An ostensible crackdown on “waste, fraud and abuse” inside the Social Security Administration is making giving birth even more complicated for some Americans.
New parents in Maine must now go into a Social Security office to register their newborn children for a Social Security number, ending a decades-old rule that allowed parents to apply at a hospital shortly after birth. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services notified hospitals via email on Wednesday that “effective immediately, the option for parents to participate in the enumeration at birth process will be suspended,” per the Portland Press Herald.
