From a press release issued by the House Ways and Means Committee:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) will be forced to streamline their processes for Americans whose Social Security numbers (SSNs) have been compromised thanks to bipartisan legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 3784, the Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act, was introduced by Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Drew Ferguson (R-GA) and Ranking Member John Larson (D-CT) and was passed unanimously by the Ways and Means Committee. ...
[The bill] requires the SSA to provide victims of identity theft with a single point of contact at the agency when the misuse of their SSN results in the need to resolve an issue or issues with the SSA or when their Social Security card is lost in the mail. ...
18 comments:
I hope the agency will give this task to the field offices. Seems like something that can be squeezed in between appointments, phones, or interviewing walk ins.
Thankfully we have enough staff to have this single POC for all of the lost SSN cards. Yep, this will be such a smooth process….
Identity theft is spiking and yet the agency pushes the public to file online claims such as the local library. This move exposes the claimant to potential fraud. How many times has a claim been filed online on one’s behalf when the claimant has never applied? Maybe legislators feel guilty about how easily it is to steal one’s identity.
It’s easy for legislators to give local offices another workload but yet fail to fund the agency properly. I will definitely put this workload on the top of my pile on one of those 20 furloughed days that are coming to SSA employees.
(Resisting the impulsive snark). Having read the bill, the easiest way to implement this will be to have each FO have an individual (whether CS or SR) take a special training (which will cover what we already do) and handle all identity theft cases that come into the office. However you slice it, it is an efficiency loss.
it could also be done at the area level (like work incentive coordinators) or regional level (like special needs trust reviews). Places that have card centers could train someone there (btw what is the deal with card centers? seems like a random group of cities that have them, and not sure if SSA has ever studied whether they're more efficient). But agreed that it's very likely SSA will implement it by designating someone in each FO. Kind of like they did with the vulnerable population liaison...
It’s interesting how SSA employees are assigning this workload to other components of the agency.
@1024 There are fraudulent claims filed occasionally but SSA does have procedures in place to try to find those before the claims are approved.
Should be handled by a unit at CO. The rest of the agency is overburdened.
This bill is laughable. We don’t need stupid bills and designated POCs. We need consistent funding for the Agency annually and we can restore service for this and everything else.
This is typical congressional action - on BOTH sides of the aisle. No additional funding, but one more expectation placed on the agency. For 99 of a hundred calls, there is nothing for the representative to do. But, hey, Reps and Senators can go home and claim they have done something to fix identity theft. In reality, they have only blown smoke and hot air. Nothing will be done of substance.
Who at CO knows what SSNAP is, much less knows how to use it? No way this can be anything but a FO/Card Center workload, at least as the bill is written.
I predict that....nothing will change. The FOs will develop the evidence and forward everything to a unit that will just sit on it forever and then eventually deny the requests for a new SSN unless the Congressional rep is involved.
If Congress had really wanted to do something about the problem, they would have passed legislation making it illegal for credit bureaus to use SSNs within, say, 5 years to force the credit bureaus to adapt their services. But, I guess that is just too simple.
This is just a band aid on symptoms, not doing what needs to be done to kill this as a PII and identity issue. The use of the SSN as an identifier should have been abolished 20 years ago and the tech exists to issue strong actual real credentials for people both as government or as private actions. Political pushback (besides from the folks who use and misuse the SSN in their business) is government issued strong credentials is a red flag for a certain group of folks. I mean, look at Real ID, that's been unpopular. The cost of credit bureaus and the rest shifting from existing business model would be a short term one time thing but if it gets in the way of profit..... So if you don't fix the cause, you band aid the problem with ineffectual solutions such as this legislation.
How about the companies whose data is compromised chip in to fund SSA? From the sounds of the bill, many of the fraud revolves around private companies. A child’s SSN is compromised and taxes are filed fraudulently is an IRS problem, someone takes a loan in the child’s name? The loan servicer’s problem… It shouldn’t be the child’s nor SSA’s. Although, SSA should be responsible for the fraudulent claims filed that are paid, direct deposit changes etc. Things that SSA can control. Not some loan shark type company whose rep is being paid commission to slap together a dicey loan.
Identity theft is a crime Jim!
So great. Some data broker leaks 50 million SSNs and SSA just has to issue new ones? Then transfer earnings, update benefits records, cross reference everything, then do it again in 6 weeks when the next breach happens? Then have to adapt an entirely different system in 5 years when we run out of number combinations? It is almost incomprehensible how stupid these people are. I despair for the future of our country.
@6:12pm,
It is theoretically possible to throw a pen at the wall and have it pass through the wall. Likewise, in the same manner, it is also theoretically possible for SSA to allow issuance of a new SSN to identity theft victims.
In reality, the pen always bounces off the wall and SSA management always denies new SSN requests. Always. This is true even for people that meet every single minute requirement to get a new one and who probably need one. The only exception is for someone whose congressional representative is involved. Then, management can't bend over fast enough to expose their rear orifices.
And, getting a new SSN really doesn't help in the long run. The credit bureaus will eventually figure it out and will link the credit histories. For tax issues, SSA always links the new SSN to the old one so issuing a new SSN doesn't really help that much with IRS tax problems either.
Honestly, with all the data breaches, moving to a new identifier would be a good idea provided Congress prohibits its use for anything other than SSA, Medicare, and IRS program purposes.
Will never happen, though, as too many members of congress keep getting dollar bills shoved up their arses...i.e. err campaign contributions.... by the credit industry.
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