Social Security denies sisters numbers
LONDON, Ky. -- For more than two decades, the Schultz sisters in rural Kentucky have lived without Social Security numbers, doing odd jobs like bartending and making jewelry to earn cash under the table. One of them even posed as their mother to gain employment.
Now Raechel, 29, and Stephanie, 23, want steady, legitimate work, yet the federal government has refused to issue numbers to the women, saying they need more proof the pair were born in the United States.
The predicament prompted the women, who have lived for years on society's fringes, to sue.
According to their lawsuit, the Social Security Administration indicated it denied the women's request for numbers because they "have not given us documents we need to show U.S. citizenship."
The agency has declined to comment on the suit.
Raechel was born at a home in Madison County, Ky.; Stephanie was delivered in the back of a Dodge van in southern Alabama. The births were recorded in a family Bible but were otherwise undocumented.
In 2009, the women sued to get birth certificates, took a DNA test to prove they were born to their parents and a judge's order won them the records. -- AP
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
