Kudos to Social Security for Changes to Personal Online Accounts

We have always advocated having access to one’s My Social Security account because this is where your record of LIFETIME earnings history as reported to Social Security is stored. Yes, this is very important because those numbers indicate what your Social Security payment will be based on. 

Access to this account is necessary for all those who are eligible to apply for Medicare online.

If you created an account a while ago with a user name and password, that is likely not relevant any longer. Social Security has made the site more secure by requiring that either login.gov credentials or ID.me credentials are used. 

This may seem like a HASSLE but it’s made your information more secure.

There are some additional steps if you are newly creating your account. You may be asked to use your cell phone for facial recognition and/or to scan in your driver’s license. Social Security is working hard to prove you are you. 

One client didn’t have a good enough match in comparing the driver’s license and facial recognition photos and had to visit a post office to prove her identity. This is a new procedure but sensible as one can see how this could happen because in many situations one can update a driver’s license, sometimes for years, without updating the photo.

If you haven’t created an account, please do so, especially if you might be applying for Medicare using the online process any time soon.

We know these online tasks can be challenging but we applaud Social Security for making life more difficult for scamsters to gain access to your information!