I can see some of the benefits,
but the way it's being set up seems to be way over the top, and far too vulnerable.
The fact that the maximum penalty for not informing them of a change of address is £2000 makes me wonder exactly who this is really supposed to benefit.
If it was entirely voluntary, if it wasn't tied to a centralised database containing everything about you, if they didn't demand to know so much frankly irrelevant crap (including keeping a permanent record of every time you ever use the card for anything), I might have been tempted to get one because I could use some sort of ID. But this thing? No way.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 11:25, archived)

These are excellent points
I should read up on this more. I'm woefully ill-educated on the matter
( Theoban What of it, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 11:27, archived)