DMV Renewal Rule Is a License for Frustration

Your driver’s license works fine when you need to cash a check, order a drink or satisfy a traffic cop.

But you had better be ready to flash a different piece of ID when you step before a driver’s license clerk, Benard Ighner discovered the other day.

Motorists are now being asked to show their Social Security cards to get their driver’s licenses renewed.

The new requirement is causing short tempers in state Department of Motor Vehicle offices. And long lines at federal Social Security Administration waiting rooms, where requests for duplicate cards have shot up 24% over last year.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Ighner, a North Hollywood composer who waited nearly an hour in a DMV line before being told that he could not get a new license without producing his Social Security card.

“I know my Social Security number--I’ve had it since I was 12,” he said. “But I’ve lost the card.”

Legislation requiring motorists to display their Social Security numbers at license renewal time took effect Jan. 1. Confusion has been displayed ever since.

Explanations as to why officials are bothering with the numbers have varied depending on the DMV office. So has interpretation of the DMV’s rules.

Renewal notices mailed to drivers state that Social Security cards are the preferred form of verification but that Medicare cards and several types of military ID cards also are acceptable.

The mailings do not note that DMV office managers have been given the discretion to accept pay stubs or W-2 income tax forms bearing Social Security numbers as alternative forms of verification.

“We’re not publicizing those kinds of things,” DMV communications manager Gina McGuiness said. “If somebody comes in, fine. It will be considered on a case-by-case basis. . . . (But) we’re not advertising that.”

But that policy has apparently not been advertised to all DMV clerks, either.

Workers at some local DMV offices refuse to accept pay slips and tax forms. Instead, they issue temporary license extensions--and instruct motorists to come back when they have the proper identification.

Workers willing to accept the forms say they scrutinize them.

“We’ve had some phonies,” said Judy Romero, driver’s license manager at the Culver City DMV office. “We’ve seen pay slips that were hand-written or had white-out on them.”

The new rule has led to a stampede on local Social Security Administration offices by drivers eager to replace lost cards.

Once they get there, they have show their DMV cards.

“We ask for (a) driver’s license in order to get a Social Security card,” said Scott Rose, an administration spokesman in San Francisco. “It’s kind of a Catch-22.”

Not all Social Security cards are accepted by the DMV.

Souvenir-type metal Social Security cards don’t count. Neither do government-issued cards that have been laminated. State police were called when one motorist loudly protested over the rejection of his plastic-covered card at the Canoga Park DMV office.

“People are very hostile. They call us nasty names, slam doors on the way out,” said Linda Wilson, a license clerk at the DMV’s Hollywood office. “One girl wanted to beat me up. My managers have been threatened. People say, ‘I know when you get off.’ It’s been very scary.”

DMV officials in Sacramento acknowledge that they are going into the Social Security number business in a big way. They began gathering them from commercially licensed drivers four years ago. Last year, first-time applicants for licenses and ID cards were required to provide them. Next year, the DMV hopes to begin demanding the numbers from car owners at vehicle registration renewal time.

That’s prompted questions from puzzled motorists, who note that Social Security numbers do not appear on driver’s licenses. There have been conflicting answers.

A worker taking license renewal appointments for the West Covina DMV office this week explained that the goal was “to keep (illegal) aliens from getting a license.”

Some DMV clerks have told drivers that the idea is to prevent motorists from obtaining operating licenses under false names. Others have explained that the numbers will help authorities collect unpaid traffic fines.

Notices printed by the DMV state in English and Spanish that the numbers will help determine eligibility for licenses and will “aid in the collection of monies owed by an applicant in connection with Aid to Families With Dependent Children, child support and establishment of paternity programs.”

DMV spokesman Bill Madison said the law allows his agency to release the numbers only to the state controller, the Franchise Tax Board and the state Lottery Commission, “all of which work closely with child support services” such as local district attorneys’ offices.

Motorists, meantime, are using their wits to cope with the new rule.

At the Culver City DMV office, movie costume designer Nazy Behzadi showed up to renew her license without her Social Security card. But she passed muster when she ran to her car and rummaged through its glove box until she found a crumpled 1987 payroll slip that listed her Social Security number.

“I was just lucky I still had it,” she said with a relieved grin. “She’s just lucky we accepted it,” a DMV official said later with a laugh.

In Van Nuys, a desperate driver stood at the license counter and carefully peeled the laminated covering off his Social Security card.

“He did it. I was surprised he didn’t rip off the numbers,” DMV clerk Susan Garcia said. “He was so happy.”

Less happy was Benard Ighner. After his first visit to the Van Nuys DMV office, he had driven to the closest Social Security Administration office and had waited in line to obtain a signed, hand-written slip that verified his Social Security number.

Back at the DMV, Ighner stood in line for another 45 minutes before he reached the driver’s license window once again.

“This is so unnecessary,” he said.