DVLA complaints soar as key papers are ‘held hostage’ in backlog

Complaints against Britain’s driving licence authority have nearly quintupled in the past six months after industrial action led to a mountain of delayed renewal applications.

Complaints aggregator Resolver received nearly 4,800 complaints against the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency between April and September, a record high and some 365pc more than in the previous six months.

The DVLA had to send scores of staff on paid leave or instruct them to work from home last year after a Covid outbreak at its Swansea offices. The agency has also been hit by strike action over the year due to a dispute over Covid safety measures for staff returning to the office.

As a result, the DVLA has a backlog of around 400,000 paper applications, increasing the average waiting time by around two months.

After a high number of complaints against the agency last winter, volumes dipped over the spring and summer but have since risen dramatically. Almost half of all complaints over the past six months were over delayed licence applications.

Resolver also recorded a 331pc spike in complaints about calls not being answered compared with the previous six months, a four-fold rise in complaints over long customer service waiting times, and more than triple the complaints about communications not being responded to.

Martyn James of Resolver said: “Comments about one to two-hour waits on the phone, or longer, are common. A particular issue that people are mentioning is becoming ‘document hostages’, where they have submitted key identity documents to the DVLA only to hear nothing back.”

Mr James said this was a particular issue for foreign nationals, who may have submitted passports and other vital documents that they now could not get back.

The Public & Commercial Services Union has not ruled out further industrial action at the agency’s Swansea site.

The PCS this month voted to strike again at the DVLA, but members will be unable to take to picket lines because of trade union laws. Some 79pc of members voted for action, but the mandatory 50pc turnout threshold was not reached, meaning that the strike could not go forward.

A PCS spokesman said: “We will continue to campaign for the health and safety of union members at the DVLA and across the civil service.”

Mr James said that scammers and opportunistic firms were now targeting motorists by offering to speed up their licence applications. “Of course they do no such thing, as they have to go through the same communication channels as everyone else,” he said.

He added: “Not only are countless consumers left waiting for vital documents that simply don’t turn up, they are now being charged a fee for the process too.”

A spokesman for the DVLA said there were no delays with online services, adding that the agency had recruited extra staff and increased overtime working to reduce waiting times.

“We handle millions of transactions every year and are issuing around 200,000 driving licences each week,” the spokesman added. “Demand to speak to our contact centre is currently very high and our staff are working hard to answer calls, but there will be delays for customers who call.”

Drivers are legally required to renew their photocard driving licence every 10 years.