The Social Security Administration plans to streamline the online application for benefits this fall. Just ran across this item last month in The Wall Street Journal describing the changes:

Currently, first-time applicants spend about 45 minutes online, followed by a visit to a local Social Security office. The visit, in most cases, isn’t required — but the online application asks that you provide the agency with proof of your age, which typically means a birth certificate.

Many people, though, aren’t comfortable with putting a birth certificate in the mail, Mr. Lassiter notes, so they carry the document to a Social Security field office — which offsets much of the benefit of an online application.

Under the new system, the proof-of-age requirement is all but eliminated. Social Security’s computers will compare the age you enter on the online application with the age data in its files; if the information matches up, “you no longer need to dig out a birth certificate,” Mr. Lassiter says.

Overall, the new online application will be significantly shorter than the original and should be easier to navigate and complete. The agency anticipates that the average filing time of 45 minutes will shrink to about 15 minutes.

I haven’t seen news on this anywhere else yet, but you can check out the Journal’s item here.

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Tags | Social Security