Social Security now charges $23 for a copy of the original application a person filed to get a Social Security card, and $22 for the computer extract of that application. Both fees apply to any request the agency receives on or after Oct. 1, 2026. They matter mostly to families chasing an old record, not to anyone collecting a benefit.
The application is Form SS-5, the Application for a Social Security Card. The extract is a computer record built from it, known as the Numident. Executors, genealogists and relatives order one or the other when a name, a birth date or a parent’s name has to be backed up and no other document survives.
What the SS-5 copy and the Numident extract cost under the new schedule
The charges come from a Federal Register notice titled “Charging Standard Administrative Fees for Non-Program Information,” signed by SSA General Counsel Mark Steffensen and scheduled for publication Sept. 21. It lists “Requests for Copy of Original Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card” at $23 and “Requests for Copy of Numident Record (Computer Extract of the SS-5)” at $22.
The date that counts is the day SSA receives the request. The notice says the fees are “applicable for requests” received “on or after October 1, 2026,” so a request mailed in late September but opened in October falls under the new amounts. Payment is a nonrefundable advance by check, money order or credit card, never cash, with one form of payment covering the full fee.
Anyone settling an estate, building a family tree or trying to prove a name or birth date for a passport now pays these amounts, and the first decision is which record to order. The $23 photocopy shows the form as the applicant completed it, while the $22 extract is a typed summary of the same information.
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Does the $22 extract prove a name or date of birth?
For many purposes it does. SSA’s guidance on records of deceased people says the extract is sufficient for uses such as delayed birth certificates and passports. A person who needs a date of birth or the name as first recorded for one of those filings can generally stop at the cheaper record.
The saving carries a cost. The agency’s own request form warns that the computer extract “may not contain the names of the individual’s parents and the place of birth.” Those are the details a family historian usually wants most, which makes the $23 photocopy the better buy for genealogy even though it costs a dollar more.
Parents’ names stay hidden without proof of death
Even the photocopy does not hand over everything. SSA’s operating manual says the agency cannot provide a parent’s first and last names without proof of the parent’s death. Acceptable proof includes a public record of death, a funeral director’s statement, a physician’s statement, a coroner’s report or an obituary that identifies the person.
Age limits apply as well. The request form says SSA cannot process requests for people who died before November 1936, or for people born before 1865 unless the Social Security number is supplied. The form also asks for the deceased person’s name at birth, other names used, sex, date and place of birth, and parents’ information if the number is not known.
The request goes through an electronic form at foia.ssa.gov or on Form SSA-711, mailed to a Baltimore post office box with a check or money order payable to the Social Security Administration. The form tells requesters to allow four to six weeks for a reply, and a credit card payment needs a separate Form SSA-714.
Does a certified copy for probate cost extra?
Court use is where the fee question stays open. Form SSA-711 says certification is usually not necessary unless the information will be used in court, so an executor filing in probate court should ask the court clerk whether a plain copy will be accepted before paying for more.
The November 2024 edition of that form prints a $10 charge per certified record and lists the photocopy at $27 and the extract at $26. Those printed amounts predate the notice, which lists a single $23 and a single $22. The notice also sets certification charges of $30 and $65 depending on where a request is received, and it does not say which, if either, applies to a certified SS-5 copy. SSA’s frequently asked questions page on deceased-person records adds that the amount depends on the format requested and whether the Social Security number is known, though it gives no figures.
The open question for an estate is therefore narrow: whether the court needs a certified copy at all, and if so what SSA bills for it. Anyone who skips the form’s fee lines and sends only the notice’s amounts risks a request returned for short payment, which costs weeks given the four-to-six-week reply time.
Is a Social Security notice about to change a payment?
A records fee is one of several Social Security changes that reach households as a notice rather than a call. Beneficiaries who miss a notice about a late, short or wrong payment, or an overpayment, find the deadlines running on the agency’s clock.
This story is about records, and the related job is keeping the payment itself on schedule. “The Social Security Check Protection Kit” is a 75-page guide that includes the 2026 payment calendar and shows how to lock the payment down and what to do the day it is late, short or wrong. It covers the three SSA forms that stop or pause collection (SSA-561, SSA-632 and SSA-634).
Get the 75-page check-protection guide with the 2026 payment calendar →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
