PA Granted Waiver on Social Security Number Mandate for Hunting and Fishing Licenses

Pennsylvania recently received a temporary waiver of a federal requirement mandating social security numbers be provided by applicants for hunting and fishing licenses, according to Senator Bob Robbins (R-50).

The Department of Public Welfare (DPW) recently notified Senator Robbins that the Federal Department of Health and Human Services granted the waiver allowing Pennsylvania residents to provide an alternative form of identification, such as a driver’s license when applying for "recreational" licenses.

The waiver will take effect on April 18, 2010 and will remain in effect until July 16, 2011. The DPW may submit a request for extension of the waiver 90 days prior to its expiration on July 16, 2011.

The federal Social Security Act requires states to collect social security information from applicants for various licenses for child support enforcement purposes.

"I have heard many concerns about this requirement and the privacy and identity theft issues that it raises," said Senator Robbins, a strong supporter of a 2006 state law that required the DPW to seek the waiver. "In this day and age, I don’t know if there are a lot of people who are comfortable handing over their social security numbers to a clerk in a retail store. That simply runs counter to everything that we tell people to do in order to protect themselves from identity theft. I back efforts to crack down on those who fail to make child support payments, but this federal requirement simply doesn’t make sense and opens the door to fraud and identity theft."

Senator Robbins strongly supported Act 160 of 2006, which prompted the DPW waiver request, and was a co-sponsor of Act 60 of 2006, which prohibits any person or institution from making a Social Security number available to the public, and forbids the use of Social Security numbers to access goods or services.

Contact:

Justin Leventry
(717) 787-1322