[sailfast]

While I agree that this is annoying, you're trying to interact with the federal government which actually does require IDENTITY verification and not age verification in order to perform its duties. That id.me account allows you to take actions on behalf of a citizen, so they need to confirm some things first.

It's not great, but it's not what the original poster is against.

[AdmiralAsshat]

The frustration, I suppose, is that the government doesn't seem to demand this level of scrutiny to take my money, in the event that I owed on my tax returns for that year. But when they have money to give to me, suddenly it's 12 interviews and a colonoscopy to get approved.