Abuse Victims Get Easier Access to New Social Security Numbers

The Social Security Administration has made it easier for battered women to get new Social Security numbers to help them hide from abusive husbands or boyfriends, federal officials announced Wednesday.

Vice President Al Gore said the government wants to send an encouraging message to abused women and their children. “We want to give you the safety and security you deserve,” he said at a news conference. “You have suffered enough without having to fight for the protections you need to start a new life for yourself and your children.”

Detectives hired by abusive men often use a woman’s Social Security number to find out where she is living and working.

Social Security provides someone with a new number only rarely. Until now, victims of domestic violence had to convince Social Security officials that they had been abused and that the Social Security number itself was used by the abuser to track them down. About 300 people a year apply for a new number for this reason, and only half the requests are granted. Virtually all the victims of domestic violence are women.

The new policy, which begins immediately, will require simply that a woman supply a statement by a third-party expert source--a police officer, a doctor, a counselor--that she has been abused. There is no longer a need to show that the abuser used the number to trace the victim.

Social Security expects about 600 women to supply the certifications annually. It is likely to grant all the requests, a Social Security Administration spokesman said Wednesday.

Information on the procedures for getting a new number will be posted on the agency’s Web site, https://www.ssa.gov.

“A determined abuser, using private detectives or the Internet, can find . . . anyone who doesn’t take precautions,” Social Security Commissioner Kenneth S. Apfel said at the news briefing. “This means that a woman seeking to escape domestic violence may need to change virtually her entire identity--her name, her home, her job and her Social Security number.”

Gore was introduced at the news conference by Stacey Kabat, founder of Peace at Home, an organization for domestic violence victims. “I remember me and my brother huddled at the top of the stairs, fearing for my mother’s life,” she said. Her mother planned an escape for 15 years, finally fleeing when Kabat’s brother was in college, she said.

The government gives new identities to witnesses in the war against organized crime, she noted. “We owe at least the same to women and children. We are so pleased things are changing and the government is listening to us.”

People in the federal witness protection program who have been relocated with new identities receive new Social Security numbers. The same help might be given to some individuals who can prove that they have been victims of “identity theft” when criminals use their numbers repeatedly to get credit cards, make loans and engage in other costly financial transactions.

Gore announced that the federal government will prepare a guidebook on domestic violence for all government workers. His staff also distributed copies of a new guide for police officers on protecting victims of domestic violence. The book, financed by a Justice Department grant to the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, will be given to all U.S. police departments.