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Comment by ryanlol | Hacker News Reader

That’s clever, but still leaves a significant edge case. I’d hazard to guess that 101-year-olds don’t travel very much and are therefore rather likely to be forced to get new passports for this specific purpose. (But perhaps the home office accepts expired passports?)

>But I doubt this 101-year-old got much choice in exactly what format his passport contained his DOB

I’m sure he didn’t, this definitely isn’t his fault.

> so the software needs to handle it

Does it though? It’s a rare edge case that should be trivial to solve with minor human intervention.

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> Does it though? It’s a rare edge case that should be trivial to solve with minor human intervention.

Apparently[1] centenarians make up 0.02% of the UK population; how well this statistic transfers to EU nationals in the UK I don't know, but if it's 1:1 then this issue affects about 600 people. A large proportion of those will however have some trouble rectifying the problem themselves; the over-90-year-olds I know certainly would all struggle with this sort of thing. In the article, the activist who volunteers helping people with the registration process is quoted as saying it required 2 calls to the Home Office. This is someone who presumably has some practice dealing with the process and the Home Office and they couldn't get it sorted out trivially. If it's an accepted failure case of the automated process, there needs to be an established alternative process; it sounds like no consideration was given to this edge case at all. So, not "minor human intervention."

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

I don’t think the article says that anywhere.

It does however state that the issue was rectified after spending 30 minutes on the phone with the home office.

E: Eh, I guess you rewrote your entire comment.

> there needs to be an established alternative process

Well, there is. You apply over the phone or in person.

> the over-90-year-olds I know certainly would all struggle with this sort of thing

Do you think most of those people would find it easier to use the app than apply in person or over the phone?

Seems fair to guess most 1-year-olds don't travel much internationally either.

Sure, but I can’t see how that matters here.

If by most, you mean >50%, then you're probably right, but but especially within EU countries, having >10% foreign nationals among the population is common. Those foreign nationals will frequently give birth to equally foreign children, who need to obtain passports whether or not they're planning to travel. (Although they frequently do travel to visit family.)

TL;DR, 1-year-olds with passports are common.

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