The short answer
The consequences are real. It can become impossible to file the confirmation statement. The failure is a criminal offence. Fines can reach £5,000, director disqualification is possible, and Companies House can strike off the company.
That said, the useful response is not panic. It is speed. Work out whether the block is the app, the documents, or the register data, pick the route most likely to work, and get the verification issue moving now.
The longer answer
What late usually looks like in practice
Usually it is not a dramatic single-day event. The company gets close to the confirmation statement date, somebody assumes the verification can be done at the last minute, and then a passport, app, or name-matching problem appears. By the time people realise it is not a five-minute job, the filing deadline is already too close.
For PSC-only individuals, the same pattern happens around the birth-month window. The person assumes it can be handled inside the month and then loses several days to avoidable admin trouble.
What to deal with first
Deal with the verification route first. There is no point writing elegant notes about the filing position if the person still cannot get verified. Once the route is moving, turn to the company filing consequences and work out what has been missed or what is about to be missed next.
If the free route is clearly failing, move to an ACSP. If the name on the register is wrong, stop pretending the app is the whole problem. Late cases get worse when people argue with the wrong part of the process.
Why this matters across more than one company
One missed deadline often reveals a wider problem. A director with five companies who has missed one date may be about to miss the next four if the underlying verification issue is not fixed properly.
That is why it is worth checking the pillar guide and then using the deadline checker to see which company dates are now exposed. Late cases need triage, not guesswork.
Step by step
- Identify whether the missed deadline relates to a director confirmation statement trigger or a PSC-only birth-month window.
- Work out why verification did not complete: document issue, app failure, or register mismatch.
- Choose the route most likely to succeed now, not the route that looked cheapest last week.
- Review the company filing position immediately after that, especially any confirmation statement that is blocked or overdue.
- Check other companies linked to the same person so one missed deadline does not become several.
If that does not work
If the case is already late and the free route is still uncertain, the paid route is usually easier to justify. The cost of another failed week is often higher.
If the company has several linked filing issues, deal with the identity verification blocker first and then work through the rest in order of legal urgency.