Monday, March 01, 2004
Sneaky tactics
The Social Security Administration has told its offices nationwide not to accept marriage certificates from San Francisco as proof of identification for newlyweds looking to make name changes on Social Security cards.
The new policy doesn't just apply to the 3,344 same-sex couples that married in San Francisco during the last two weeks. Heterosexual couples who wed after Feb. 12 also need to supply documents other than San Francisco-issued marriage licenses if they want to change the names on their Social Security cards.
"Since the legality of the marriage licenses are in question, we are not accepting that document to change names," said Leslie Walker, a spokesman in the regional office that covers California and seven other western states and U.S. territories.
The policy instruction was sent Thursday to all Social Security Administration offices nationwide, but it applies only to marriage licenses issued in San Francisco, said Lowell Kepke, a spokesman for Social Security's western region.
The scope of the directive means that couples who live in Ohio, Pennsylvania or other states and came to San Francisco to tie the knot won't be able to change their Social Security cards when they return home, Kepke said.
This news item, of course, was released Friday, when no one was paying attention.
posted by chris at 10:27 AM
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