Bug in US Social Security Administration computers sends Social Security cards to wrong addresses

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

From: Jonathan Kamens <jik () kamens brookline ma us>
Date: August 10, 2005 11:16:46 PM EDT
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Bug in US Social Security Administration computers sends  
Social Security cards to wrong addresses


The following is the introduction to
http://www.mit.edu/~jik/ssa-zip.html -- which tells the whole story in
sordid detail.

              *************************

The software that the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to
canonicalize mailing addresses when sending out social security cards
has a bug which causes correct ZIP codes in some addresses to be
replaced with incorrect ZIP codes.

This bug has been present for at least five years and has caused the
social security cards for three of my children to be "lost" in the
mail after their births.

The first two times this happened to me, the SSA resent a duplicate
card when I contacted them and complained that the original had never
arrived.

The first two times this happened to me, the SSA refused to
investigate why the original card never arrived.

The third time this happened to me, I finally convinced the SSA to
investigate, and the bug was exposed.

The SSA refuses to admit that the behavior of their software is a bug,
despite the fact that any competent software engineer familiar with
address-canonicalization technology would understand immediately that
it is after being given a test case illustrating it.

The SSA refuses to issue a duplicate card for my youngest child unless
I file a form SS-5, which requires that I either (a) send original,
personal identification documents through the mail, which I am
unwilling to do because of concerns about identity theft and document
loss, or (b) submit the form SS-5 in person at one of their offices,
which I am unwilling to do because I think it's entirely unreasonable
for me to have to miss work to correct the SSA's error.

The SSA has already admitted that my youngest child's card was lost in
the mail and that they know why this happened. They've been
corresponding with me at the address to which the card was supposed to
have been sent, which is in their records, which means that they know
for a fact that I am the father of the child whose card was lost and
that I am legally allowed to receive a copy of the card. That they
nevertheless refuse to issue a duplicate card has no legitimate
justification and can be explained only as bureaucratic inertia or a
stubborn refusal to admit fault.

              *************************

If there is anyone reading this who works for or has connections at
the SSA and who has the knowledge and experience to understand the bug
I'm trying to get them to fix (I've yet to reach anyone at the SSA who
has admitted to understanding it), please help!

Thanks,

  Jonathan Kamens




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