Thread: Social Security Number Workplace Enforcement Feds Suggest

This was a report by the Government Accountability Office to the Congressional Sub-comittee on social security of how the three federal agencies can work together on workplace enforcement by tracking unauthorized use of social security numbers. Social Security has detailed information as to exactly what employer is employing suspected illegal workers and even how many. Go to this link to review the report.

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?-GAO-06-458T

Here is a report from social security Inspector General. It is 32 pages but highly informative. It shows the unwillingness of DHS to even want to use the data that social security has available to them to go after workplaces they have identified that year after year submit W-2 records showing suspected illegal workers. Some are in the hundreds and some in the thousands. They know who they are but for some reason refuse to go after them. Here is the link to this audit report.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oig/ADOBE ... -23038.pdf

So, am I understanding this correctly? These are wages paid up to 2002 that have not been matched to Social Security account numbers for whatever reason?

The SS administration does send letters to employers when there is a problem with a W-2 number, it's amazing that so much in reported wages can't be matched.

Remember when Homeland Security was going to enclose their letter with the usual notification from the SSA to employers when employee numbers had a problem? And GW stopped that cold. If they had followed through on that there would be employers all over our country either fined or jailed by now and thousands of job openings for Americans.

This kind of thing isn't solved because large corporations who own our politicians don't want it solved. The agriculture and service industries love not having to pay Workers Comp insurance, medical insurance, etc. As long as they can keep illegals in their work force they are happy and contribute to whatever politicians represens them.

Once again, proof positive that our Federal laws mean nothing.

Yes, and as of 2006 the unmatched funds that have aquired over the years is a little over a half a trillion dollars. This Earnings Suspense File grows at a rate of 50 billion per year and that number gets higher year after year as unauthorized workers grow. This is money that does not have to be paid by Uncle Sam to any benificiaries as illegal workers can not claim retirement benefits for their unauthorized work.

As you saw, the social security administration via the annual W-2 reports submitted by employers knows every single instance of an unmatch W-2 what employer that W-2 is from and knows how many W-2 from a particular employer don't match federal records.

So the trillion dollar question is if they know and they know how many why are they not going after those employers and investigating the ones who are clearly showing that they are hiring numerous people each year with social security numbers that don't match?

I learned a long time ago if it smells like crap it probably is crap and I also learned that when things are suspicious follow the money trail and it usually leads you to the answer.

A half of trillion is a lot of money and 50 plus billion per year in unclaimed monies is a lot of reasons in my opinion.

But it also in my opinion involves a lot of business dealings where hands are greased and politicians paid via lobbiest.

Do you not find it a ludicrious statement by Homeland security to tell the Inspector General yes, we have been getting the data tape annually from social security of suspected unauthorized workers as required by federal law but for all those years until the investigation we had no way to read their data tapes because their computer systems and ours were not compatible with each other so we just tossed them aside year after year and did nothing with them. But now that you caught us we will work with social security to resolve that issue. What a joke!!!

It goes back to adminisistration policies in effect that they are only focused on serious criminal illegal aliens and do not want to expend any financial resources on all ilegal aliens in our country.

So, if you or I was looking for a missing person would we not first search in databases we had access to? We certainly wouldn't go looking for a missing person by just wandering the earth with hoping that we would run across them. DHS has intel from SSA as to where they can search and have a 95% sucess rate of finding what they are searching for but choose to ignore it.

So it appears that it is a long standing policy of having a blind eye to the businesses that are knowingly hiring illegal workers. If I recall correctly they identified one company in the report as having several thousand workers on their W-2 report as not having matching information. Why has't anybody from ICE gone and checked that company and their W-4's and W-2 and I-9 forms out and interviewed those employees?

You see, all the W-2's social security gets each year has the employers federal identification numbers on them so they know exactly what employer a W-2 doesn't match on. Nobody from DHS is checking on this information. Why?

Social security lacks the enforcement laws to do this themselves so all they can do is report it as required under federal law to DHS. The IRS could do some limited enforcement such as investigate false W-4 filing by the suspected illegal worker. But the main enforcement agency by law to investigate this is DHS and they are not doing it. Why?

I bet Sheriff Joe Arpaio would love to get his hands on this list of all Maricopa County employers who show to have employees suspected to be working illegally. Bet he would go check their records.

Nobody at DHS seems to want to do this and that means there is a reason why and that means the people at the top of the food chain at DHS have their martching orders from somebody high up to not focus attention to this.

WHY?

Here's the first hit I got when I googled Earnings Suspense File:

The Earnings Suspense File: Social Security's "Secret Stash"
"Money from Nowhere" Fattens Government Accounts

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 22, 2006

Identity Theft

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the money collected for Social Security that beneficiaries don't get?

What happens to the money assigned to people using false identities, or names matched with the wrong Social Security Number (SSN), or newlyweds who forgot to register their name changes with the Social Security administration?

The answer lies in a little-known aspect of the Social Security behemoth known as the Earnings Suspense File (ESF).

The ESF has become a hotbed for debate over everything from immigration rights to identity theft, as it continues to accrue money at roughly $6 billion a year, with the total as of 2005 sitting at $519 billion.

As MSNBC reporter Bob Sullivan put it in an interview with ConsumerAffairs.com, the ESF is part of a "grand mystery," wherein money seems to disappear. But where does the money come from, what happens to it, and why isn't more being done about the problem?
Unmatched Earnings

The Earnings Suspense File was established to collect Social Security earnings reports from filers with mismatched names and SSNs, while the Social Security Administration (SSA) attempts to track down the filers' identities, usually through contacting the businesses they work for.

According to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the usage of SSNs, the ESF contained 250 million records as of December 2004. (That's nearly as many records as there are people living in the United States currently.)

The GAO report stated that a disproportionate number of unmatched earnings reports come from industries such as "eating and drinking establishments and construction," and that, "a small portion of employers also account for a disproportionate number of ESF reports."

The report alludes to the fact that many unmatched earnings reports come from individuals using false SSNs, or legitimate SSNs that have been stolen and resold for undocumented workers to use.

Because the file is comprised of inaccurate earnings reports, it's impossible to estimate how many reports are added because of inaccuracies such as misspelled or mismatched names, and how many come from genuine cases of SSN-based identity fraud.

SSA spokesman Mark Hinkle told Congress in Nov. 2005 that the lack of identifying information on workers claiming benefits makes it impossible to discern who actually is entitled to what.

"We don't have any breakdown simply because in a lot of cases we can't tell," Hinkle said. "All we know at our end is it doesn't match. Until somebody comes forward, we simply don't know."

The ESF received a huge jolt in earnings from a measure ironically designed to curb the spread of undocumented labor. The Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed in 1986, mandating that employers demand some form of identification and penalizing those businesses which hired illegal immigrants.

The result was a sharp increase in multiple filings using the same number, usage of fake numbers, and a booming business in trading stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers.
Roadblocks

The usage of fake or stolen Social Security numbers for illegal immigrants would seem to be an issue of national concern. However, solving the problem is even more difficult than tracking the causes.

The Social Security Administration counts its total intake -- including monies placed in the suspense file -- for its earnings reports.

If the undocumented workers using fake SSNs suddenly started claiming the benefits they were due, the total Social Security surplus would have to be recalculated, leading to a greater possibility of the fund drying up.

As it is, the current records of Social Security contributions from undocumented workers vary wildly, with figures anywhere from three to six percent representing their contributions per year.

The usage of the Social Security number as a "national identifier" makes it a prime target for identity thieves and fraudsters. More than a driver's license or birth certificate, having an SSN gives anyone a chance to get into the work force, get a credit card, and so on.

The Houston Chronicle reported on the ease with which undocumented immigrants can find "false ID kits" on the black market, including counterfeit Social Security cards, driver's licenses, and birth certificates.

It's also nearly impossible to change your Social Security number unless you've already been a victim of identity theft, fraud, or can demonstrate a serious risk of physical harm from others having access to your number.

However, the Social Security Administration and other government agencies such as the IRS have been slow to address the issue of SSN-related identity theft, and individuals sharing the same number.

An individual who finds out they are sharing a Social Security number with someone else can't look at that individual's credit file, according to credit agencies such as Equifax. Doing so would violate the other individual's privacy.

Many major banks also refuse to disclose instances of multiple individuals using the same number, citing privacy concerns.

Credit reporting agencies create "sub-files" for individuals with differing names but similar or identical SSN's. These "sub-files" are available to business requesters, such as landlords, lenders, merchants, and so on.

Consumers cannot access "sub-file" reports, and business credit reports often have very different -- and more thorough -- records on a consumer than their own credit report.

Government agencies also have strict rules that prohibit the disclosure of Social Security numbers to third parties, even to the point of restricting the information they share with each other. Both the GAO and the Social Security Administration's own Inspector General have recommended that the SSA share its records on unverified earnings with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to the Inspector General's April 2005 report, "Although SSA continues to coordinate with DHS on immigration issues, it does not routinely share information regarding egregious employers who submit inaccurate SSNs� In our opinion, any serious plan to address SSN misuse and growth of the ESF must allow SSA to share such information with DHS."
Easy Money

So why isn't more being done to police the spread of SSN theft? Because there's too much profit to be made from it, and not just by the thieves themselves.

Big business and major corporations use illegal labor because it's cheap and easily replaceable. If that means turning a blind eye to day laborers using fake or stolen SSN's, it's the price to pay for profit.

As author Sally Denton sees it, some believe that the United States benefits greatly from maintaining a steady stream of illegal workers into the country.

"Characteristically, many Americans want it all," Denton has said. "Business wants cheap labor. Consumers want low prices."

Social Security wins the game through maintaining a small pot of benefits that will never be tapped, because the workers who would receive them cannot report their earnings without fear of deportation.

Estimates conducted by the SSA's chief actuary, Stephen Goss, revealed that without the taxes levied on earnings in the suspense file, the long-term "funding hole" of the SSA benefit pool would shrink by as much as ten percent.

The IRS wins because it collects the taxes withheld from fraudulent employee accounts without having to refund any of it, since no tax return is ever filed.

In short, the earnings suspense file is the jackpot for a very profitable game in which everyone wins -- everyone, that is, except consumers who have been victims of ID theft, and the undocumented immigrants who are forced to use false ID's just to get a start in this country but who are not able to reap any of the benefits that accrue to others who pay into Social Security.

Bob Sullivan views it as "the government turning a blind eye to identity theft so that big business can get cheap labor." It's impossible to provide a concrete solution to the plague of SSN thefts without addressing the issue of immigration law as well, in his view.

"Liberals won't go after it because they support immigrant rights. Conservatives won't stop it because they support cheap labor and corporate profit ... there's no constituency" in the issue, he said.

And meanwhile, there may be as many as 1 in 50 people in America who have someone else sharing their Social Security number, helping the "secret stash" of the Earnings Suspense File to get bigger with each passing year.

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2 ... z0oTFShHJ7

alleycat wrote:

Remember when Homeland Security was going to enclose their letter with the usual notification from the SSA to employers when employee numbers had a problem? And GW stopped that cold. If they had followed through on that there would be employers all over our country either fined or jailed by now and thousands of job openings for Americans.

I'm not 100% sure but I think it was the courts that stopped the no-match letters, not Bush. If I remember correctly, the Bush administration supported the letters.

Yes, it was the courts who stopped it due to a law suit. My understanding is the lawsuit was thrown out and that they now are mailing letters to he employee advising the employee of the problem and requesting the employee to go to a local social security office to clear up the info. My understanding is that after a period of time with no response from the employee they then mail a letter to the employer but their is no enforcement action by the letters to mandate the employers does anything about it so the employer can just toss the letter in the garbage and not worry about it.

They initially only sent letters to employers who showed 10 or more employees in the current tax year as having incorrect info on the W-2 but my understanding is they now send letters out for any mismatch now.

Judge Charles Breyer brother of Supreme court Justice Stephen Breyer and member of the CFR.



No Resolution of Social Security No-Match Lawsuit Until March 2009 08-December-2008
Authors
Rebecka A. VanderWerf

An injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security's Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) will likely remain in force through early next year.

After issuing a supplemental final rule on October 28, DHS filed a motion with Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California requesting that the injunction be lifted. DHS also requested that the court accelerate the suit's schedule to allow all motions to be heard and decided in time for the SSA to begin preparing its next round of no-match letters in January 2009.

The court instead set a schedule that will ensure no decision will be made on the injunction until March 2009 at the earliest.

Breyer blocked implementation of the Safe Harbor rule last year, questioning whether DHS had satisfied regulatory flexibility analysis requirements. DHS claims the publication of the supplemental final rule, which reaffirms the text of the August 2007 final rule without substantive change, addresses the court's concerns. See previous article.

The supplemental rule was effective upon publication, but cannot be implemented until the court lifts its injunction.
http://www.faegre.com/showarticle.aspx?Show=8737
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DHS Publishes Final Rule Rescinding Social Security No-Match Rule 07-October-2009
Authors
Rebecka A. VanderWerf
Scott W. Wright

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published its final rule rescinding the Social Security No-Match Rule. The rescission was published in the Federal Register on October 7, 2009, and will become effective on November 6, 2009.

The final rule reinstates the language of 8 CFR 274.1(l) as it existed prior to the effective date of the 2007 Final Rule. In the comments accompanying the rule, DHS states that it has determined to shift its enforcement efforts on increasing compliance with I-9 regulations through improved verification, including participation in E-Verify, ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers (IMAGE), and other programs.

For more information regarding the Social Security No-Match Rule, see previously published Faegre.com articles: DHS Will Rescind Social Security No-Match Rule, Obama Administration's Position on the Social Security No-Match Rule Still Under Debate, No Resolution of Social Security No-Match Lawsuit Until March 2009, What Is the Status of Social Security No-Match Notices?, Social Security No Match Notices and Update on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Rule Change.

http://www.faegre.com/showarticle.aspx?Show=10355