Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement regarding Social Security Administration (SSA)’s decision to halt sending “no-match” letters, also known as Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) notices:
“We welcome SSA’s announcement that it will stop the harmful practice of sending no-match letters to employers with certain discrepancies in their W-2 records. Two years ago, we strongly condemned SSA’s decision to send these letters out in the first place because they disproportionately imperil immigrants and threaten workers’ privacy. No-match letters have been shown to be wholly ineffective in correcting wage records and are not a cost-effective use of SSA’s limited resources. Today, we reiterate that the agency is prohibited by law from using its funds for any purpose other than administering Social Security, such as immigration enforcement. While we are glad to see SSA finally do the right thing and stop sending these letters, it is unfortunate that SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul chose to send these harmful letters for two years, inflicting significant harm on many affected workers.”
In June 2019, Chairmen Neal and Larson, along with former Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, the late John Lewis (D-GA), sent a letter to Commissioner Saul opposing SSA’s decision to restart sending no-match letters. Specifically, the members cited their concerns that the letters may lead to the firing of U.S. citizens and work-authorized immigrants, that they may result in the unauthorized sharing of tax data, and that they were a poor use of SSA’s scarce resources.
You will notice the contrast drawn, implicitly, to the pious statements from Social Security that they were forbidden to help the IRS with stimulus checks until the IRS ponied up money for the costs of producing the lists of those eligible because the funds appropriated for Social Security could only be used for administering Social Security and not helping with stimulus payments. However, when the Trump Administration asked for Social Security's help with immigration enforcement, Social Security apparently saw no such obstacle.
It's past time for the House Ways and Means Committee, the whole Committee, to hold an oversight hearing and force Andrew Saul to answer questions under oath.
2 comments:
Apples and oranges.
Issuance of no match letters have always been considered a program integrity workload as it costs the agency a LOT of money and staffing workyears to deal with those high-volume incorrect W-2 reporters. As a result, since program integrity funding is provided by Congress every year, it could be reprogrammed in the budget to support that workload.
Stimulus money, on the other hand, was completely unrelated to the Social Security program. If Congress wanted SSA to do the work, it should have provided money to fund the activity in the enabling statute. Blame Congress for that mess, not the agency.
There are millions of W2s submitted each year that can not have the earnings placed on the person's record because the name and number don't match. Sometimes it's a person who has changed their name due to marriage. Sometimes it's someone with two last names and the employer reported the names differently than what is on SSA's records. Sometimes it's just an error in the SSN reported, transposed digits, etc. I saw over 10K one year from one employer where their software didn't jive w/ SSA's and the first and last names were reversed so no one from that employer had their earnings posted until SSA corrected them. And of course sometimes it is someone without legal status here working under a bogus SSN or legit SSN.
Correcting the records helps the worker should he/she ever file for disability, retirement or have someone else file for survivor benefits.
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