Information on Social Security Number's
1936 - was the first year that numbers were issued
Social Security Index of Valid Numbers by State
INVALID SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS
- Three or more leading zeros (000 - 08 - 8537)
- Ending in four zeros (557 - 84 - 0000)
- Leading numbers 73 through 79 (734 - 81 - 9559 / 791 - 32 - 7462)
- Leading number 6 or 8 (687 - 44 - 3867 / 806 - 55 - 6823)
- Leading number of 9 is suspect, very few ever issued (915 - 83 - 7836)
From Judy
The letter "A" means that she received social security monthly benefits on her own work record (an "A" signifys worker's account) - a "B" would have meant that she was receiving a monthly benefit as a wife on her husband's record. This "B" is converted to a "D" if she were widowed. There are about a 100 different combinations of letters/numbers to represent different types of benefits payable. Those with B's, C's, D's and E's are
preceded by the worker's social security number (not the recipients number).
Hope this helps - Judy (an employee of Social Security Adm.)
From Linda Thiessen
The "-A" behind a Social Security Number may mean the following-they are all similar:
1) "Years ago when SS first began most women, unless they worked outside the home did not have their own # so
"-A" was added to the husbands number for the wife. She was not a wage earner, but they still needed to keep a record for her thus the
"A"".
2) "They are a Medicare designation - indicating a Medicare status and the actual SSN was not the same as this number".
3) "Women who did not work outside the home were given their husband's SS# with
"A" attached when they became eligible for retirement benefits. This was her #".
4) "May indicate more than one person receiving some type of benefit under this number-husband and wife"
Also reasons given from Social Security Administration for not finding relatives on the SS death index:
Not everyone will be listed on Death index's unless 1) benefits were paid and 2) the person receiving the benefits has died.
Some more information on additional letters
A social security number with an "A" after it - designates the working individual
Followed by the letter "B" - this is the wife of the working individual
Followed by a "B1" - this is the husband of a working individual
Followed by a "C", plus a number (1,2, etc) - child of the working individual
Followed by a "D" - widow of the working individual (a "B" is converted to "D" in event of death of the worker)
The possible combinations of letter's, plus numbers is quite long.