Last fall, the Boston Globe highlighted the problem of Social Security Numbers on death certificates. Scamsters can get access to the death certificates and use the identifying information on the form for fraudulent purposes. This problem was also highlighted to me directly by a constituent, Michael Astrue, who is a former administrator of the Social Security system.
I filed legislative language in January to fix the problem. We were able to incorporate that language into the FY26 budget (Section 29). The Governor sent the language back to add more flexibility — it is important that some agencies, most importantly the Social Security Administration, have access the SSN of the deceased and the record systems need to support that access. This is explained in Attachment C of the Governor’s response to the budget.
The House and Senate both reviewed the Governor’s recommended language and found it acceptable. We approved it in final form and sent it back to the Governor yesterday.
This is great!
very good Will