State Governments and authorities around Australia have introduced mandatory Verification of Identity (VOI) policies. These policies help to protect all the parties in a variety of legal and business transactions against fraud.
Mandatory VOI policies are now in place in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. Similar policies are set to be introduced in New South Wales in 2016, with the remaining states and territories likely to follow shortly.
This overlaps with anti-money-laundering legislation, and various banking & finance protocols and policies.
To comply with these policies, legal practitioners and conveyancers need to ensure face-to-face identity checks are made on each of their clients in various transactions, such as buying, selling or transferring property, opening or modifying bank accounts, or dealing with assets on behalf of another person, such as under Power of Attorney or Probate.
These protocols affect anyone buying, selling or transferring property, or accessing assets on behalf of someone else.
While most people will simply use their Driver’s License as their photo ID, those people who don’t possess a Driver’s License will need to apply for a Proof of Age Card, which will contain a photographic image of that person along with their date of birth, and can be used for accessing licensed premises and for general identification.
In South Australia, a Proof of Age card can be applied-for at Service SA customer service centres, for a fee (in Jan 2016 it is $22.00).
In the alternative, Australia Post, who has been able to do passport applications and verify identity for that process for years, is offering its own verification service, however it is more expensive and may not be as well-accepted as the official government-issued cards.
It is foreseeable that, even if your granny has stopped driving, she will still need one of these cards to confirm her identity when dealing with government departments.
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