Long story short Auntie seems to be adjusting well to the NH and we have been able to get most of her paperwork in order but recently hit a road block with her name.
They need a copy of her birth certificate and we submitted all the necessary paperwork only to find out that the name we have always known her as is not her legal given name. The first and last name are totally different as we found a copy of her birth registration and are meeting with the attorney again at the end of the week to go over this paperwork. I am wondering what this will mean for the Medicaid application. She has some $ to cover her bills for now but not much and want to be proactive if we can. I swear we can’t make this stuff up 😩
I am glad you are going to get professional advice. We are free to change our name in this country and when it happens you are down to an application that says AKA and the two names are on all submissions. You would, I would think, attach a letter as to when and how name was changed (marriage, court order, nothing). This is complicated in that the first AND last were changed, so I sure would run this one past the attorney. Good luck. Hope you will update us how this works.
Did she ever get a passport? They will ask every name you were known by and proof of the change. I had my adoption papers which showed my birth name then my adopted. I did not have my marriage certificate from my first marriage but had my divorce papers. Then my now marriage certifcate. And believe me, they know if you haven't sent in complete info. I never thought about my birth name because I never used it. I got a letter saying something was wrong and they would research for a certain amount of money. Thats when I realized that they needed my adoption papers. My daughter is adopted by my now husband. I kept her original birth certificate and her adopted one for this reason for her passport.
I will assume Aunt is not cognitive or you would be asking her. Are there any older family members or friends that may know her story?
What about past employers? Does she get a pension from anywhere, and what name is that in?
found the marriage certificate but there is no trail of the name ever being officially changed We still can’t believe this hasn’t presented a problem until now bit what do we know. Will keep you informed
Another well known time of name change is during immigration and naturalization to the U.S. Oh, and another is during a divorce.
As long as there is a clear path in the paperwork of when the name was changed, Medicaid shouldn't care. But...that is the conundrum...trying to prove a clear path of when and why a change occurred when the family didn't even know about the change in the first place. Talking to the attorney is the best option, yet also focusing on finding the paper trail of her life might help too.
Many people are unaware how casually changing their names can create a problem later on, so this should be on a check list for adult children when they are helping parents get their legal ducks in a row.
To put a finer piont on the whole accuracy and consistency issue: my physical home address has always been XX West Point Circle, T.B. (name of small town)."West" is the name of the family that homesteaded the property on the "Point" of land I live on. So, not named after the academy and not a direction (N, S, E, W).
But now with the streamlining of addresses for the purposes of home delivery, the USPS has decided that my address: XX W Pt. Circle, E (the name of the town next to mine where the PO actually resides). All my bills and mail and packages go to this altered version which I myself have never used as my address, ever. However, my driver's license has the original version on it, so does my house title and cc billing address.
The last time I went to renew my driver's license I wanted a Real ID type so that it also functioned as a "lower level" Passport (into Mexico, Canada) but they wouldn't give me one because none of the other proofs of my identity matched that original address on my license (my bank statement, utility bills, etc. all use the altered version even though I go into my account portals to try to change it. It never works, even when I call them). Besides now being never able to get a Real ID license, a main reason I don't want to use the "govt issued" version of my address is because it erases the history of my neighborhood, not to mention it doesn't reflect where I actually live (the town). When I contacted the USPS my request went into a black hole.
A tanget story, but supports making sure sooner rather than later to make sure there is consistency and accuracy of name and address on everything before our parents (and ourselves) lose the ability to easily correct it.
In the past this was never a problem or issue. Until all these new rules and laws came into effect. Recently, in order to secure a TSA precheck, I had to show up with ALL of my information - birth certificate, ss card, 1st marriage license/divorce papers, 2nd marriage/divorce papers, and 3rd marriage papers. Quite the undertaking when spanning more than half a century! But even though 1-3rd marriage information showed my changed first name, it was a no-go. I actually had to go file court papers to do an 'official and legal' first name change - and then, of course, go back to TSA with ALL the paperwork again, plus the new legal papers. And btw -- just had to go through all this again to apply for our state's enhanced driver's license.
So ask Auntie about the name change and perhaps you can build a paper trail that can be presented.