Living in the UK, occasionally one gets the impression the utility bill is more important for your rights than the Magna Carta.
Unlike for example Denmark, there is no (at least not yet) central register of who lives in the UK and where. And by the way, this article certainly should not be construed as an argument for a central register in the UK.
So how do you prove you live where you claim to live? Easy; the utility bill! You can get this all-important document from a utility such as the water company and the gas and electricity company. Water, gas and electricity are usually supplied to the address where you live; most people would prefer not to pay someone else’s water, gas or electricity. So once you get a bill from one of these companies with your name and address on, life in the UK becomes much easier.
Without the utility bill you may find it very difficult, maybe even impossible to open a bank account, without a bank account it is going to be difficult to be paid at most companies. If you don’t get paid, how will you pay your water, gas or electricity bill?
OK, it is not quite that bad, but it can be rather ridiculous. When we moved to the UK, I called the various utilities to register, not realising how important it was to have the bills issued in both mine and my wife’s names. The local library wouldn’t even issue her with a library card unless she could show them a utility bill. Before we had received a utility bill, we couldn’t get a credit card. Once you have proven once that you live at a particular address, it is usually not a problem to change your address. Nobody asked for a new utility bill when I registered our new address. The previous owner seems to be using that to my great annoyance. He hasn’t lived at my address for more than two years, but recently a lot of letters have arrived addressed to him, and several debt collection agencies have knocked on my door to collect the money he owes. I’m not the only foreigner who is irritated with the importance the utility letter has. There was an article in the Guardian last year on “Our dodgy love affair with utility bills “ and “The belief that a gas bill proves who you are and where you live…”, pointing out how easy it is to fake a utility bill.
