Passport Office told to ask people for £100 to fast-track applications amid backlog, leaked memo reveals

Passport Workplace staff have been instructed to encourage annoyed prospects to pay £100 to fast-track their renewals regardless of the price of dwelling disaster, a leaked memo reveals.

With as many as 500,000 passports ready to be issued, staff have confronted an rising variety of offended Britons turning up in individual at their premises in latest weeks demanding to know what has occurred to their utility.

Insiders have claimed the Passport Workplace stays in disaster with workers battling piles of labor on their desks and paperwork locked in assembly rooms to cover the size of the issue.

And a leaked memo obtained by i offers workers recommendation on methods to cope with an increase in ‘informal callers’ who flip up in individual, together with encouraging them to pay for an improve in the event that they’ve waited greater than six weeks for his or her renewal or have an pressing must journey within the subsequent fortnight.

Passport Workplace workers have been instructed to solely provide an improve to the premium or fast-track service freed from cost if prospects have been ready greater than 10 weeks for his or her new passport.

Within the memo, issued on 27 Might, Passport Workplace workers are given a listing of “strains to take” if they’re coping with a buyer who has come to one among its customer support centres to chase up their utility.

One part of the memo, which advises workers on what to say if a buyer asks if their is a price to improve their utility, reads: “We’d be upgrading you to a precedence service. The price payable will rely on the service required to fulfill your wants and shall be mentioned with you while you obtain your name from the group dealing with your request.”

The memo particulars how an improve price of £101.50 is required for an grownup for the premium service, which ensures you’ll get your passport at a booked appointment.

The quick monitor service, which ensures your passport shall be delivered to your own home inside every week of a booked appointment, prices £66 for adults and £73 for youngsters, in keeping with the leaked doc.

It additionally offers examples of questions prospects would possibly ask and methods to reply comparable to: “As soon as my improve request has been submitted, when will I count on to be contacted by HMPO?”

The suggested response is: “The Improve Groups are working in date of journey order.

“As a result of excessive quantity of requests, we can not verify when you may be contacted.

“Please don’t ship progress chasing emails as this slows down the method. In case you have not been contacted inside 48 hours of the date you require your passport, please return to the workplace together with your proof of journey.”

After the disaster escalated in latest weeks, some annoyed prospects arrange a Fb group known as ‘Passport Appointment Assist’. It now has 22,000 members venting their frustration on the delays.

Some members really feel the improve price is unfair with one lady writing: “When you’ve despatched it off nicely inside sufficient time I don’t see why folks must pay for an improve. It’s their fault there are delays.”

A HM Passport Workplace employee, talking to i on situation of anonymity, described the scenario as “chaotic”.

“I believe it’s worse than folks realise,” they mentioned.

“It’s chaotic. The management aren’t speaking, at some point we’re instructed to prioritise one type of utility, the subsequent day it’s one thing else.

“It doesn’t really feel like anyone is aware of what they’re doing.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson instructed MPs final month “everybody” is getting a passport inside six weeks, however Labour says there’s a backlog of as many as 500,000 passports ready to be issued and that tens of hundreds of individuals have waited greater than ten weeks.

The Passport Workplace instructed i “nobody actually is aware of” how unhealthy the scenario is as a result of weekly figures are now not being shared internally.

Additionally they described how bins of paperwork are being saved in locked assembly rooms.

They consider that is an effort to maintain the size of the backlog underneath wraps.

Pictures of a room full of a whole bunch of bins of purposes on the HM Passport Workplace in Liverpool have been leaked to the media throughout an identical disaster in 2014.

Describing a special HM Passport Workplace, the insider instructed i there are at the moment two assembly rooms “locked, blinds down” believed to be full of paperwork.

The insider has been working within the division for many years however says it’s “by no means been as unhealthy as it’s in the mean time”.

“Lots of workers have been working like this since final 12 months. They really feel the stress,” they mentioned.

“They’ve received piles of labor on the desk, they’re conscious these are honeymoons, particular events that persons are travelling for.

“Then they learn within the media feedback from the Prime Minister saying how he’s going to privatise the Passport Workplace when it’s privatisation that’s failing.”

Labour’s MP for Durham Mary Foy claims she was refused a go to to seek out out what’s going on on the Passport Workplace in her constituency this week.

She appealed for staff to contact her anonymously and shared a few of their experiences solely with i.

Members of workers instructed Ms Foy that they’re “demoralised” and declare they’re being “bullied” by senior administration resulting in a “poisonous working tradition”.

One employee reported feeling suicidal because of their therapy.

It’s believed round 500 company workers have been recruited lately, of round 1700 promised by the federal government, in a bid to sort out the passport backlog however everlasting workers have instructed Ms Foy they’re solely educated to work on one among two utility programs that have to be used.

“…company workers are making errors which then kick purposes to the again of the queue they usually could not get picked up once more for an additional 4 to eight weeks,” one employee mentioned.

“Company workers are inflicting delays in work which extra skilled workers would have cleared shortly as they don’t perceive each programs.”

Workers have additionally claimed that there’s “no strict protocol” on how paperwork despatched in are being dealt with, resulting in some going lacking or older purposes being pushed to the again.

Ms Foy instructed a debate within the Commons final week: “The Authorities must get a grip and provide you with correct options. Passport Places of work throughout the nation have to be turned again into constructive working environments, the place workers really feel appreciated and may excel of their roles.

“I’m assured that when the poisonous working cultures which have emerged are resolved, productiveness will return, and we’ll have a service that’s as soon as once more one to be pleased with.”

A HM Passport Workplace spokesperson instructed i: “We’re grateful to HMPO workers who’re working tirelessly to course of round 250,000 purposes every week, with 98.5% of purposes accomplished inside 10 weeks.

“We take the wellbeing of our workers severely, which is why any workers member who has considerations about their workload or work situations is inspired to boost this with their supervisor as quickly as potential.

“Since April 2021, we’ve clearly acknowledged that individuals ought to enable as much as ten weeks when making use of for his or her passport and we can not compromise safety checks.”

In Might, over 91 per cent of purposes from the UK accomplished processing inside 6 weeks, the Dwelling Workplace added.

Ms Foy’s go to to HMPO Durham couldn’t be accommodated as a result of “coordinating a go to for an MP would divert very important useful resource” from the work to course of purposes, the Dwelling Workplace added.