Social Security
Articles tagged Social Security from The VRO Blog.
Leaving Prison Without a Birth Certificate
The ID you need to get documents is the document you do not have. One state legislated a way out of that loop, and a federal rule quietly undercuts the paper it hands you at the gate.
Your Marriage Was Never Valid. Social Security May Still Treat You as a Spouse.
Finding out that a marriage was void, usually because a spouse's earlier divorce was never finalized, feels like the end of a claim. Social Security has a rule built for exactly this, and it turns on records most people assume are worthless.
Your Documents Are Perfect and State Can Still Refuse Your Passport
The grounds for refusing a passport are a published list in federal regulation, and most of them have nothing to do with your birth certificate. If your denial letter cites one of them, ordering another copy of anything will not fix it.
Social Security on an Ex-Spouse's Record: The Divorce Decree You'll Need Decades Later
A marriage that lasted ten years can entitle you to benefits on your ex-spouse's record, without their consent and without reducing their check. The burden is proving a marriage and a divorce from decades ago.
Remarrying After a Spouse Dies: What the Clerk Asks For, and What Nobody Tells Widows
Some clerks will issue a marriage license without seeing a death certificate. That is good news at the counter and a trap years later, when a pension or survivor claim asks how the first marriage ended.
Presumed Dead: How a Missing Person Becomes a Death Record
When there is no body and no certifier, there is no death certificate, and no way to close the estate. Two separate tracks, a seven-year default, and one instruction from SSA: file now.
Proving Your Social Security Number at the DMV: The Second Document That Gets REAL ID Applications Rejected
REAL ID runs two separate document tests. Clearing the birth-certificate test says nothing about the Social Security test, and the card is not the only thing that passes it.
Social Security Says You're Dead: How the Error Happens and How to Get It Reversed
Benefits stop, accounts freeze, and the fix runs through a field office that will only accept originals or agency-certified copies. Here is what to bring and what to ask for.
Who Actually Reports a Death to Social Security, and Why the Funeral Home's Report Isn't the End of It
The funeral home usually tells SSA. That report stops payments; it does not start a claim, and it does not produce the certified copy every other institution wants.