'I can't get a job, home or passport even though I was born in UK - all thanks to my mum'

A woman has faced years of bureaucratic limbo thanks to her estranged mum's major mistake after giving birth to her

A woman who found out at the age of 19 she has no birth certificate is now unable to get a job, learn to drive or apply for a passport - and says when she dies, there will be no trace of her.

Caitlin Walton, now 26, was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, in 1997, but her mum claims she gave birth alone with no assistance. As a result, Caitlin was never registered as a baby so doesn't have a birth certificate.

Legally she "doesn't exist" and is classed by the government as a 'white British immigrant' because she can't prove she was born in the UK - despite living here her entire life.

Caitlin only found out that she had no birth certificate when she left her mother's home. The pair are now estranged and don't speak.

And she's been in bureaucratic limbo ever since because without a birth certificate, she can't get a full national insurance number, passport, or driving licence. It means she can't get a job or a passport.

In 2019 she attempted to apply for a passport, but was told by the Passport Office: "Before a registration could be authorised we would need to be satisfied, by means of independent documentary evidence, of the precise date and place of your birth.

"There must also be a qualified person who can attend a register office to give information for the registration of the birth and to sign the register. As it would appear that the above conditions cannot be fulfilled, the late registration of the birth cannot be authorised."

Caitlin said she only managed to get a bank account after her aunt and cousin came in with her and pleaded with Halifax to give her an account.

Her auntie and cousin have had to provide everything for her since she was 18 as she has no way to earn her own money.

Caitlin said: “I just want to be able to work and live a normal life but at the moment if I died, I would be untraceable. The constant trauma of basically not really existing has been horrible.”

Growing up, Caitlin had no idea of the administrative nightmare she would one day face. It began when she left home aged 18 and "that’s when everything started to unravel".

With nowhere else to turn, Caitlin moved in with her aunt. “I wanted to get a job, but when I tried, I realised I had no way of proving my existence," she said.

Caitlin has reached out to the civic centre for answers.

“I went through a six-hour search at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead,” she said, “but they couldn’t find any record of me being born there.”

Even a nationwide hospital birth record search came up empty.

Caitlin’s heartbreak was compounded when she had to request her medical records, only to find that there was no documentation of her life until she was three years old.

“I feel totally invisible - I couldn’t understand why my mother would hide me for those first years, but it seems like she did," she said.

She has been told the Home Office can't help her as she is not by public record a 'British citizen' while the General Register Office and Gateshead Council are unsure how to progress her case.

She has tried to get legal representation, but was quoted £20,000 by a lawyer.

“It feels like I’ve been wiped from the face of the earth,” Caitlin said.

The toll on her mental health has been immense.

“There’s the trauma of what my mother did, but also the feeling that I have no control over my life. I’ve gone to the police, but they told me it was a ‘family matter.’ It’s like nobody cares.”

Caitlin’s mother and father are no longer in her life, and she’s lost contact with two other siblings who, she believes, also weren’t registered at birth.

“I feel so alone - my mother’s abandoned me, my family won’t help, and now even the government seems indifferent.”

Living at her aunt’s house, Caitlin is desperate for a chance to build her own life. “I want to work, to rent my own place but without proof of who I am, I’m stuck. If anything happens to my aunt, I don’t even know where I’d go.

“How can I have lived in this country my whole life but be invisible?”

Though she went to school, Caitlin remembers frequently moving when authorities raised questions about her background.

“I was passed from school to school like a parcel. I’ve been in about ten schools. The government has a duty to help people like me. No one should go through life like this, unable to work, drive, or even prove they’re alive.”

The Home Office has been approached for comment.