Registration age is established by a government document or circumstantial evidence. Birth certificates are crucial for government services and benefits, but not everyone has one. Disputes can arise when records are wrong or inaccessible. Courts can set an official age if necessary.
A registration age can be an official age established by a government document or a documented age that serves to establish eligibility for services. While the term seems straightforward enough, disputes can arise when a person does not have an official birth certificate on file with a government agency. In these cases, the age of registration can be established by circumstantial evidence.
A person’s date of birth determines their age at any given time. It is only in modern times in industrialized countries, however, that most births take place in hospitals where an official birth certificate can be generated by an independent third party. In the historical past and currently in many less developed countries, births took place in the home and, in many cases, without generating an official record.
Governments have a vested interest in establishing birth registries for its population. A birth certificate, generated and registered with the government at a person’s birth, establishes a person’s registration age for all government services and benefits. For example, to obtain a driver’s license, a government agency often requires the applicant to show a birth certificate to establish that her government-registered age qualifies him to apply for a license. Many other types of government services and benefits are age-related, including retirement benefits, tax benefits, and eligibility to enlist in the military.
When an official government document exists to establish a person’s birth, it is definitive proof of a person’s registration age. Problems arise when a person does not have an official birth certificate, when the record is wrong, or when a person no longer has access to the agency that has the record under their control. Typically, a person without a birth certificate will have a lifetime opportunity to establish her age by circumstantial evidence. This may include a birth announcement in a newspaper, a religious record, or an oral history. Once a person without a birth record establishes a birth date for a government purpose, it becomes her registration age and is notoriously difficult to change.
If a person’s birth certificate is found to be wrong, or the date of birth established by circumstantial evidence is wrong, the only way to correct it is to take the matter to court. A court can decide the matter and set an official age that the person can use in the future. A record age is not only important for government services, it is also crucial for everyday life. For example, schools often place children into classes based on their age of enrollment. Children born before a certain date can enroll in school, while children born in the same year but after a certain date must wait until the following school year.
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