social connection<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe said Grey Power wanted to hear from members who continued to experience routine cognitive testing without a clear clinical reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonitoring how these guidelines are implemented will help ensure they are being applied consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZTA said there were currently 13,144 licensed drivers aged 75 and over in Hawke\u2019s Bay who had renewed their licences since turning 75.<\/p>\n
Head of driving regulation Chris Rodley said the guidance itself had not changed since 2024, but the literature review provided further evidence to support health practitioners.<\/p>\n
The findings showed there was no universally accepted cognitive test for assessing fitness to drive, and that commonly used global cognitive assessments did not accurately predict performance on the road.<\/p>\n
Cognitive screening could still be used when changes in a person\u2019s health or vision raised concerns, or when they were assessed by a practitioner who did not know their medical history well.<\/p>\n
Rodley said assessments could vary between people, or even between visits for the same person as they aged, because practitioners were expected to assess each driver individually.<\/p>\n
Zane Jones, 82, said inconsistency was already part of the problem.<\/p>\n
When she renewed her licence two years ago, she paid more than $100 for a medical assessment and expected to complete cognitive questions.<\/p>\n
Instead, she said the nurse spoke casually with her while completing paperwork before telling her she had passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018but I haven\u2019t had any questions\u2019,\u201d Jones recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018You don\u2019t need to do the questions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones was now booked for another assessment this month but said she did not know what the process would involve this time.<\/p>\n
NZTA said people aged 75 and over paid a $21.50 licence-renewal fee, while medical assessment costs were set independently by health practitioners and could vary.<\/p>\n
The driver\u2019s licence he does not use<\/p>\n
For Tony Bushby, 82, the issue is not about staying behind the wheel at all.<\/p>\n
The Havelock North pensioner has not driven or owned a car for about 25 years.<\/p>\n
He continues renewing his driver\u2019s licence every two years because it is the only widely accepted photo identification he has.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the driver\u2019s licence, you\u2019ve got no ID, you don\u2019t exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t do business in the bank. You can\u2019t transfer money from one account to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bushby, originally from Australia, said his passport expired about a decade ago, and renewing it would require travelling to an Australian consular service, adding transport, accommodation and food costs.<\/p>\n
His latest driver licence renewal involved about $125 for the medical assessment, as well as the NZTA licence fee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your only income is the pension, it really hurts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to really think about what you\u2019re spending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bushby said his doctor knew he did not drive, but still had to assess him as medically fit because the licence legally allowed him to do so.<\/p>\n
NZTA said alternative forms of photo identification included a passport or a Kiwi Access Card, formerly known as the 18+ card.<\/p>\n
Bushby said a Kiwi Access Card would not solve all of his problems. <\/p>\n
He regularly sends money to a friend in the Philippines to help with her grandchildren\u2019s schooling and said the international money-transfer service he used required identification such as a driver licence or passport.<\/p>\n
Western Union\u2019s New Zealand website says customers registering to send money online must verify their identity using a New Zealand driver licence or passport.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice also did not accept Kiwi Access cards as identification for some processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An independent University of Auckland review, commissioned by NZTA and the Office for Seniors after advocacy from pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,111572,15211,111,43,139,69,16488,24808,90,3111,762,2838,764,223,14047],"class_list":["post-566144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-cognitive","tag-drivers","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzta","tag-older","tag-on","tag-out","tag-review","tag-routine","tag-tests","tag-the","tag-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}