I don't know that it will make a significant difference but Social Security is changing its procedures for processing the form 1695 which it receives from attorneys and others who represent Social Security claimants. The form 1695 includes the Social Security number of the person representing the claimant. What is supposed to happen in the future is that the form will end up in the claimant's file but the Social Security number will be blacked out. Previously, the form was supposed to be shredded after the information was entered in Social Security's database.
Claimants are not supposed to see their attorney's Social Security number. Only those Social Security employees who need to see the attorney's Social Security number are supposed to see it.
I know that it is strictly prohibited but what are the odds that no Social Security employee has gotten my Social Security number off a 1695 and looked up my earnings record just to satisfy their own curiosity? Can it really be prevented?
10 comments:
Any SSA employee who pulls an earnings record on someone who is not a claimant whose case they are assigned will raise a red flag in the system, they will have to explain why, and they will most likely lose their job very fast. There are a lot of security measures built into the system of SSA to prevent such misconduct by its employees.
No employee can look into a person's earnings record without having to justify the reason if they are not a claimant. So, to satisfy your curiosity - it doesn't happen the way you claim. Jobs are on the line.
So far the Administration has not been very diligent about being careful with these forms and this will only make it worse... I have seen 1695s turn up in part of the exhibit file in Federal Court transcripts multiple times already
I have seen it show up in the file at ODAR. More often, the District Office does not input the info correctly, and I end up having to chase the client for the fee. I would be happy to see a redacted 1695 appear in the file as this would aid in my arguments when having to prove that SSA had everything they needed to withhold my fee appropriately and failed to do so.
While researching a claimant, I accidentally transposed some numbers when doing an employment search, and got message from big brother asking me to explain why I was looking up the earnings for someone who coincidentally had the same last name as my mother's maiden name.
There is absolutely no reason to put the representative's Social Security number on this form. We all register and provide our SS number. The system could then assign some PIN number to be used on the 1695. This is not rocket science in terms of the programing involved.
But we are not dealing with "rocket scientists" in SSA.
Hmmm, I have handled quite a few of these, and it never occurred to me to go check the earnings record of the rep. Could be done, but most of us are far too busy and lack idle time to go rummaging around in SSA systems for information that is not needed for what we are doing. As pointed out in other comments to this item, there is disciplinary action against employees for misuse of SSA systems. I don't know for sure, that the computer would identify an employee's access to an Auth Rep's records. It is possible. Systems do monitor the employees for some categories: we cannot access our own records, those of family members, or those of celebrities and high profile individuals,etc. But I expect that the prime deterrent is 'integrity'.
Why shouldn't claimants see it, Shouldn't they be issueing you a 1099 at the end of the year if they have paid you for your work?? Hummm??
Great article. Thanks for the info, this is really a helpful post. BTW, if anyone needs to fill out a SSA form 1695, I found a blank form in this site PDFfiller. This site also has several related SSA forms that you might find useful.
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