When you are adopting, your child will be issued two things in the hospital.  One is the Birth Certificate and the other is a Social Security Number.  The original Birth Certificate completed in the hospital will state whatever name the Birthmother gives the baby.  The baby will also have the Birthmother’s or Birthfather’s last name and it will list them as the parents of the child.

The Social Security Number will be registered under the same name that is listed on the Birth Certificate and will list the Birthparents as the parents of the child.

When you finalize the adoption, you will be issued a new Birth Certificate that will state whatever name you have given your child, he/she will have your last name and it will state that you are the parents of your child.  When you finalize the adoption, you also have the opportunity to either just change your child’s name on the Social Security Card or you can have an entirely new Social Security Number issued for your child.

Many couples choose to retain the old Social Security Number and just have a new card issued showing the child’s new name.  Given the option of doing this or having a new number assigned to your child, I would highly recommend that you have a new number issued.  Although the incidences have been rare, there are some instances in which the adoptive parents have run into trouble using the old number, even years after the adoption was finalized.

I have witnessed what can happen when there is a mix up between the Social Security Numbers when a family has opted to keep the old number.  In this case, the adoptive parents’ daughter was 5 years old and had to go to the emergency room. When they checked her into the hospital, the hospital refused to do anything because, when they put the old Social Security Number into the computer, it showed that this child’s mother was the Birthmother.  This was the hospital where the Birthmother had delivered and they had this information on file.  Of course, five years after finalizing the adoption, the adoptive family no longer carried any of their adoption paperwork with them.  Luckily it was a weekday and they were able to call the agency where I work to have us fax over their adoption paperwork.  In the meantime, the hospital was taking care of their daughter, but would not do any necessary procedures without this information.

Another agency in town had a couple that was traveling out of country doing mission work run into some problems.  They had lost their passports.  When the Embassy put the child’s Social Security Number into a database it showed that the child’s mother was somebody different.  Again, they had to contact the adoption agency and have adoption paperwork faxed.

There have been minor instances of tax fraud when a Birthfamily filed taxes and claimed the child using the original Social Security Number.  One child had bad credit before he was even 2 years old because a friend of the Birthfamily stole the old Social Security Card and used it for credit cards and a cell phone.

All of these things could have been prevented if the Adoptive Family had opted to have a new Social Security Number issued when the adoption was finalized.  It is an easy thing to have done and one that can help prevent troubles in the future.  While it is your decision as to whether or not you want to have a new Social Security Number issued for your child, it is a choice that I would highly recommend.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 3:37 am and is filed under Adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.