10-week target."

Mr Foster said March saw the "highest total for any month on record, with HM Passport Office completing the processing of over one million applications - 13% higher than the previous record output".

More than 90% of applications were issued within six weeks in the period between January and March, he added.

But Ms Cooper warned: "My constituents fear their honeymoon may now be wrecked because their passports haven't arrived, even though they applied in plenty of time.

"We've had cases of people cancelling jobs, parents trying to get holiday for a sick child waiting since January, huge long delays by the Passport Office and by the contractor TNT."

She said the increase in passport applications was "totally predictable", adding the Home Office was "in danger of becoming a stay-at-home office".

Conservative MP Simon Hoare said his constituents were lied to by officials when they got through to the Passport Office and described the system as being either "very good or an absolute shambles".

The Passport Office said in a statement it had been advising people since April 2021 to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport.

A spokeswoman said: "We urge people who need a new passport to apply for one as soon as possible, with the vast majority of all passports applications being dealt with well within 10 weeks."

She said staff numbers had been increased to help handle the number of applications and provide better service handling customer queries.

Heathrow Airport said it was "vital" people could go on holiday this summer