LONDON’S Uber and Bolt drivers face “debt and destitution” due to delays in renewing their licences, their union warned today.

Private hire drivers in the capital must renew their licences with Transport for London (TfL) every four years, but a backlog in processing applications has left many unable to work for weeks or even months —despite applying in advance.

The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union said more than 500 drivers paying the £310 renewal fee have been affected, even though some applied four months early.

The IWGB has called on the TfL to issue temporary licences while it clears the backlog.

Following a meeting last week, TfL has fast-tracked some urgent cases with at least 70 drivers receiving their licences.

But the union said that far too many drivers are still left waiting.

Kambiz Hemati, a driver still waiting for his licence renewal, said: “I’ve paid £1,800 [for medical tests, the DBS check and the TfL fee] so far, yet I haven’t been able to work for over a month.

“With no income, I’ve had to borrow more and more money to keep up with my mortgage payments, my car instalments, my insurance, etc.

“It’s so hard. I can’t sleep for more than four hours a night at the moment because of the stress.

“The frustrating thing is that even once TfL finally issues me with a licence, the nightmare won’t end there — I’ll have to work day and night for months to climb out of the debt I have accrued on account of TfL’s disorganisation.”

The IWGB is calling for urgent reforms to prevent further hardship for the workers.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We take our responsibilities for licensing taxi and private hire drivers extremely seriously, to ensure the provision of safe taxi and private hire services for the public.

“We have recently introduced a new licensing system which has delivered a number of benefits to licensees, including the ability to track their applications online. 

“Unfortunately, we have experienced some issues which have impacted our processing times, compounding the difficulties we experienced following the cyber incident last year. We are working closely with our system service provider to rectify any system issues and have increased the number of licensing staff who are processing and issuing licences.

“The vast majority of drivers have been unaffected, however we are aware that some drivers have been impacted, mainly those where we had requested that the driver provides missing or additional information necessary for making a licensing decision. This has led to some drivers being unable to continue working. 

“We apologise to any driver that has been affected and are working to resolve any urgent licensing issues.”