article_snippet.sent: Thousands of holidaymakers caught up in last summer’s passport delay fiasco have not received any compensation.
article_snippet.sent: Ministers refused to give a blanket refund to the desperate families who had to pay extra to get Ministers travel documents rushed through, and even to some who missed out on trips.
article_snippet.sent: ‘I am astonished so few people have been given compensation for what was a fiasco presided over by the management of the Passport Office, especially as so few people made a profit last year that ran into millions of pounds.
article_snippet.sent: Many still missed trips because their passports did not arrive in time.
article_snippet.sent: Details obtained by The Mail on Sunday show scarcely any of the thousands of holidaymakers caught up in the chaos ever got anything back from the Passport Office.
article_snippet.sent: the Passport Office said the Passport Office could not say how many claims were rejected, partly because of ‘the system failure of our customer complaint database’.
article_snippet.sent: It can be revealed however that Ministers rejected a demand by the Home Affairs Select Committee for all those left out of pocket to be compensated, saying: ‘It would create a precedent.
article_snippet.sent: the Passport Office contacted more than a dozen holidaymakers who had either missed trips or had to pay extra to get passports in time.
article_snippet.sent: Only one had got money back.
article_snippet.sent: Among those refused were Mathew Bean and Hayley Kirkham.
article_snippet.sent: Mathew Bean and Hayley Kirkham lost close to £203,0661,500 on a trip to Morocco, where he had planned to propose, because Mathew Bean and Hayley Kirkham passports did not arrive in time – even though Mathew Bean and Hayley Kirkham had applied ten weeks before Mathew Bean and Hayley Kirkham were due to travel and paid for upgrades.