Penalty points: thousands with 12 points on their licence still driving

Motorists can get exemptions from a driving ban when the court believes they would suffer “exceptional hardship”.

If you’re caught behaving badly behind the wheel, then you may end up with points being placed on your licence.

Increasing numbers of drivers may find themselves in this position in the coming months too after the Government announced tougher new rules around the use of mobile phones while behind the wheel.

Those points can quickly add up if you’re repeatedly caught doing something you shouldn’t, and once you hit 12 points you face a serious problem since at that point you are banned from driving for upwards of six months.

Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work, yet a new study has revealed that there are thousands of drivers on the road right now who have passed this milestone but are still permitted to drive.

Exceptional hardship

A Freedom of Information request from the PA news agency revealed that on 4th September of this year, there were 8,632 drivers still in possession of their driving licence who had accrued 12 penalty points.

Usually, if you get that many points on your licence within a three-year period then you are disqualified for at least six months, but this doesn’t always happen.

The courts can allow drivers to keep driving in extenuating circumstances, should they face financial hardship through not being able to drive.

For example, it may be that they are the only breadwinner in the household and rely on using a car in order to carry out their duties.

However, it’s worth noting that this alone is not necessarily going to be enough to avoid a driving ban. In its guidelines, the Sentencing Council points out that exemptions should only be granted if the offender can prove they would suffer “exceptional hardship” and not just simply hardship.

It adds: “Evidence that loss of employment would follow from disqualification is not in itself sufficient to demonstrate exceptional hardship; whether or not it does will depend on the circumstances of the offender and the consequences of that loss of employment on the offender and/or others.”

Dangerous drivers on our roads

It’s worth noting that there have been calls to scrap the hardship exemption for some time, ranging from police bodies to motoring organisations like the RAC and AA.

While DVLA points out that only a small percentage of drivers are able to retain their licences after accruing 12 points, the reality is that given the scale of driving in the UK, that still works out at thousands of drivers on our roads who are demonstrably dangerous.

After all, building up 12 points in a short period takes some doing. These more than 8,000 drivers will have been caught committing offences like speeding, driving while using their mobile phones, potentially even driving while under the influence.

If you have 12 points on your licence, you haven’t just been caught out once doing 35 in a 30 mile per hour zone, you’ve repeatedly been caught behaving in an irresponsible way while driving. As a result, the least that should happen is that you have your licence taken away.

As the Sentencing Council points out in its guidelines, almost every driving disqualification involves some element of hardship for the driver and their family. That’s the point, so that it’s a deterrent.

The impact of points on your licence

Having points on your licence comes with a very real financial consequence too.

When you take out a car insurance policy, one of the things the insurer will quiz you about is your driving history, including whether there are any points on your licence.

The insurer wants to get a better idea of what you are like as a driver, and therefore how likely you are to be in some sort of accident that involves an insurance claim being made. And the reality is that if you have points on your licence, then the insurer is going to suspect that you’re a riskier bet than a driver with a spotless record.

As a result, your premium will be more costly than for a driver with no points on their licence. But how big is that cost going to be?

A recent study by MoneySuperMarket breaks down the typical financial implication. Moving from no points to three points typically means a rise of 16%, which equates to an average £160 rise. Meanwhile moving from zero to six points means a price jump of around 30%, or £522.

It works the other way too. Points sit on your licence for four years, and once they come off, you will see your policy costs drop.