This piece first appeared in Saga Magazine in November 1999
The text here may not be identical to the published text

Driving costs up


New costs for motorists


If you are aged 70 or more and you drive you will already know that you are taxed for the privilege. Every three years you have to fill in a form and pay a fee to re-apply for your driving licence. In April that fee was increased from £6 to £8.50 - a rise of 42%. In the same month, the state retirement pension went up by a more modest 3.2%. So why are people over 70 made to pay this charge?

Until 1976 all licences had to be renewed every three years. But as part of harmonising out licences with those in Europe (we joined the EEC in 1973), new licences were issued from 1976 and they lasted until the age of 70 without being renewed. So for one fee, someone who passed their test at the age of 18 could be licensed for nearly 52 years. However, once a driver reached 70 they still had to renew every three years.

The reason given for the rule by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is that health problems are more likely to occur as you get older. As long as you are fit and your vision is clear there is no reason why you should not go on driving until you are 100 - or more. But there are 16 identified medical conditions which every driver is under a legal obligation to tell the DVLA about. And many of these conditions - including visual defects in both eyes, diabetes, stroke, angina, and having a pacemaker - affect older people particularly.

By making older people fill in a form every three years, the DVLA brings these conditions to their attention and that makes it less likely that people will fail to inform the DVLA through ignorance or carelessness. Having one of the conditions listed on the licence application form does not necessarily mean you cannot drive.

If you admit to one of them, then you will be asked for further details and you will have to allow DVLA officials to ask your doctor for more information. Obviously, it is in every driver's and pedestrian's interest that the people who are allowed to drive a car are fit to do so. But several Saga readers have asked why older people should have to pay the cost of declaring themselves fit. Derek Smith who lives in a country area near Exeter says it is unfair.

"You pay £155 for the car tax and on top you now have to pay £8.50 every three years for a licence. Why can't pensioners get a reduction? We rely on our car round here, the buses are useless, we keep within the speed limits, and many of us have 50 years experience. It's the youngsters up to 25 who are the menace on the road, why not charge them more? It is another instance of Government treating the elderly unfairly. They think the elderly will take all that's thrown at them and not complain."

The charge for the licence only began about ten years ago. Until then it was free. But when the responsibility was moved to the DVLA, it had to break even - so motorists had to bear the cost of licensing. Since then the charge has increased rapidly to its current level of £8.50 - which apparently roughly covers the cost.

Photos
And now there is new chore - and a new expense. From July this year the DVLA has been issuing plastic licences with a photograph on them. And although the old- pink paper licences will continue to be valid, anyone who renews or replaces a licence for any reason has to give up their pink paper form and get a new Photocard licence. That applies in every case - so even if your licence has been lost or stolen, if you want to get rid of spent penalty points (they have to stay there for four years), or if you want to update the address, you will get a new Photocard licence.

The new licence does not cost any more. But it does require more work. First, you have to pay for a suitable passport-type photograph. Second you have to provide proof of identity and get the photo validated by someone. The alternative is to send along your passport. DVLA told Saga Magazine that the passport would be returned 'practically at once' and the new licence would be supplied within fifteen days. Nevertheless, it is not sensible to do it just before you are going abroad on a trip.

And there's another drawback with the new licence. Even younger people have to renew it every ten years - in order to keep the photo up to date. So if you are thinking of swapping your dog-eared paper licence for a new one, be warned - ten years from now you will be forking out again. The only good news for older people is that once you reach 70 there is no need to update the photo. The DVLA will use the same photo each time you renew it every three years.

You can blame the European Union for the new Photcard - which looks more like an identity card than a driving licence. Under European regulations, all member states must issue driving licences carrying a photo from 2001 at the latest. Our DVLA has just started a bit early.

Car Tax
The charge for the driving licence is just one of the many expenses motorists face. Dealers charge us more for new cars in the UK than they do in other EU countries. Since 1992 the duty on petrol has been raised each year above the rate of inflation - this year it went up by 6% above inflation. Tax and duties now account for around 85% of the cost of petrol - so 64p of the 75p we now pay for a litre of unleaded goes straight to the Chancellor.

But there is one dim ray of hope. If you drive a smaller car, the rate of car tax (properly called Vehicle Excise Duty) has already been cut for some vehicles. And from autumn 2000, owners of cars which pollute less may pay less tax. The first change, introduced in the Budget this year, cuts the Vehicle Excise Duty for vehicles of 1100 cc and less to £100 from June 1 - instead of the new rate of £155. One and a half million owners of these smaller vehicles were invited to claim a refund on the tax they had overpaid. You can still do so - but only for each complete month that your licence has left to run. You can then renew the licence at the new rate.

But some owners of smaller cars will be disappointed. Many smaller vehicles are called '1100' but in fact can have a capacity of up to 1149cc. They will not qualify. Only vehicle of exactly 1100cc or below get the concession. Those with a capacity of 1101cc and above do not.

The system will get even more complicated from next Autumn when the tax on new vehicles will depend on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per 100 kilometres driven. The Government is expected to introduce a number of bands with the worst polluters paying the most. And it may extend the banding to existing vehicles, basing it on engine size. In both cases, the bands will apply to the make and model of car - no account will be taken of a particular vehicle's emissions. It is possible - though by no means certain - that the above inflation rises in petrol duty will be scaled back or abandoned at the same time. Paul Watters of the Automobile Association told Saga Magazine.

"They have run their course and we hope for a quid pro quo with the new vehicle tax system. The problem is that people who have catalytic converters get no reward for that. The new system as we understand it will only apply to new cars, so people who have bought low pollution cars recently will get no advantage. And I have real fears that the DVLA will not be able to cope with the new tax system. It will be too complicated. We will not even know until November if the Agency's computer will be able to cope with the millennium bug."

Historic vehicles
If you have a very old vehicle then it may be exempt from tax altogether. Even though older vehicles do tend to pollute the air more, any vehicle constructed before January 1 1973 pays a zero rate of tax - you still have to get a tax disc and display it on the windscreen but you pay nothing. When the concession was introduced in November 1995 it applied to any vehicle which was more than 25 years old. So each year a new batch became exempt. But in his Budget in 1998, the Chancellor decided to change the scheme. Now only what are called 'historical' vehicles constructed before January 1, 1973 qualify.

November 1999


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