I had same, during Colvid so could not go to old home town, passport out of date, and person must have known you three years, it took from Mid January until November to get licence, only after Colvid rules were relaxed could I ask a guy where I volunteered to sign the photo the 30 days was extended to 90 days during colvid but seems no one told DVLA so I bought an e-bike until sorted.
I was lucky I had been volunteering at railway before I came to live here, or would have needed to return to old home, or got a passport, it is crazy, the on line application has to be done on paper using the postal service.
It seems one should be however able to pay at some post offices to get them to verify the photo, but post office in my town said it could not do it.
As a PS, found my wife's licence had been revoked, but no one had told her, seems she had been driving for around 15 years without a licence, because we both still had paper licences, so had we not moved would not expire until 70, lucky my radio licence I could renew on line.