Posted on 12/07/2025 8:08:04 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The House of Representatives passed multiple bills targeting the Social Security Administration’s services for potential retirees, for victims of identity theft, and for children whose cards were stolen or lost.
On Monday, the House passed the Claiming Age Clarity Act, which will change “certain terms that are used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to describe the ages at which a worker may claim Social Security retirement benefits,” according to the bill.
The SSA under the measure will have to use the term “minimum monthly benefit age” instead of “early eligibility age,” the text of the measure said.
“This refers to the earliest age (62 under current law) at which a worker may claim benefits,” it states.
The SSA will also now have to use the term “standard monthly benefit age” rather than “full retirement age” or “normal retirement age,” according to the text of the bill, noting that the “terms refer to the age at which a worker may claim benefits without a reduction in the benefit amount.” Currently, the age ranges from 65 to 67, depending on the individual’s birth year.
The term “maximum monthly benefit age” will have to be used by the SSA in reference to age 70 as the maximum age when a worker can obtain delayed retirement credits, the text said. Under the bill, the SSA can no longer use the term “delayed retirement credit.”
Another agency-related measure, called the Social Security Child Protection Act, would enable the SSA to send out a new Social Security number to children under the age of 14 if their Social Security card was stolen in the mail or lost. That bill passed the House this week.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), who introduced the bill in the lower chamber, said that it would help “protect children from identity fraud,” while House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said in a statement that “a single act of identity theft can lead to a lifetime of financial harm.”
The bill, Smith added, “will ensure that families don’t have to wait and can immediately secure a new Social Security number if their child’s card is compromised, addressing a problem in government that has left too many families without recourse.”
Another measure that cleared the House this week, the Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act, would mandate the SSA to use a single point of contact to help people resolve an identity theft problem in a more timely manner. The point of contact must include trained SSA employees, it said.
“Victims of identity theft shouldn’t have to fight their way through government bureaucracy just to get their identity restored,” Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), who proposed the bill, said in a statement outlining the aim of the bill.
All three bills passed in the House and are now being considered in the Senate.
According to an Identity Theft Resource Center report, more than 1.3 billion notices were sent to potential identity fraud victims in 2024. There were also about 3,100 data breaches, and more than 1,800 of those incidents involved Social Security numbers.
Sounds like they are preparing for running out of money............
So, they just changed the verbiage? Atta boy, Congress!
The article makes it sound as if Congress is wasting much time on semantics. Time that could be better spent. for instance, codifying the Trump agenda or replacing Obamacare.
Our local hospital system had a data breach and everyone was issued a new Medicare and SS number. What a mess.
Sounds like most of this could have been accomplished by Executive Order.
A NEW SS number?
rearranging deck chairs.
The change of the names of the retirement ages sounds awfully politically correct to me. They’re not changing any benefits at all, so why bother. Aren’t there more pressing things for the house and Senate to spend their time trying to pass then bullshiite like this?
They really worked hard on this and I’m sure it will solve all the solvency problems of SS. Great job congress, you kicked the can down the road another mile or so.
What a bunch of assholes.
Yep. His college got hacked several years ago.
Same vintage of Whine, but new ‘Totally Tubular!’ dispensing agents!
When was this? BTW every new SS number is still linked, within the system, with their old number but only certain high-level staff can see that.
Why don’t they call it welfare and they’d never run out of money then, right? Or maybe all retirees just sprinkle in some Spanish which would accomplish the same thing?
Those programs never run out of money.
The hospital hack was a little over a year ago. The College hack was several years ago.
I doubt the story.
Federal agency OPM was hacked by the ChiComs in 2015 and all we got was credit protection
“standard monthly benefit age” rather than “full retirement age” or “normal retirement age,”
“maximum monthly benefit age” instead of “delayed retirement credit.”
Maybe this isn't just about verbiage.
The government doesn’t do anything ‘for no reason.’
These descriptions are basic to how the SSA defines benefits.
Words are important.
There are currently these three tiers of benefits, and we don’t know that, because of issues related to solvency, the agency may, at a future date, revise the amounts or percentages represented by these specific terms.
It's hard to guess at this point.
All I know is he was issued a new Medicare and SS number.
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