4 ms·

Social Security Admin to require in-person ID checks for new&existing recipients

50 points by petethomas 2y ago

insane_dreamer 2y ago
You know how hard it can be to bring your newborn to an SS office -- made even more difficult now that they're closing some -- to register them for an SSN? If they require in-person registration they should allow doctors or nurses to be deputized to verify newborns for SSN purposes.
- otherjason 2y ago
  It doesn’t sound like they are referring to newborns needing to be physically present to get a SSN. Instead, it seems to refer to persons who are registering to start receiving their Social Security benefits (or existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information). Also, there is an existing supported method for identifying yourself electronically that is mentioned in the article. In that sense, the headline seems a bit misleading.
  - tzs 2y ago
    > It doesn’t sound like they are referring to newborns needing to be physically present to get a SSN. Correct. They already tried to take care of that two weeks ago. Since 1988, through a program called Enumeration at Birth (EAB), as part of their state's birth registration process (typically done at the hospital when the baby is born) allowed the parents to request Social Security registration. The state would then automatically send the information to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for processing. Last week the acting SSA director ordered EAB cancelled in Maine, so parents would have to go to an SSA office to register their newborn [1][2][3]. The DOGE website showed that EAB was cancelled in Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, and Rhode Island (but did not list Maine). There was enough objection to this that they then reversed the cancellation in Maine. The acting director said > I recently directed Social Security employees to end two contracts which affected the good people of the state of Maine. The two contracts are Enumeration at Birth (EAB), which helps new parents quickly request a Social Security number and card for their newborn before leaving the hospital, and Electronic Death Registry (EDR) which shares recorded deaths with Social Security. In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent. For that, I apologize and have directed that both contracts be immediately reinstated He also said that EAB and EDR remain in place for every state. As far as I know there was no explanation given on why specifically Maine, or on why those 5 other states were on the DOGE site. [1] https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-doge-social-security-newborns-70840b39658b8702e6eb9b66f0f920db https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-doge-social-security-... [2] https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/social-security-reverses-decision-that-led-to-confusion-over-registration-for-newborns-in-several-states/3861795/ https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/social-security... [3] https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/06/social-security-starts-requiring-maine-parents-to-visit-an-agency-office-to-register-newborns/ https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/06/social-security-start...
- Smeevy 2y ago
  That's already more thought than DOGE has put into implementing these boneheaded cuts.
dm03514 2y ago
What’s the furthest a recipient will be forced to travel? How many offices per population area? What’s the current rate of calls and direct deposit modifications? At that rate what load will it put on the offices? How long is the average interaction? What will the throughput be if the current office staffing?
- orionsbelt 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - hypothesis 2y ago
    > they just need to find a local young person that is willing to help them handle the requirements online Is that an officially published guidance? Because it sounds awfully close to “social security/ballot harvesting” and will surely backfire on those old people.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Like onerous voting regulations, the goal is to disenfranchise.
  - orionsbelt 2y ago
    Do you not believe their statement that there is $100M of fraud? If you do believe it, do you think it is worth fixing?
    - toomuchtodo 2y ago
      I don’t believe one thing they say, as almost everything they’ve put forth has been a lie or exaggeration. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-contracts-wall.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-con... | https://archive.is/2025.03.08-181114/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-contracts-wall.html https://archive.is/2025.03.08-181114/https://www.nytimes.com... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43121408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43121408
jmclnx 2y ago
To me, this is an attempt to violate the 14th Amendment to prevent people born in the US from being citizens.
- atmavatar 2y ago
  Nah, that was an executive order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/prot... This is about screwing the poor out of social security benefits.
what-the-grump 2y ago
Know plenty of communities that abuse social security benefits, is it worth fixing? I’m fortunate enough to pay the median house hold income in just taxes to the government. Take my money, no. These are poor people struggling to get by, they are going to cheat the system, who wouldn’t when you live on the edge. It’s a drop in the bucket all for a PR attempt.
jmye 2y ago
> Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas I mean, they’re getting exactly what they overwhelmingly wanted. I’m sure some states will try to, essentially, red line the office locations and screw over blue cities, but hard to care about the rural folks getting what they wanted.
rsynnott 2y ago
Ah, yes, ‘efficiency’.
PopGreene 2y ago
Does anyone know what this is supposed to mean?: > He said a problem with eliminating fraudulent claims is that “the information that we use through knowledge-based authentication is already in the public domain.”
- thrill 2y ago
  I think that's bureaucratic speak for "those stupid security-theater questions we ask for mother's maiden name and the such are all compromised anyway".
tharmas 2y ago
Get the govt off the Rich people's backs and onto the less well off people's backs. Destroy the Consumer Protection Agency "to save money" but open up more detention centres and hire more border guards, etc etc. More scrutiny of the plebs less so on the rich. Right wing politics in a nutshell. And yes I'm well aware that leftwing politics has descended into nothing but D.E.I. nonsense. Its all about extremes. Disturbing that this is the direction the West is headed in.
xtiansimon 2y ago
I just helped a neighbor with a remote application for unemployment insurance in New York. She’s 77 and has a TracPhone. It has a camera and browser, but the state’s website does no support the browser. Alternatively, she could visit a local business to perform the digital verification. And that’s what she did, costing $20.

50 points by petethomas 2y ago

You know how hard it can be to bring your newborn to an SS office -- made even more difficult now that they're closing some -- to register them for an SSN? If they require in-person registration they should allow doctors or nurses to be deputized to verify newborns for SSN purposes.

otherjason 2y ago
It doesn’t sound like they are referring to newborns needing to be physically present to get a SSN. Instead, it seems to refer to persons who are registering to start receiving their Social Security benefits (or existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information). Also, there is an existing supported method for identifying yourself electronically that is mentioned in the article. In that sense, the headline seems a bit misleading.
- tzs 2y ago
  > It doesn’t sound like they are referring to newborns needing to be physically present to get a SSN. Correct. They already tried to take care of that two weeks ago. Since 1988, through a program called Enumeration at Birth (EAB), as part of their state's birth registration process (typically done at the hospital when the baby is born) allowed the parents to request Social Security registration. The state would then automatically send the information to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for processing. Last week the acting SSA director ordered EAB cancelled in Maine, so parents would have to go to an SSA office to register their newborn [1][2][3]. The DOGE website showed that EAB was cancelled in Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, and Rhode Island (but did not list Maine). There was enough objection to this that they then reversed the cancellation in Maine. The acting director said > I recently directed Social Security employees to end two contracts which affected the good people of the state of Maine. The two contracts are Enumeration at Birth (EAB), which helps new parents quickly request a Social Security number and card for their newborn before leaving the hospital, and Electronic Death Registry (EDR) which shares recorded deaths with Social Security. In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent. For that, I apologize and have directed that both contracts be immediately reinstated He also said that EAB and EDR remain in place for every state. As far as I know there was no explanation given on why specifically Maine, or on why those 5 other states were on the DOGE site. [1] https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-doge-social-security-newborns-70840b39658b8702e6eb9b66f0f920db https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-doge-social-security-... [2] https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/social-security-reverses-decision-that-led-to-confusion-over-registration-for-newborns-in-several-states/3861795/ https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/social-security... [3] https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/06/social-security-starts-requiring-maine-parents-to-visit-an-agency-office-to-register-newborns/ https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/06/social-security-start...
Smeevy 2y ago
That's already more thought than DOGE has put into implementing these boneheaded cuts.

dm03514 2y ago

What’s the furthest a recipient will be forced to travel? How many offices per population area? What’s the current rate of calls and direct deposit modifications? At that rate what load will it put on the offices? How long is the average interaction? What will the throughput be if the current office staffing?

orionsbelt 2y ago
[flagged]
- hypothesis 2y ago
  > they just need to find a local young person that is willing to help them handle the requirements online Is that an officially published guidance? Because it sounds awfully close to “social security/ballot harvesting” and will surely backfire on those old people.
toomuchtodo 2y ago
Like onerous voting regulations, the goal is to disenfranchise.
- orionsbelt 2y ago
  Do you not believe their statement that there is $100M of fraud? If you do believe it, do you think it is worth fixing?
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    I don’t believe one thing they say, as almost everything they’ve put forth has been a lie or exaggeration. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-contracts-wall.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-con... | https://archive.is/2025.03.08-181114/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-contracts-wall.html https://archive.is/2025.03.08-181114/https://www.nytimes.com... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43121408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43121408

jmclnx 2y ago

To me, this is an attempt to violate the 14th Amendment to prevent people born in the US from being citizens.

atmavatar 2y ago
Nah, that was an executive order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/prot... This is about screwing the poor out of social security benefits.

what-the-grump 2y ago

Know plenty of communities that abuse social security benefits, is it worth fixing? I’m fortunate enough to pay the median house hold income in just taxes to the government. Take my money, no. These are poor people struggling to get by, they are going to cheat the system, who wouldn’t when you live on the edge. It’s a drop in the bucket all for a PR attempt.

jmye 2y ago

> Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas I mean, they’re getting exactly what they overwhelmingly wanted. I’m sure some states will try to, essentially, red line the office locations and screw over blue cities, but hard to care about the rural folks getting what they wanted.

rsynnott 2y ago

Ah, yes, ‘efficiency’.

PopGreene 2y ago

Does anyone know what this is supposed to mean?: > He said a problem with eliminating fraudulent claims is that “the information that we use through knowledge-based authentication is already in the public domain.”

thrill 2y ago
I think that's bureaucratic speak for "those stupid security-theater questions we ask for mother's maiden name and the such are all compromised anyway".

tharmas 2y ago

Get the govt off the Rich people's backs and onto the less well off people's backs. Destroy the Consumer Protection Agency "to save money" but open up more detention centres and hire more border guards, etc etc. More scrutiny of the plebs less so on the rich. Right wing politics in a nutshell. And yes I'm well aware that leftwing politics has descended into nothing but D.E.I. nonsense. Its all about extremes. Disturbing that this is the direction the West is headed in.

xtiansimon 2y ago

I just helped a neighbor with a remote application for unemployment insurance in New York. She’s 77 and has a TracPhone. It has a camera and browser, but the state’s website does no support the browser. Alternatively, she could visit a local business to perform the digital verification. And that’s what she did, costing $20.