How to Create a my Social Security Account and What You Can Do With It

1Step 1: Decide which sign-in service to use

Social Security does not issue its own passwords any more. Since June 7, 2025, the only ways to sign in to a personal account are through Login.gov or ID.me, two services used by many federal agencies. You need one or the other, not both, and if you already use either for another agency, such as the IRS or the Department of Veterans Affairs, you can use the same one here.

If you are unsure, Social Security suggests Login.gov. Choose ID.me if you already have an ID.me account or live outside the United States, since Social Security directs customers with foreign addresses to ID.me. Either way the account is free; a site that asks you to pay to set one up is not Social Security.

2Step 2: Gather what you need

• Your Social Security number and the address Social Security has on file.
• An email address you can open during setup, since a code is sent to it.
• A government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license, state ID or passport, to verify your identity.
• A phone that can receive text messages or calls for the security code each time you sign in; ID.me also needs a device with a camera for its identity check.
• About 5 to 20 minutes, which is Social Security's estimate for the whole process.

You must be at least 18 to open an account. If you cannot verify your identity online, or would rather not, Social Security can help you at an office, and it can do almost everything the account does by phone at 1-800-772-1213.

3Step 3: Create the account

Start at Social Security's my Social Security page, at ssa.gov/myaccount, and choose to create an account. You are sent to Login.gov or ID.me to set up the credential: an email address, a strong password and a second way to confirm it is you, such as a code by text or an authentication app. Then the service verifies your identity, usually by checking your photo ID and, for ID.me, matching a selfie.

Back at Social Security, you confirm your personal details, and the account is linked to your record. The next time, you sign in through the same service with your email, password and code. Type the address yourself or use a bookmark rather than following a link in an email or text message, which is how most account scams begin.

4If identity verification does not go through

Most failed attempts come down to a mismatch. The name on your ID must match the name on your Social Security record, so if you married, divorced or changed your name and never told Social Security, update your record first. An old address on file, a phone number in someone else's name, or a photo of the ID taken in poor light can also stop the check.

• Try again with care: a clear photo of the ID on a dark surface, the address Social Security has on file and a phone in your own name.
• Use the in-person or video options the sign-in services offer. Login.gov can verify your identity in person at participating Post Offices, and ID.me offers a video call with an agent.
• Ask Social Security. An office can verify you in person, and many tasks can be done by phone instead.

If you are 60 or older, do not receive benefits and have no account, Social Security mails a paper Statement about three months before your birthday, so you can still see your earnings record while you sort out access.

5What you can do once you are in

Some features depend on whether you already receive benefits.

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

The earnings record is worth checking even years before you claim: a missing year lowers your benefit, and our guide to checking your earnings record explains how to fix one. The estimates show what you would receive at different claiming ages, which our guide to how much Social Security pays puts in context. The benefit letter is what landlords, lenders and benefit offices usually want, as our guide to proof of benefits explains.

6Step 4: Use it to apply, or to change a payment

You do not need a my Social Security account to apply for retirement, spouse's or disability benefits online, but having one lets you follow the application afterward and see messages from Social Security. Our guide to applying for retirement walks through that application, and our guide to applying for SSDI covers disability.

Once you receive benefits, the account is the quickest way to change your bank account for direct deposit, update your address, set up or change federal tax withholding, and download the yearly tax form. Changes to direct deposit can take a payment cycle to reach the next deposit, so make them well before a payment date. Our guide to tax withholding from benefits explains the options.

7Keeping the account safe

The account holds your earnings and your bank details, so it is a target. Social Security will not call, text or email to ask for your password, your security code or a payment, and it will never threaten arrest. Anyone who does is an impostor; our guide to benefit scams shows how the common ones work.

Open the account yourself even if you are not close to retirement. A thief who knows your Social Security number can try to open an account in your name and redirect payments, and having your own account in place makes that harder. If you suspect someone has already done it, call Social Security and report it, and ask about blocking electronic access to your record.

8If you are helping a parent or someone else

Each account belongs to one person, so do not open or use an account in someone else's name, even with their permission. If you manage benefits for someone who cannot, Social Security has a formal role for that, the representative payee, explained in our guide to representative payees. Otherwise, help the person set up their own account, or call or visit with them. Adults can also name, in advance, up to three people they would want as their payee if they ever needed one, which Social Security considers first.