"alan_m" wrote in message
...
On 17/11/2019 21:15, Steve Walker wrote:

Possibly because so many government services are going online and not
having access puts people at a significant disadvantage - and costs
government departments at lot of time and money providing phone support
instead.

and to give them some praise my online dealings with government
departments online in the past few years (national insurance, tax rebates,
pension and passport renewal) have been very favourable and must in the
long run save a fortune in bureaucracy.

Yeah, I do my annual car rego and insurance that way.
You still have to get the equivalent of your MOT in
person with your car but that isnt done by govt operations.

Us geriatrics dont have to do tax returns anymore unless you have
a high level of taxable income. Pensions and similar arent taxed here.
We are free to do out tax returns online and even vote online too.

My recent passport renewal took a total of 7 days from submitting the
details and electronic photo on line to having the document in my hand.
Two days of that were reliant on Royal mail delivering my old passport
back to them. I got text messages telling me that the process had started,
the photo had been approved as acceptable, that they had received the old
passport and the new one was going to be printed and couple telling me of
the delivery slot.