Dear LPG readers,  

I have a neighbour who is now well over ninety but she reminds me daily of why the new ‘whatever-your-age-is’ is so often said to be a decade less than the number you boast.  We literally live next door to each other and I find myself at ‘hers’ nearly every day.   

She is still self-sufficient in so many ways and still very active for her age.  There is just one aspect of living that gets her down a little.  Each morning when I pop in to see her, there is nearly always something that she has misplaced.   

Over recent weeks she seems to have focused in on losing those documents that we all need to keep safe.  If we search for long enough they come to light in the end but the anguish of her losing so many things and my helping her to find them has left me becoming a bit of an expert on where to look.  

I have helped her set up telephone banking so that when her cards and cheque books go missing, I know where to phone to order new ones.  (We have stopped telling the bank to cancel the missing ones because the minute we have made the call, they usually come to light.)  I have also learned where to get copy bus passes and birth certificates, and her gift for losing such things has taught me to have a list of the relevant telephone numbers needed to replace them. 

She is one of the 1.79 million people aged 80 and over in Great Britain that still holds a full driving licence, but that little bit of plastic is also one of the things that she has a gift for misplacing, and the other day I arrived at her front door to be greeted with her worry about the latest nook or cranny where it has found a home.   

On the day, she had found two but neither was up to date.  She wanted to use it as proof of identity for something and, though she was trying her best to ‘play it cool’, I could see her anguish.  It had nothing to do with the document (well there was an element of inconvenience there) but her mind was coming to the reality that she had been popping to the shops, and off to see her friends, illegally.   

If you are over 70 and you still drive there is the three-yearly inconvenience of having to renew, and it comes around so often that it is hard to keep up with when that needs to happen sometimes, while replacing it costs £20.   

After the customary house search, I phoned the DVLA with her, and we were assured that her licence is well and truly up to date, even though her plastic card collection was not.  We also learned that the bit of plastic is no longer a vital bit of kit.  You can phone them on 0300 790 6801 or go to the internet to get an update on the number and when it needs to be renewed. 

They also showed me where you can go on the internet to check on the details we are used to finding there, and I thought it worth passing on the information for any other driver for whom this issue ever becomes a worry. 

I am beginning to wonder how much longer we will actually need our little plastic card.  It appears that our driving licences are quietly going the same way as the car tax disk.   Do you remember them?  We have not needed one since 2014…  

NG , Lee  

 

 

NG shares what she learned from the DVLA about finding driver's license information online…

 

If you know your driver number

 

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If you don’t know your driving licence number

 

 

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