Passport delays could cost families £1bn in holiday cancellations

FAMILIES could lose as much as £1.1 billion in holiday cancellations caused by passport delays, top economists have warned.

Widespread delays in receiving the document have been blamed on a postpandemic surge in demand, combined with claims that working from home has reduced the productivity of civil servants in the Passport Office.

Shushill Suglani, at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said that if this leads to 500,000 would-be holidaymakers’ plans being disrupted when they cannot get refunds, then £1.1 billion could be lost.

“If families aren’t able to get their money back, that is equivalent to a 5.4 per cent loss of total yearly income for two adults working on the average UK salary,” he said.

The delays are a problem not only for the applicants themselves, but also for the travel sector, which is desperately trying to recuperate the losses that have accumulated over the past two years. The sector was among the most impacted by the pandemic, with estimated losses totalling £133billion in 2020 alone.”

The Home Office disputed the estimates, which are based on half of passport applications taking longer than 10 weeks to be processed, arguing that most passports are issued far more quickly than this.

“The vast majority of passport applications are being processed within the ten week service standard we have had in place since April 2021. Anyone who needs to renew their passport ahead of the summer, is encouraged to do so now,” a spokesman said.

The department said more than 1 million passport applications were processed in March alone, with around 9.5 million applications expected over the course of the year.

It comes amid a cost of living crisis that has already pushed inflation up to 7 per cent, with energy bills rising more than 50 per cent last month and further increases expected to come later this year. Abi Tierney, the head of the Passport Office, had been under pressure to return to the office full time, while the Home Office’s permanent secretary has defended her, arguing that remote working has “precisely zero bearing” on the organisation’s problems.

Hybrid working has come under focus since Jacob Rees-mogg, the Cabinet minister, urged workers to return to Whitehall.

Mr Rees-mogg is said to have left notes on empty desks saying “sorry you were out when I visited”.