Recently, the United States House of Representatives has passed three bills aimed at pushing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to better serve potential retirees, victims of identity theft, and children whose Social Security cards have been stolen or lost.
On Monday, December 1st, the House passed the “Claiming Age Clarity Act,” which aims to correct certain terms used by the SSA in describing the age at which employees can claim Social Security retirement benefits.
The Act specifies that the SSA must use the term “minimum monthly benefit age” instead of “early eligibility age.” According to the Act, this refers to the earliest age at which employees can claim benefits, currently set at 62 years old.
Furthermore, the SSA is now required to use the term “standard monthly benefit age” instead of “full retirement age” or “normal retirement age.” These terms refer to the age at which employees can receive benefits without a reduction, ranging from 65 to 67 depending on the individual’s birth year.
The Act also mandates the use of the term “maximum monthly benefit age” to denote the highest age (70 years old) at which workers can receive “delayed retirement credits (DRCs).” Additionally, the SSA is prohibited from using the term “delayed retirement credits.”
Another measure related to the SSA is the “Social Security Child Protection Act,” which instructs the SSA to issue new Social Security numbers to children under 14 whose Social Security cards are lost or stolen during the mailing process.
Republican Congressman Lloyd Smucker from Pennsylvania introduced the bill in the House, stating that it helps “protect children from identity theft.” Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, commented that “one instance of identity theft can lead to a lifetime of financial loss.”
Smith added that the Act “will ensure families do not have to wait, and if a child’s social security card is being misused, they can get a new social security number immediately, an issue the government has struggled with in the past, leaving too many families feeling helpless.”
Another bill passed this week is the “Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act,” which will require the SSA to establish a single point of contact for individuals whose Social Security accounts are misused. This contact point must consist of a specially trained team or group of employees, who will follow the case through resolution and coordinate with other departments to resolve the issue promptly.
Republican Congressman David Kustoff from Tennessee, who proposed the bill, stated that “victims of identity theft should not have to navigate through bureaucratic agencies to reclaim their identity.”
All three bills have been passed in the House of Representatives and are currently under review in the Senate.
According to a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center, in 2024, the SSA sent out over 1.3 billion notifications to potential identity theft victims, and there were approximately 3,100 data breach incidents, with over 1,800 involving the leakage of Social Security numbers.