The bills involve new terms around retirement ages and more actions around identity theft.
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.
