My mum was knocked over by a dog on Wimbledon common in January and suffered a small brain clot.

No surgery was required and she made a good recovery. She informed the DVLA and her licence was temporarily rescinded.

In June she was told by her consultant that she was fit to drive and she immediately applied to the DVLA for her licence back. The hospital sent the relevant medical notes and my mother was told her application would take seven days to process.

After three weeks the DVLA told her the paperwork might take months to complete. They cheerfully added that some people, in her situation, “had been waiting since January”. She was, and is, distraught.

She lives alone and the car gives her the independence that public transport cannot do due to arthritis.

I cannot understand – as a GP – how this is taking so long as she more than meets criteria for having her licence returned. RS, London

It’s taking this long because it’s the DVLA, notorious for bureaucratic torpor. It’s reassuring to think that it weighs up medical evidence with utmost caution, but in your mother’s case it seems to have been down to simple inertia. Within a day of my contacting the press office she received a call from the agency informing her she could resume driving.

The DVLA, which was ordered by the ombudsman to pay one driver £1,000 for delaying the reinstatement of his licence for nine months, insists that it deals with applications as quickly as possible. “We don’t want to hold on to anyone’s licence a moment longer than necessary,” says a spokesperson. “However, in this case there was a delay and we have apologised.”

It declines to answer whether there is a backlog of similar cases.

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.