A devastated mother told how shambolic delays by ‘work from home’ passport officials left her plans of a dream family trip to Disneyland Paris in tatters.
Zuleika Pilling, 47, accused the Passport Office of running ‘a Mickey Mouse operation’ and says she faced being left thousands of pounds out of pocket over the once-in-a-lifetime trip for daughter Lailah, 16, and son Isaac, 18.
Their hopes of travelling to France on the Eurostar train on Monday were laid in ruins after Lailah’s new passport failed to arrive on time.
She told MailOnline: ‘My children have been looking forward to going to Disneyland. It’s a dream trip for them.
Their hopes of travelling to France on the Eurostar train on Monday were laid in ruins after Lailah’s new passport failed to arrive on time
‘Unfortunately it looks like it’s not going to happen because of our country’s passport system. Mickey Mouse could certainly provide a better service than their people working from home.’
Zuleika told how she has run up costs of £300 trying to address the issue on top of the £2,300 costs of the four day trip.
She told how the application had been hit by ‘one delay after another’ with officials telling her that they did not have the right database at home to help ensure the application went through on time.
After making ‘dozens of calls’ Zuleika told how she was assured the passport would come through on time if she made an additional payment.
But the process was held up again as officials told her the only way she could pay was by postal order because they were unable to process the payment from home.
Zuleika, from Brighton, East Sussex, was told she may have to travel to Belfast or Cardiff to pick up the new passport but has since been fobbed off by officials – followed by ‘radio silence’.
The devastated mother, who was also due to travel with her partner, said: ‘It’s been a disaster from start to finish.
‘They keep saying to me they can’t do this and they can’t do that because they’re working from home. It’s ridiculous.’
Zuleika Pilling, 47, accused the Passport Office of running ‘a Mickey Mouse operation’
Zuleika told how she booked the dream holiday in March as a surprise treat for her children after they finished their GCSE’s and A Level exams.
She said the teenagers were ‘adrenaline junkies’ but Lailah had been unable to go on theme park rides after undergoing brain surgery three years ago.
The trip was laid on after the youngster was finally given the all clear in December.
Lailah, whose travel documents had previously been renewed every five years, had a passport which runs out in August. New rules mean passports must be valid for at least three months after the date of departure.
Zuleika was told she could have to wait up to 10 weeks after making the application for her daughter in April.
When she found out the application had stalled she was advised to make an additional payment of £26.50 to speed up the process and guarantee her documents would arrive before their date of departure on July 18.
Zuleika said: ‘It is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to celebrate my son and daughter finishing their A Levels and GCSEs.
‘It was a surprise. My kids are teenage adrenaline junkies. They like rides but my daughter hasn’t been able to do them because she had brain surgery three years ago. She has finally been given the go ahead since Christmas.
‘It was supposed to be a real double whammy celebration trip. They went to Disneyland about 10 years ago and loved it so much they always wanted to go back.
Zuleika told how she booked the dream holiday in March as a surprise treat for her children after they finished their GCSE’s and A Level exams.
‘Under the new rules when I saw my daughter’s passport was running out in August I applied for a new one obviously thinking it would be here within 10 weeks.
‘But there has just been one delay after another. I realised the process had stalled when I checked the link they send you so you can follow the progress of the application.
‘It was still saying what it was showing in April – that they had received my friend’s confirmation of identity of my daughter. It hadn’t moved on from there. It hadn’t gone through any other further stages.
’When I first phoned them I was told her passport wasn’t on the system. That was a bit of a shock. That’s when I knew something was really going wrong.
‘It has not been easy to get hold of people on the phone. I have been making phone calls of up to an hour and 40 minutes. You have to call at a special rate and they make the money on that.
‘They keep turning round and saying we can’t look further on the system because we’re working from home. They say this database is not on my system because we’re working from home. That’s all I keep getting.
‘I spoke to someone a few weeks ago and she said if you pay £26.50 the application would be expedited. Then I was told they can’t take payments for the upgrade because they’re working from home.
She said the teenagers were ‘adrenaline junkies’ but Lailah had been unable to go on theme park rides after undergoing brain surgery three years ago. The trip was laid on after the youngster was finally given the all clear in December
‘I had to go to the post office to pay by postal order. It’s like going back to the dark ages.
‘I had to do the old fashioned method of doing it through postal order and sent it to them recorded delivery with all the documents all over again because they are all working from home and they can’t take the payment at home.
‘I had to prove I was going on holiday on July 18 which I’ve done. I sent the documents. I got an email from them last week confirming that I would get the passport before we go away – but now there’s nothing.’
‘I’m a single mum. After the pandemic and everything, a trip like this is not a common occurrence – it’s a once in a lifetime thing.
‘Because they did their exams, they finished early so we booked it so that we could go away before it gets really busy and really expensive when the school holiday begins.
‘I booked the Eurostar because of the problems there have been at the airports.
‘I was last told the passport was in Durham. I have been told I have to wait for them to call me. They said I might have to go to Belfast or Cardiff to get it.
‘But now there is just nothing – radio silence. The problem is just not knowing because there has been no phone call to tell me what to do.
‘They promised that I would have it by this week. Now I’m calling and they are saying I can’t speak to anyone in the upgrade team – it will just be them contacting me.
‘They just say I have to wait for the upgrade team to call me. It sounds pretty shambolic. They seem all over the place and on top of that I am getting charged to call them.
‘I just can’t believe it. Why can’t someone know what’s going on and speak to me?
‘Why don’t they have the right systems? If you are working from home you should have the right databases in your homes.
‘It’s been two and a half years since Covid surely they should be a little bit more up and running now. It’s been very frustrating. I’ve no idea what we’re going to do. I’m all a bit lost.
‘We are supposed to be going on holiday on Monday and I’ve had just nothing, nothing, nothing. I’m hearing it’s a very common theme. It’s quite shocking that they are getting away with this.
The passport was finally issued after MailOnline intervened on the family’s behalf.
The Home Office said: ‘The family have been contacted and they will collect it from the London office on Saturday morning (July 16).
A spokesperson said the £26.50 fee was charged as Lailah turned 16 in June and was being charged for an adult passport of £75.50 rather than a children’s passport of £49.
The spokesperson added that passport advice line staff were working from home rather than Passport Office staff.
The spokesperson added: ‘Not all of them have full access to HMP systems but they all have the processes in place to enable enquiries to reach the right team.’
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