Posted on 12/27/2006 9:02:06 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
A draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme.
Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury.
People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at least £30 for a new card if they want to use their married name, risking a £1,000 fine if they do not comply.
The revelations will fuel debate over ID cards in the countdown to their nationwide introduction, which the Government claims will boost security, tackle identity fraud and prevent illegal working. But costs are soaring and the technology has failed in tests.
The Government says people will have to pay £30 for a simple ID card, or more than £90 for one with a passport. Experts, however, claim that the cost of a combined card could be as high as £300, pushing the implementation costs beyond £20 billion.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the fines revelation shows that the scheme "will hit the taxpayer not the terrorists" and is "just another Labour stealth tax".
He said: "It is shocking that the Government is considering charges and fines on people at some of the most sensitive times in life. The Conservatives would scrap this plastic poll tax and invest the savings in practical measures to improve security."
The first cards will be issued by the Identity and Passport Service to passport applicants in 2009 and will become compulsory from 2010.
As well as a picture, the card will carry a microchip holding biometric information such as fingerprints, iris or facial scans. Everyone over 16 applying for a passport will have these details added to a National Identity Register from 2008.
The extent of the fines for minor infringements is revealed in written answers from John Reid, the Home Secretary, and other ministers. They show that the Government is drawing up sinister sounding "guidance on death registration" which will order bereaved families to return the card of their deceased relative within a specified period. Failure to do so would carry a £1,000 fine under the "invalidity and surrender of ID cards" section of the Identity Cards Act 2006.
Mr Reid confirmed: "We intend to work closely with the General Registrar Offices to ensure that the notification of death and return of the ID card can be done in a sensitive manner."
Joan Ryan, the Home Office minister, said that charges would apply "if a person wished to add a married surname to his or her register entry". Based on an estimate of 311,000 marriages a year, that would net up to £9 million a year for the Exchequer.
People would be charged at least £30 for lost or stolen cards. Based on the 930,000 driving licences lost or stolen each year, this would earn the Treasury more than £28 million a year, say the Tories.
Mr Davis said the potential scale of the fines — those two areas of card "infringement" alone could bring in up to £40 million a year for the Treasury — proved that ID cards were a new stealth tax.
In a separate plan that the Tories say could hit millions of students, Mr Reid admitted that applicants will be asked for "all current alternative addresses". Failure to update the register with details such as term-time halls of residence could result in a £1,000 fine.
There was also anger over the disclosure that all fees and fines will be paid directly into the Treasury's central funds for general spending and not go towards running the scheme.
Trying to squeeze the last money out of the citizens hands?Oh,I forgot-they're subjects not citizens.
The same thing will happen here within 20 years, if not sooner.
Just wait for the next terrorist strike or some other excuse....
Serfs up!
Get your pitchforks here!
Special discount on family size quantities!
Torches, half price...get'em while they're HOT!
SERFS UP!
Just another part of grafth, greed and stealing.
Actually it will start in 2008 when REAL ID takes effect, unless it is stopped by the people.
This is fact not fiction, not conspiracy theory.
Check out http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.5361c0f4fe6e68d18a278110501010a0/?vgnextoid=ebd1ae12a51cd010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=455c8aaa2ebbff00VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD
if the link doesn't work just look up the National Governors Association.
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