Social Security Card
This document is usually issued by the Social Security Administration upon the request of a baby's parents. The parents customarily file such a request soon after birth to ensure issuance of a Social Security number (sometimes referred to as SSN, SS#, or simply social). Then the parents can report the baby to the Internal Revenue Service as a dependent, which will reduce the amount of federal income tax they have to pay.
The SSN was originally intended to ensure accurate reporting of payroll contributions so that an employee's Social Security benefits could be adjusted accordingly, and then the employee could claim their benefits upon retirement. Because their original purpose was so limited, Social Security cards were not designed with the rigorous security measures normally expected of identity documents. They did not (and still do not) have a photograph of the bearer or a physical description.
In the absence of a national identity card, the Social Security number has become the de facto national identifier for tax and credit purposes. In turn, the epidemic of identity theft in the U.S. since the 1990s has led to various proposals for a national identity card.
Many organizations, universities and corporations historically used SSNs to uniquely identify their customer or student populations, but have since yielded to public demand that the SSN be reserved to government and credit purposes. Instead, they assign their own unique numbers to persons at first contact and request SSNs only when absolutely necessary. Also, several states have passed laws that require such institutions to assign their own identifier numbers to individuals, and prohibit them from using the SSN as a primary key.
The Armed Forces of the United States replaced the service number (sometimes erroneously called Serial Number) with the SSN in 1974 to identify servicemembers. Recently, some services such as the U.S. Coast Guard are ceasing to use the SSN and now make use of an Employee I.D. Number (or EMPLID).
On June 1, 2011 the DOD removed SSNs from ID cards, and replaced it with a 10-digit DOD Identification Number.
Read more about this topic: Identity Documents In The United States
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