Social security number

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A social security number is a personal identifier consisting of letters or digits for identification in the social security system .

In principle, social security numbers are also used in all countries with functioning social security systems. However, the structure and purposes of use differ from one another.

German-speaking area

Germany

For reasons of data protection law, there is no valid social security number in the Federal Republic of Germany for all social security systems. This is why, for example, different insurance numbers are processed in health insurance and pension insurance. To a limited extent, however, the pension insurance number noted on the social security card (example: 15 070649 C 103 ) is used like a social security number.

In the GDR , the twelve-digit, purely numerical personal code was also used for identification in the social security system.

Austria

e-card Austria

In Austria a four-digit number followed by the six-digit date of birth is used; Each social security number therefore always consists of ten digits in total (example: 1234 010180 ). It has been awarded at birth since the 1990s , and before that only at the first exhibition. The first three digits of the number include a sequential number (sequential number), which starts from 100. The fourth digit, 4 in the example above, is a check digit that is calculated from the other digits. There are around 800 social security numbers per birthday, which normally provides a sufficient number of combinations per day for Austria. In special situations, however, this number of numbers per day may not be sufficient, and in these cases a date of birth with days over 31 and months over 12 is entered, which sometimes leads to confusion. These situations mainly affect immigrants who do not know or cannot prove their exact date of birth and therefore whose birthday is set to January 1st or July 1st of the respective year of birth. Since the number in the first three digits overflows on these days, these special date entries are made in the social security number of these people.

use

This number is not only used by the social security agencies and the e-card , but is also increasingly used in other government areas, as it represents a unique key for all residents. It is also used for identification in finance and insurance. The number can be used to determine not only whether a person has health insurance, but also whether they are receiving family allowance. However, there is no photo ID with the number, nor is it on the registration form . This means that the number cannot be used as an identification in the contract system, as is possible in other countries.

Designations

The terms “insurance number” or “SV number” are often used as synonyms and the abbreviations “SVNR”, “VSNR” or “VNR” are used for the social security number.

calculation

The check digit can be calculated as follows:

  1. Each individual digit of the insurance number is multiplied by a specific number:
    • Sequence number with 3, 7, 9
    • Date of birth with 5, 8, 4, 2, 1, 6
  2. The check digit is calculated from the remainder of the division of the sum of the individual products divided by 11.

If the remainder of the division is 10, the sequence number is increased by 1 and a new calculation is carried out.

Example:

123X 010 180
X = ( 1 × 3 + 2 × 7 + 3 × 9 + 0 × 5 + 1 × 8 + 0 × 4 + 1 × 2 + 8 × 1 + 0 × 6) mod 11
X = 7
The social security number is therefore 1237 010180 .

Stock of values

The sequence number can have values ​​from 100 to 999, which would therefore allow 900 different social security numbers per fixed date of birth. Of these 900 insurance numbers, those for which the remainder of the division (for the check digit calculation) is equal to 10 must be excluded. Depending on the specific date of birth, this usually applies to 82 or sometimes 81 numbers, since 900: 11 = 81, the remainder is 9. Thus remain mathematically per fixed Birth mostly (more precisely, in 9 out of 11 cases, ie in 81, 81  % of all cases) 818 and sometimes (more precisely, in two out of 11 cases, ie in 18, 18  % of all cases) 819 - on average thus 818, 18 - different social security numbers left to use.

The last two digits of the date of birth can be used to represent 100 (birth) years (00–99). A year has an average of 365.25 days, which can be represented by the four digits in the date of birth. An average of 818.18 different social security numbers are available per date of birth. This results in a set of values ​​of 818.18 × 365.25 × 100 ≈ 29 884 000, whereby the expansion options through the "artificial" dates of birth are not yet taken into account. If you allow all possible dates of birth, including the "artificial" dates, the range of values ​​increases to 818.18 × 10 000 × 100 ≈ 818 180 000, which is a good 27 times as much as before.

If one assumes that hardly anyone will be over 100 years old, and one takes into account that insurance numbers that were once assigned are only used for renewed assignment 20 years after the death of the insured person, then it can be estimated (from the above using the reverse rule of three ) that even the stock of values ​​without the “artificial” dates of birth is sufficient for around 29,884,000 × 100: (100 + 20) ≈ 24.9 million insured persons.

Switzerland

AHV number

In Switzerland there is a so-called AHV number , which is mainly used to manage old-age provision , but is also used, for example, in disability insurance and the income compensation scheme .

Insurance number

The 11-digit AHV number was replaced on July 1, 2008 by a 13-digit insurance number (French: NSS, numéro de sécurité sociale), which no longer contains any personal identification numbers and is not only used in social insurance but also as a tax identification number ( Tax Identification Number - TIN ) is used.

The insurance number is composed of a leading three-digit country code, an eight-digit random number that uniquely identifies each person for life, but is anonymous, and a final check digit. This prevents the name from being encoded in the number, as was the case with the old AHV number. This was not only problematic in terms of data protection law, but also resulted in a change of number when changing names, which made the whole system inconsistent. The resulting 13-digit number is broken down as follows:

  • 01st to 03rd digit: Country code (Switzerland = 756);
  • 04th digit: point;
  • 05th to 08th digit: four-digit number;
  • 09th digit: point;
  • 10th to 13th position: four-digit number;
  • 14th position: point;
  • 15th to 16th position: two-digit number.

The 16th digit is the check digit, which is calculated according to the EAN-13 standard .

By mid-2009, all residents of Switzerland who have an AHV number had also received a new insurance certificate with the insurance number. Due to the legal restriction of use, concerns on the part of data protection have been taken into account.

Anglo-Saxon area

United States

The nine-digit Social Security Number (example: 306-30-2348 ) used in the United States is not only used by social security and healthcare, but also by other authorities, such as the financial authorities (see Taxpayer Identification Number ) and private companies. The social security number thus has the function of a general personal identifier .

United Kingdom

The social systems of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland work with the National Insurance number . It consists of two letters followed by six digits and a third letter (example: AB-123456-C ). The UK social security number is used exclusively by the state social security systems.

Canada

In Canada every person entitled to work receives a Social Insurance Number , Numéro d'Assurance Sociale also SIN and NAS , but this does not happen automatically. Before a citizen is hired by an employer for the first time, they must apply for the SIN. Although the vast majority only use one SIN in life, the SIN does not necessarily have to be lifelong. In the case of immigrants and guest workers in particular, temporary SIN numbers are created. As soon as the applicant receives a settlement permit, the temporary SIN will be canceled and replaced by a new, permanent one.

Similar to the United States, private businesses often asked for the SIN card as proof of identification, although it was explicitly illegal to do so (usually only banks, employers, and federal agencies are allowed to require the SIN from a citizen). However, due to repeated information campaigns by the data protection commissioner, this trade usage has fallen sharply.

France

The social security number has 15 digits, the first 13 of which are relevant; the last two are a check digit. In the middle part, the number consists of the five-digit code Insee , which is used to designate the department (or country) of the birth. Before that, gender and year (two digits) and month of birth are given, followed by a serial number and a check digit. People born in France or in its overseas departments are automatically given a number at birth.

Italy

In Italy the social security number is identical to the tax number (codice fiscale). Example: MST MAX 90A01 A000A

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c What is the insurance number? Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions, March 11, 2015, accessed on July 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The new AHV number or social security number for Switzerland website of Proxena GmbH, accessed on March 27, 2017