I know how you feel with DVLA

I recenly moved house and misplaced my driving licence
I did have a photo of it thatI had sent to housing Assoc , for tenancy

2 things , replacment licence and change of address , all gone digital now , you need a goverment digital thingybob to apply , you also need a smartphone to complete the aplication (takes a picture , dunno) the mobile thing was shite , would not complete

tried it , gave full details as written on the photo I had , was not acceted , rung the DVLA , he checked my licence , all was good , HOWEVER the goverment department that needed to talk to DVLA was broken (and had been since day one)

plan 37 a form d1 , a photo of my licence with words , lost licence , needs new address , downloaded bank statements showing my pension going in with my national insurance number , a letter from pension service with my name and NI number and a postal order either £20 or £25 and hope that a HUMAN looked at it , undeerstood the D1 , which did not allow me to say things
6 weeks later my licence appeared

like you , I was actually loosing the will to live