Is your Social Security number on your birth certificate?

The mean lady who made me cry just now at ADP Benefit Services implied that EVERYBODY’S SSN is on their birth certificate, duh. Well, actually, she said that; what she implied was that I was a) dumb for not knowing that, and b) a liar for saying it’s not standard for them to come that way.

She made me cry because I got so frustrated. I had to call about getting my son put on the insurance properly. I already faxed them a copy of his birth certificate, as instructed by one of her peers; now I have to fax them again with a copy of his Social Security card because his substandard birth certificate didn’t have his SSN. It’s a major PITA to fax anything since I don’t have a fax machine and live in a small town. Plus, the mean lady treated me like an idiot when I asked her if she happened to have the number I have to call about getting an insurance card for my son (she didn’t).

:frowning:

Did she have to be so mean? Don’t answer that. Answer the poll question instead.

Mine sure isn’t. I was born in '69 and didn’t have a SSN till I was, I don’t know, 15 or 16.

I didn’t have an SSN until more than 50 years after I was born – so no, it’s not.

(And just to clarify – I was born in Australia, so there’d be no reason even for those – with US citizen parents – who did have an SSN.)

No. What a dumb bitch! It’s not standard.

No. I was born overseas (but to American parents, so I was born American). So of course they wouldn’t put an American SS# on that birth certificate.

Different dates and ages in my case, but the person that thought SSN’s were assigned at birth grew up in a different era and maybe a different country or else was just testing to see if you had the balls to tell him or her that they ought to investigate the truth of the matter.

I haven’t heard anything that ridiculous in a long time!

You need a Birth Certificate in order to get an SSN, so I really think she’s been processing a lot of forged documents. . .

The mean woman was being a petty tyrant and no, my COLB doesn’t have my SSN on it.
I wasn’t issued one until I applied for a job when I was 14 or so.
Maybe you should contact this person’s supervisor.

Mine doesn’t and my one year old daughters doesn’t either.

When I filled out her paperwork in the hospital there was an application for a SSN in addition to everything else. The SSN was mailed a few weeks later and was on its own card. To get a copy of her birth certificate I had to request one to be sent. They are totally independent from each other.

But this is in Canada.

I didn’t get one until I was in my teens, so no.

My four year old daughter didn’t have a SSN yet when we applied for her birth certificate, so I don’t know how they would have put that on there.

Birth certificates in the US are typically issued by the County in which you were born. There is no requirement to have a SS# to be born and thus a birth certificate.

However, to obtain a SS#, you must provide evidence of US birth, i.e. a birth certificate.

My BC (vintage 1957, US) certainly doesn’t have a space for a SSN.

And based on my years of delivering babies and signing their BCs (1983-1990) they didn’t allow for SSN during that time period either.

That’s crazy. Mine certainly doesn’t, and yes, I was born in the US. And I see US birth certificates in the line of work every single day, and have NEVER seen one with a SS# on it. I think that lady is an idiot.

Well, counties in the U.S. are starting to do it this way. The result is that in the future, when you’re issued an official copy of the certificate, they will put the number on it, thereby providing additional proof of identity. At least, I think that’s the idea.

You aren’t required to apply for an SSN at birth, though you now need one when you claim a baby as a dependent. In addition, the SSN is issued by the Federal Government, but a birth certificate is issued by a local government. You need a birth certificate to get an SSN, so it would be impossible to put it on an original birth certificate.

In general, Social Security recommends the local authority contact them about issuing the SSN, but the number is sent to the parents, not the local authority. So there’s no way for the local government to ensure they have an SSN on the birth certificate even if they wanted to.

Nope.

You need the birth certificate to get a SSN, for sure, but my birth certificate certainly does not have my SSN on it.

I don’t think that this is the case. Can you provide a cite for this?

The reason I don’t think it is the case is because nothing I can find backs it up, and it doesn’t make any sense anyway since birth certificates come from state governments and the SS# comes from the federal government.

Also, none of the literature on the Social Security Administrations website makes any mention of birth certificates having a SS# on them, as the SS# won’t be known for days or weeks later, and even then will only be known by the federal government, until they or you notify the state where you and/or you child reside.

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](http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10023.html)

As you can see, you cannot get a SS# without having a birth certificate in the first place.

ETA: If you have that lady’s name who you dealt with, you should call her office, talk to her supervisor, and relate the story to him or her. This woman sounds like she is in need of some training.

No.

I was born in Spain. I didn’t acquire my Spanish National ID (our Tax ID) until I was 14, although I imagine that since it’s calculated by an algorythm rather than handed out sequentially, and given the data that goes into the calculation, it can be calculated from the data in a Birth Certificate. In Spain you don’t need your children’s Tax IDs to claim them as dependents.

Didn’t acquire my Spanish SSN until I got my first “adult” job, of course (that is, the first one with an actual contract, taxes involved and so forth). That one involves, among other things, the province where I got that first job and the year when I did, so data which is not available in the Birth Certificate.

I got my US Provisional SSN when I went there for Graduate School and my US Permanent SSN one week later. Evidently neither one will be in a document issued by the Spanish Government.

My son, born in California just this past December, does not have his SSN on his birth certificate.

How could he? As everyone has said, he needed his birth certificate to get his SSN, which came in the mail a few weeks later.

I’ve never heard of it being on a birth certificate. But why wouldn’t parents apply for one for the child at birth? You can’t claim someone as a dependent on your taxes without their SSN, and I imagine it’s requested for school registration and such, so why put it off?