Social insurance number

This article is about the Canadian SIN. For other uses, see Social insurance and National identification number.
A social insurance number card. Note the date of expiration, which implies that the holder is neither a permanent resident nor a Canadian citizen.

A social insurance number (SIN) (French: numéro d'assurance sociale (NAS)) is a number issued in Canada to administer various government programs. The SIN was created in 1964 to serve as a client account number in the administration of the Canada Pension Plan and Canada's varied employment insurance programs. In 1967, Revenue Canada (now the Canada Revenue Agency) started using the SIN for tax reporting purposes. SINs are issued by Employment and Social Development Canada (previously Human Resources Development Canada).

The SIN is formatted as three groups of three digits (e.g., 123-456-789).

The top of the card has changed over the years as the departments that are responsible for the card have changed:

  • Manpower and Immigration
  • Employment and Immigration Canada
  • Human Resources Development Canada
  • Government of Canada

The 2012 Canadian federal budget contained provisions to phase out the Social Insurance Number cards because they lacked modern security features and could be used for identity theft.[1] As of 31 March 2014, Service Canada no longer issues plastic SIN cards. Instead, an individual will receive a paper "Confirmation of SIN" letter.[2]

  1. ^ Curry, Bill (15 May 2012). "Your wallet just got a bit lighter: Ottawa nixes SIN cards". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Social Insurance Number – Overview". Canada.ca. Employment and Social Development. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.