Are these government-issued IDs confiscated upon the bearer's death?
June 7, 2010 11:54 AM Subscribe
Are California Driver's Licenses and Social Security Cards normally surrendered to the government upon a love one's death? Is this a new policy?
A relative died with his wallet on him and his body was collected by the corner. When we went to retrieve his wallet, they gave us copies of his Social Security card and CDL but said they would not be releasing the originals. I found this odd because I know people who have their deceased relation's CDL and Social Security card. Is this some new weird post-9/11 or ID theft paranoia or what?
A relative died with his wallet on him and his body was collected by the corner. When we went to retrieve his wallet, they gave us copies of his Social Security card and CDL but said they would not be releasing the originals. I found this odd because I know people who have their deceased relation's CDL and Social Security card. Is this some new weird post-9/11 or ID theft paranoia or what?
Both of those cards are technically the property of the agency that issued them, just like a passport belongs to the Dept. of State. I don't know whether confiscation by the coroner is a new practice, however.
posted by brain at 12:04 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by brain at 12:04 PM on June 7, 2010
In January when a family member died (in CA) the coroner did not take his D/L or SS card. My impression was that coroners feel mostly free to do as they wish, and may say things are "required" when they are not necessarily correct in legal terms. But as brain points out the cards are technically not your relatives possessions, so if you want your relative's cards returned to you that might be hard to achieve.
posted by anadem at 12:16 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by anadem at 12:16 PM on June 7, 2010
Once when you moved states and got a new DL they didn't care at all about you old driver's license, now that scarf that thing right up. They probably think the card will be used for blanks to make false IDs and there is a black market in SS cards. I'm sure 9-11 is the reason they use but illegal aliens the real reason.
posted by Some1 at 12:19 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by Some1 at 12:19 PM on June 7, 2010
Social Security numbers are discontinued or "retired" after the person belonging to it dies. They are not re-issued or re-used in any way. The coroner's office or sometimes the funeral home where the person ends up will process the ID information and notifiy the Social Security office the number belonging to the deceased needs to be retired. There is a HUGE potential for ID theft using deceased person's SS numbers, so the originals of these documents may be reasonably retained by law enforcement.
posted by Cookbooks and Chaos at 1:50 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by Cookbooks and Chaos at 1:50 PM on June 7, 2010
As Some1 mentioned above, there is a HUGE black market for deceased persons SS numbers. I encountered this working mortgage as a fraud investigator. It is apparently quite lucrative.
posted by Cookbooks and Chaos at 1:53 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by Cookbooks and Chaos at 1:53 PM on June 7, 2010
What Cookbooks said. If you're not sure, ASK. Someone official. I'd start with city hall, maybe. Because stuff like that would be hot, hot HOT in the illegal immigrant community. A recent incident in our community highlighted this fact.
posted by Ys at 2:13 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by Ys at 2:13 PM on June 7, 2010
Late to the party here, but I can confirm that my mother's driver's license was withheld when I picked up her belongings at the coroner's office (in CA) a week ago. They told me it was a new law.
posted by widdershins at 10:13 AM on June 10, 2010
posted by widdershins at 10:13 AM on June 10, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kwaller at 12:01 PM on June 7, 2010