Waiting for new driving license

There is a huge backlog at the DVLA. Many people are waiting months for their license renewal. Three weeks is relatively short. Good luck with your phone call - there are many reports of people waiting hours on repeated calls.
My understanding is, according to section 88, you can continue to drive for up to 12 months after your license expires provided you have proven approval from your doctor and that the DVLA has received your application.
Diabetes UK (the charity, NOT this forum) are in contact with DVLA about this problem. You may get assistance if you call their helpline on Tuesday.

KevGr said:

Hi all.

Just a quick question.....I sent off my license renewal but haven't heard back from the DVLA yet.
It was sent via post a good 3 or so weeks ago but my license has now officially expired by a few days.
Can I still drive? Nothing has changed with my diabetes and I have read up on their website but its very unclear.
I'm going to ring them on Tuesday as I haven't even received a confirmation from them to say its received.

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As @In Response says there is a massive backlog at the dvla, especially paper forms. For me, my renewal took less than a week but I have a online renewal, my partner took multiple weeks of not months as he had to do a paper form (as it turns out he still had a bus licence he needed removing it wasn’t online)

Dates they are currently processing: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dvla-coronavirus-covid-19-update#processing-dates-for-paper-applications

some of these are from March, and if paperwork sent after they may well not even looked at it yet

Can I drive while waiting: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inf1886-can-i-drive-while-my-application-is-with-dvla

unfortunately it doesn’t help you, but as above, if nothing has changed and you haven’t been told by dr you can’t drive, should be okay just lacking ID for maybe a few more weeks

Mine has taken almost a year! I sent the form back in May last year! I tried ringing and using the chat they had on there website but it’s a nightmare trying to get in contact with them!

Good luck phoning @KevGr - it took me over a month of trying 3 or 4 times a day to get further than the 'too busy, please call back' message.
Might be worth a try checking here https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence to see what status your licence is - I could see mine had been re-issued/processed (but not received), it shows the expiry date, so hopefully yours will be 3 years in the future.

Iv sent my husbands by registered post. Cost me a fiver. But I know they have signed for it. So no worries. Getting through on the phone been there done that nope, it’s almost impossible.