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Logging in to Your Social Security Account? You May Find a Surprise
SSA sign-in change will affect millions of My Social Security users
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Millions of people who access Social Security services and track their benefits online will soon need to change their login procedure to continue using their My Social Security accounts.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced July 12 that users who established accounts before Sept. 18, 2021, using a now-defunct sign-up method will be required to transition those accounts to Login.gov, a secure sign-in service administered by the federal government.
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In a statement, the SSA says the change will allow it “to simplify the sign-in experience and align [My Social Security] with federal authentication standards while providing safe and secure access to online services.”
The change affects about 46 million of the roughly 86 million people who have My Social Security accounts, according to an SSA spokesperson. Along with posting about the shift on its blog, the agency is notifying individual users by email.
“We’re sending out messages to over 40 million legacy accounts, and we’re particularly focused on legacy accounts that have remained active, which is about half of that,” the spokesperson says.
Old logins out
The SSA launched My Social Security in 2012. Until a few years ago, people signing up for the service did so directly through the Social Security website, ssa.gov, creating a username and password unique to that account. The agency now uses two other providers for sign-ups: Login.gov and the identity-verification service ID.me.
The My Social Security sign-in page currently offers all three options — Login.gov, ID.me or the Social Security username — depending on how and when you created the account. The third option is the one that's going away. The SSA has not set a deadline for shifting those accounts to Login.gov, beyond posting on its blog that the old usernames will sunset "later this year."
For now, those users will be asked when they log in to transition their account. Selecting that option takes you through instructions for setting up a Login.gov account and linking your My Social Security access to it. As of July 17, more than 6 million users had completed the process, which does not require any additional identity verification and typically takes a few minutes, the SSA spokesperson says.
People already using Login.gov or ID.me to access My Social Security do not need to take any action.
Accounts are free
My Social Security is free and available to anyone 18 or older who has a Social Security number and a valid email address. You don’t have to receive benefits to use the service.
With an online account, you can review your Social Security statement, get estimates of benefits, track and manage current payments, and access routine SSA services, such as requesting a replacement Social Security card, reporting a change of address or updating your bank information for direct deposits.
The SSA encourages customers to utilize online services whenever possible to avoid having to visit a Social Security office or call the program’s national help line (800-772-1213), which has been plagued in recent years by lengthy hold times and dropped calls.
Over the past several months, the SSA has reduced wait times for callers, from an average of 38 minutes at the end of 2023 to 20 minutes in June 2024. It aims to get the average to 12 minutes by September 2025.
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