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Little-known program helps verify SS numbers
Monday, July 24, 2006
Amy Fletcher - The Denver Business Journal
As lawmakers push employers to step up efforts to verify workers' legal status, government officials are touting a little-known program that can help them do the job.

Immigration is a hot topic in Colorado and nationwide. During the recent special legislative session, lawmakers wanted to target the main draw for illegal immigrants: work.

They wanted to crack down on employers hiring illegal workers, sponsoring bills requiring businesses to participate -- or at least apply to participate -- in a federal pilot program to verify workers' legal status. Employers fought those proposals, which died, saying the system, called the Basic Pilot Program, is riddled with problems that make it slow and inaccurate.

But the Social Security Administration and the Colorado Department of Labor are touting an alternative: the Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS). The free online program, which has been available for a year, allows employers to verify the names and Social Security numbers of employees against Social Security records.

It can help employers immediately spot workers using fake numbers -- instead of filing paper forms with the federal government and waiting for confirmation, which can take months.

While the system confirms that names and numbers go together, it still can't spot employees trying to work under someone else's name.

Last year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) processed nearly 26 million verifications for more than 12,000 employers through SSNVS.

"This is a great untold story," said Doug Smith, an SSA spokesman in Denver. "We've been making every effort to get the word out."

The SSA dropped off 180 pamphlets about the SSNVS at the Capitol during the special session, and the Colorado Department of Labor has a link to the system on its Web page, coworkforce.com.

The city and county of Broomfield and Colorado state government have experience with SSNVS, and say it's quick and easy to use. But Colorado business groups and legislators, even those lawmakers known for specializing in immigration, say they haven't heard of it.

"I'm not as familiar with that," said Rep. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs. He sponsored legislation this month requiring employers to apply to participate in the Basic Pilot Program. "I'm not sure how rapid the response is."

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry said the same. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been a loud critic of the Basic Pilot Program, said it doesn't know much about SSNVS.

But the U.S. chamber also questions the program's reliability. SSNVS said it uses some of the same information as the Basic Pilot Program, which audits have shown have problems. Even Patrick O'Carroll, inspector general of the SSA, told Congress in March that information in its database isn't always as accurate as possible.

"They have a lot of problems in the database," said Angelo Amador, director of immigration policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "What do you do if you get a reply on a faulty database? Do you fire this individual or not?"

But the SSA said the SSNVS is another tool to assist employers. Using the system, employers can verify up to 10 names and numbers online and receive immediate results. The SSNVS can handle uploads of up to 250,000 names and numbers, and send the results the next business day.

The SSA's main goal is to ensure accurate wage reporting so it knows which workers qualify for Social Security. But the system also could help spot workers who are using Social Security numbers that don't match the name to which they were issued.

This month, Jeff Wells, executive director of the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration, ran the names and Social Security numbers of more than 43,000 people who received a payroll check from the state last year. It took one day to get the results from SSNVS.

Wells said there were problems with 274 names, but all but one were quickly found to be women who had gotten married and changed their name, typos or workers who had received a paycheck but were now deceased. Wells said he thought the one remaining mismatch had been resolved, but he wasn't certain.

"We have had such interest and concern over this whole immigration and undocumented worker-type issue, and I guess we wanted to make sure we didn't have any illegal aliens working for us," Wells said. "It worked quite well."

The city and county of Broomfield has been using the system for new hires since January and plans to run all its employees through it. So far, the city hasn't had any workers try to use a Social Security number that wasn't his or hers, said Suzanne Smith, director of human resources.

"It's really simple," she said. "It's an additional step to assure we are using the right Social Security number for that individual."

A February 2006 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said SSNVS could help employers identify workers who provide false numbers, but it also pointed out it's still not widely used.

"I'm not certain why this just hasn't gotten the publicity that perhaps it should have," said Mike Cullen, director of the Division of Unemployment Insurance within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.



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