Minister of Internal Affairs, Brooke van Velden says it will be easier to verify your identity online with the Government’s rollout of the RealMe Identity Verification Service (RealMe) to an additional seven private sector organisations.
The Minister said the Government was expanding the service to further organisations including financial service companies and online education providers.
“This move will provide significant cost and time savings for people who need to identify themselves for a service, as well as helping the organisations to meet their compliance obligations, including anti-money laundering requirements,” says Ms van Velden.
The Early Childhood Council (ECC) received approval to use RealMe, which will be significant for early childhood providers, the Minister said.
“ECE workers must be identity checked every three years as a minimum. RealMe provides a digital way of completing identity checks which are required for all workers by the Children’s Act,” says ECC Chief Executive, Simon Laube.
“In some cases workers do not have the primary and secondary hard-copy documents so a digital alternative makes a lot of sense. We are very pleased that approval has been given as it will help our checking systems designed to keep children in ECE safer.”
MyMahi has been working closely with the Department of Internal Affairs on the tertiary study enrolment process.
“Working together can shorten the process from over a month to ten minutes. This innovation can be life changing for students and their whānau,” says MyMahi Partnership Director, Matt Webb.
“Many authorised agencies including registered banks, real estate agents, and accountants are already approved to use RealMe to benefit their customers. Organisations using RealMe must also offer alternative ways for customers to verify their identity,” said Ms van Velden.
RealMe is a service that allows New Zealanders to prove their identity online with Government agencies and authorised organisations such as registered banks, without having to visit in person and show their passport or driver licence.
The service can be used to open a bank account, renew a passport, and enrol to vote, online with more than 1.5 million verified identities on RealMe as of this month.
RealMe doesn’t rely on centrally stored data. Instead, it pulls on information stored by an authoritative source, such as DIA’s passport database. It draws from the source in real time with an individual’s consent.
It is currently used by 44 agencies such as Inland Revenue, Health New Zealand and NZ Post and provides access to 148 online services.
For more information on RealMe IVS and a guide to sign up for access, visit: https:// https://www.realme.govt.nz//. For businesses looking to adopt the RealMe IVS service contact business@realme.govt.nz for advisory and integration support.
