Social Security Administration Begins Sending No-Match Letters for 2003

IMMIGRANTS & EMPLOYMENT

INS Workplace Enforcement

Social Security Administration begins sending no-match letters for 2003
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 17, No. 2, April 8, 2003

Starting the last week of Feb. 2003, the Social Security Administration began sending "no-match" letters to workers' home addresses, as it has in previous years; and it began sending no-match letters to employers in mid-March. The SSA sends no-match letters to a worker and his or her employer to notify them when the worker has not received credit for earnings in the previous tax year as reported by the employer on the W-2 form. When a W-2 contains a name or Social Security number that does not match the SSA's records, the earnings withheld from the worker's pay for social security go into the SSA's Earnings Suspense File and the worker does not get credit for them. This withholding of credit can affect the worker's future retirement or disability benefits.

The SSA sent no-match letters to over 950,000 employers throughout 2002, and this created many problems for immigrant workers, their families, communities, and employers. In Dec. 2002, the SSA decided to change its policy regarding the no-match letter program for 2003. After realizing that a lot of the new information provided by employers in response to the 2002 no-match letters still contained discrepancies, or that many workers' accounts had already been corrected through some other method (e.g., workers dealt directly with the SSA to correct their account information), the agency has decided to roll back the number of no-match letters it sends out in 2003. This year, it will send no-match letters only to employers that have more than 10 employees whose information does not match the SSA's and who file W-2s in which mismatched records account for at least one-half of one percent of the total amount of earnings reported for tax year 2002. The SSA estimates that it will send out no-match letters to about 130,000 employers in 2003.

NILC has updated its Information Packet for Immigrant Workers' Advocates for 2003. The packet contains detailed background information on the no-match letter program, samples of letters the SSA is sending in 2003, and other materials advocates may find useful. It can be downloaded from NILC's Web site.