November 21, 200817 yr Married women face £1,000 fines for failing to update names on new ID cards By James Slack Last updated at 9:54 PM on 21st November 2008 Comments (45) Add to My Stories Women who want to change their names when they marry will face a £100 ID card 'tax', it has emerged. They will be duty bound to update their entry on the new ID cards database, and hand over £30 if they want a card with their husband's surname. Coupled with the existing £72 charge for a new passport, it will mean paying £102. Refusing to update the ID database of any change in circumstance - including a new address - will carry a fine starting at £125 and rising to a maximum of £1,000. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiling the new UK ID card in September - people will be required to notify the National Identity Register of personal data changes Fines, which can be issued by post, email or fax, will also apply if cardholders fail to report lost or stolen cards. They will also have to pay £30 for a new card and go to a special centre to hand over their biometric details once again or have them checked. The new charges and penalties emerged in a Home Office consultation document outlining draft legislation on how the hugely-controversial £5billion ID card scheme will work. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Tax Payers' Alliance, said last night: 'It is unfair to effectively fine someone for getting married or forgetting to notify an official that they have moved house. 'ID cards are going to be extremely invasive and expensive, a double blow to ordinary people which we can ill afford. 'Given the Government's appalling record on IT projects, there is a strong chance people could be fined due to errors in the database.' Phil Booth, of the NO2ID privacy campaign, said: 'So the state "managing" your identity boils down to telling them everything there is to know about you, under threat - and coughing up time and again for the privilege. 'This must be a wake-up call for everyone who bought the line that ID was just a simple card.' From 2011 or 2012, passports and ID cards will become interlinked. Anybody applying for a passport will automatically have their details, including a scan of all ten fingerprints and their face, entered on the National Identity Register. Critics say the £30 cost of the ID card is only fixed to 2010 and could subsequently increase The combined charge will be £102 - £72 for a passport and £30 for an ID card, although critics say there is still scope for this to increase. If any of their personal information subsequently changes, they must notify officials immediately. Details which must be kept up to date include name, address and nationality. Critics say the scheme will be hugely bureaucratic and inconvenient. The consultation document says fines are 'not intended to be punitive or revenue raising'. But officials say penalties are necessary to ensure the information on the database remains current. Fines will normally be imposed only on those actively refusing to have their data updated. They double with each new offence, to a maximum of £1,000, although people can appeal. Providing false information, tampering with the register, giving out people's data without authorisation and holding false ID documents will all be criminal offences. Officials have also tried to tackle the issue of how to record the addresses of homeless people and gipsies. Former minister Des Browne holding a biometric identification card Homeless people wanting ID cards may be able to give their address as a bench, bus stop or park where they are often found. The legislation is likely to come before Parliament in the new year in time for its implementation-next autumn. Airport workers at Manchester and London City Airport will be issued with the first cards. Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'At a time of economic hardship, the public will be dismayed that the Government plans to fine innocent people for inaccuracies on the Government's own database. 'The Home Secretary has confirmed the worst element of the scheme - a single, mammoth and highly vulnerable database exposing masses of our personal details to criminal hackers. 'Worse still, she has magnified the scope for fraud by allowing spot fines to be issued by email. 'This scheme is truly the worst of all worlds - expensive, intrusive and unworkable.' An Identity and Passport Service spokesman said: ‘Whenever someone changes their name they will need to update and replace their identity card. There would be a charge for this just as there is when someone replaces their passport now.’ The draft secondary legislation is likely to come before Parliament in the new year in time for its implementation in autumn next year. Identity cards for foreign nationals will be issued from next week.
November 21, 200817 yr Bah, when Labour gets kicked out next year when Lord Brown has to call an election, the Tories/Lib Dems will get rid of the ID cards. Unless Labour sign a multi-billion pound contract outsourcing running of the scheme to an outside contractor
November 21, 200817 yr What about non British nationals living in Britain, who don't have to have a residence permit? Do they need some kind of biometric ID card?
November 21, 200817 yr The Non-british nationals living in britain are going to be the first to get ID cards. I'm against it because: 1 - I don't trust this governement to hold any data on me, every day a leak occurs 2 - I don't want to carry around another piece of ID with me everywhere,
November 21, 200817 yr The Non-british nationals living in britain are going to be the first to get ID cards. I'm against it because: 1 - I don't trust this governement to hold any data on me, every day a leak occurs 2 - I don't want to carry around another piece of ID with me everywhere, No one even knows that I live there though. Like I asked about registering when I first moved to Britain and they said I didn't have to do it. They don't really count some nations as proper foreign I think. For some weird reason my local authority is the one in the city I live in and not the one in my hometown.:confused: I totally agree with you, they require far too much information and I think everyone should have the option not to have an ID if they don't want to leave the country.
November 22, 200817 yr Man, I've been trying to figure out how to move to England for a while now. This is a good way to keep me out. It's scary. And expensive- how's a homeless person supposed to afford to pay 60 bucks for a useless invasive piece of plastic?
November 22, 200817 yr Homeless people wanting ID cards may be able to give their address as a bench, bus stop or park where they are often found. you are kidding me????? so I can be found £1000 for not updating the card with my married name, but if I'm homeless, I can give my address as tree in the middle of Wythenshawe Park? which person are you most likely to find if you're looking for them? the one with the wrong name who will have the paperwork to prove who they are, or the person living under a tree in a park. its bad enough that you have to pay to have your passport updated & you'll have to pay to have an id card updated. I'm always intrigued that the DVLA let you change your licence for free when you get married, yet the others charge.
November 23, 200817 yr The sooner Brown,Millitwat ,Balls,Blears etc are kicked out,the better, if Labour win the next general election then the British public deserve everything they get, you would have to have an IQ in single figures to believe thier spin, thankfully I won't be here either way.
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