However, this service no longer exists and has presented low-income families with a further barrier. Until recently, UK residents could ask their doctor to sign their passport application – for a fee. Many, however, are not.Īfter saving up the funds, the author got her passport and jetted off © Hope Brotherton After receiving my first paycheque, and on having no responsibilities, I took the plunge and bought the little burgundy book. In the end, it was my summer job that gave me the funds to afford a passport. Every Saturday, I deposited my meagre sums into my savings account and slowly, I watched it grow. I saved pennies, pounds and any odd bits of shrapnel I could find in a tiny blue ceramic pot. I never wanted money, or lack thereof, to be a barrier. Whenever she had managed to save money for our dream holiday abroad, an emergency would arise that would inevitably deplete both our savings and our dreams.

The short phone call with my mum reinforced what I already knew.

'You can’t afford the £75.50 price tag when you drop down onto just one income.' 'When you have children, different priorities take over,' my mum explained when I asked why she didn’t have a passport. At that time, in 2011, I was 16 and part of that statistic. In the last UK census, 9.5 million Britons revealed that they didn’t hold a UK passport. These dreams though wouldn’t be realised during my youth, as my family couldn’t afford the price of a passport, let alone a seat on the plane. I longed to see the wonders of the world, to explore other shores and to soak in cultural sites. Throughout my teenage years, I had travelled vicariously through guidebooks, magazines and postcards. The author was among the near 10 million Britons who do not own a passport © Hope Brotherton

Passport fees 2020