Social security number

The social security number is a formed number of 13 Chiffre S, plus a key of 2 digits, being useful in France with the identification of the individuals by the Social security, and created under the German Occupation, at ends of clandestine military mobilization, by Rene Carmille.

Its administrative name was " National number of identité" (N.N.I.) and is currently " Number of inscription to the répertoire" (NIR), by reference to the " National directory of identification of the people physiques" (RNIPP) managed by INSEE.

In the beginning, the number tested by Carmille had 12 Chiffre S: two for the year of birth, two for the month of birth, two for the department of birth (the use of the same alphabetic code will be decided only in 1950 for the registration of the Automobile S), three for the commune of birth (no department comprises more than 1000 communes), finally three for a sequence number in the month of birth (no commune records more than 1000 births per month).

When it was decided after the Armistice of 1940 to camouflage the services of recruitment of the Army in an allegedly civil service of demography, one decided, to give the exchange, to allot the number as well to the girls as with the boys: the number gained there a thirteenth figure, put at the head in first column: 1 for the boys, 2 for the girls.

In the Years 1970, when the Informatique spread, a key with two Chiffre S was added for checking by the Ordinateur: it is the complement with 97 of the remainder of the division of the number with 13 digits by 97.

The social security number is registered on the Vital card.

History

With the defeat of 1940, all the French military apparatus is dismantled. The Armée is limited to 100.000 men, the conscription is removed. The General inspector of the Army Rene Carmille then proposes to set up a system which, under cover of civil purpose, would be a substitute with the file S soldiers, allowing to mobilize all the men quickly. He sets up an identifier at 12 digits. It adds one to it 13th figure in first column (the first key of sorting in the technique of the time: punched-card treatment of Perforated cards…) for the Sex, i.e. makes the first criterion of mobilization of it. Asserting practical impossibilities, it eludes the request for addition of racial information in the identifier. On the other hand, he insists on the collection of the Donnée S of importance economic, in particular the Profession.

In May 1945, the first component of the identification number is definitively limited to the sex: 1. male 2. female. The reconstituted Army continued to use the Carmille number and gave the name of its creator at successive recruitment centres, of Mécanographie or telecommunications.

According to the memory of Pierre Laroque, adviser of State, creator of the Social security:

“ when the preliminary work of the French Plan of Social security was undertaken, with the autumn 1944, the number of identity of Mr. Carmille was already well established and was regarded quite naturally as having to become the social security number in agreement with INSEE (sic) . In any event the development of the legislation on the Social security led to the basic Ordinances of October 1945 and to the entry pursuant to the new mode on July 1st 1946. I have any reason to think that with these various Date S new the Social security number, substituted for the old number of the Social Security, was adopted without dispute by anyone. ”.

This assignment with the Social security was providential. Instead of being used for a constraint like the Military service or the income declaration, the Carmille number received a Usage extremely appreciated Population with which it made it possible to take advantage of its rights to services, pensions and refundings varied.

In April 1946, the SNS became the INSEE, which uses the number for the management of the electoral rolls and takes care, in December 1946, of the notification to the Social security of the identification number. The repertories of identification, founded on the civil statue and which thus do not contain the address, were established in a way decentralized by Regional management of the birthplace on handwritten registers. Gradually, the Informatique replaced the Mécanographie, the first “peripherals” remaining the Perforated cards, little by little themselves replaced by the Magnetic bands.

In 1971, INSEE decided to centralize the repertories of identification to Nantes. The project was inopportunely baptized SAFARI (for Automated system for the Administrative Files and the Repertory of the Individuals). In February 1972, the administration worsened its case while envisaging to cumulate the centralization of the repertory of INSEE to Nantes with that of the national file of assured (with the Adresse) the National bank of Old-age insurance (CNAV) to Tours. March 21st 1974, Le Monde denounced the business under the title “Safari or hunting for the French”. In the passion countryside which followed, of aucuns made state of alleged uses of the Carmille number, “created by Vichy”, for hunting for the Juif S, with the Résistant S, refractories STO… The calm one returned only with the vote of the law of January 6th 1978, creating the “National IT commission and Freedoms” (CNIL).

Unicity

The social security number is not sufficient to identify in a single and unquestionable way an individual, because of existence of doubled blooms:

for a possible policy-holder and his beneficiaries, until each beneficiary is seen allotting and communicating its own number,
for the people born except metropolis.
for the of the same people sex, born at 100 years of interval, in the same commune, the same sequence number.

This last point is still theoretical. The year of birth of the individual is identified by his the last two figures, that is to say with a margin of 100 years. The existing social security number since 1946, we will see, as from 2046 and with less than one reform of the social security number by then, to grow the risk of doubled blooms in the social security numbers. Risk extrémement weak between individuals in life, but which will be growing with the increase in the life expectancy. Risk in addition multiplied by ten by the computerization of the RNIPP in 1972, which involved the unlimited conservation of the social security numbers including when the person died. It will involve as from 2072 a risk growing and quickly very significant doubled blooms between alive individuals and individuals deceased.

Attribution and communication

The precise CNIL:

" Any person born in France, that it is French or foreign, is registered RNIPP (National directory of identification of the natural persons) as of its birth. A person born abroad is registered only if its inscription is required by a user authorized under the conditions envisaged by the law n°78-17 of the modified January 6th, 1978 (articles 25-I and 27). "

The social security number is communicated alternatively:

at the time of the first employment
on the chart of registration high-school pupil addressed by the Social security to the high-school pupils into final
at the latest to 20 years

it is thus to note that having them rights of a member of National Insurance Scheme have a whole a number allotted , but that this one is quite simply not used. This is especially génant in the case or having it right does not live with the policy-holder, in particular in the case of the recomposed families.

Sources

See " The number of identité" , Population & Companies , INED, n° 232, February 1989

See too

External bonds

Card of the RNIPP (National directory of identification of the natural persons) on the site of the CNIL

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