A critical responsibility of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) is maintaining accurate, updated and secure personal records for millions of Hoosiers. Identity credentials issued by the BMV are used for a variety of important purposes and all available means must be utilized to assure their validity.

Background

· Indiana law requires the BMV to collect a Social Security number (SSN) for any customer holding an Indiana driver license, permit, ID card, or vehicle title. Indiana law also requires legal names and current street addresses be provided for those transactions.

· In the past, customer SSNs were verified through a third-party vendor. Beginning November 7, 2007 the BMV joined 47 other states to utilize a direct online verification process offered by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

· To update the existing 6.4 million records in the BMV database, these records were “scrubbed” against the SSA database. Matches were based on SSNs, names, birth dates and gender. Of the 6.4 million records, 97% had perfect matches, with only 3% (206,000 records) needing some reconciliation.

Outreach to Affected Customers

· On November 6, 2007 the BMV began mailing letters informing individuals that certain information in their BMV records did not match the information on file with SSA. They were provided three secure ways to update personal information: online, by mail, or by visiting a license branch. The letters requested that recipients update their personal information within 30 days.

· The first week in January, 2008, a second reminder letter was sent to those who had not yet resolved the inconsistencies in their records. This letter noted a deadline of January 31, 2008.

· Thousands of customers have been assisted through this process by contacting the BMV by e-mail, by telephone, or by visiting a license branch. More than 50,000 were able to successfully update their records without visiting a branch by using our web tool or mail-in option. Many requested and received a 60-day extension to update information because they are awaiting needed documentation.

· In addition, the BMV has accepted three invitations to attend community meetings to answer questions about the process. Meetings have been held in Columbus , Lafayette , and Ft. Wayne . Additional meetings are being planned in other parts of the state.

· Other community outreach efforts will be coordinated through advocacy groups and other interested organizations.

· Updated information about the verification process will be posted on the BMV Web site at www.mybmv.IN.gov.

Verification Update

As of January 31, more than 82,000 people have successfully verified their information. An additional approximately 33,000 licenses will not be invalidated because the drivers have reported that they have moved out of state, have deceased, were issued temporary extensions, or have records that have already expired by their own terms. Of the remaining balance, several hundred hold commercial drivers licenses (CDLs). Given the importance of a CDL designation for employment purposes, the BMV will contact affected CDL holders one more time via certified mail to encourage compliance with the request to update information.

Next Steps

· Hundreds of letters responding to our inquiries continue to arrive daily. The BMV will complete the task of processing the incoming customer updates that have arrived this week. This process will take 7-10 days.

· Another “scrub” against the Social Security Administration records will be conducted to make sure that all verifications have been recorded accurately.

· Based on the final processing of verifications, the extensions granted and the results of the SSA scrub planned for the second week in February, letters will be mailed notifying individuals that their driver licenses or identification cards have been revoked. Based on current figures, as many as 91,000 notices will be mailed, of which approximately 35,000 will affect individuals holding identification cards and 56,000 will affect individuals holding driver licenses.

· If an individual using a revoked driver license is stopped by law enforcement, the individual will be cited for driving without a valid license and may have his or her credential confiscated.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Press Release. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.