The Meg Whitman scenario playing out in the news the last few days, is a good opportunity to address this issue and just how exactly the SSA No-Match Letter process works.

If the combination of name and SSN on a Form W-2 can not be matched to an SSA record, SSA is unable to attribute the earnings to a worker’s record. There are a number of reasons why reported information may not agree with our records, such as typographical errors, unreported name changes, inaccurate or incomplete employer records or misuse of an SSN.

What is a No-Match Letter?

After SSA processes the wage reports submitted by the employers, they attempt to resolve items that cannot be matched by sending letters to employees, employers and self-employed individuals to inform them when a reported name or SSN does not match SSA’s records. These letters are referred to as “no-match” letters and their purpose is to obtain corrected information to help SSA identify the individual to whom the earnings belong so that the earnings can be posted to the individual’s earnings record.

No-match letters fall under two categories:

• Employer No Match Letters — These letters may also be referred to as Employer Correction Request or Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) letters; and

• No Match Letters sent to workers whose earnings could not be credited to SSA’s records are referred to as Decentralized Correspondence or DECOR letters.

SSA began sending no-match letters to workers in 1979 and to employers in 1994.

Who gets a No-Match Letter?

When SSA processes wage reports, it notifies every worker whose name and SSN could not be matched to SSA’s records. This letter is sent to the address on the worker’s Form W-2. If there is no address or an address is not found in the Postal Service database of valid addresses, this letter is sent to the employer. The new DHS regulation does not address these letters.

Employer Notices (EDCOR)

Approximately two weeks after the release of the worker letters, SSA sends employer no-match letters. Currently, these are sent to any employer who reported more than 10 no-matches that represented more than 0.5% of the W-2s submitted by that employer.

The Employer notice advises of the no-matches and asks for corrected information.

Employer notices can list up to 500 SSNs (no names) that could not be matched (the employer can contact SSA for a full list if there are more than 500 errors). The employer is asked to prepare Forms W-2c (Corrected Wage and Tax Statement) for each of the SSNs listed in the Employer notice that the employer is able to correct.

If you are enrolled in E-Verify and receive a TNC

When a Tentative Non-Confirmation (TNC) is issued, the employer must notify the employee of the TNC and give the employee the opportunity to contest that finding.  If the employee chooses to contest the SSA TNC, he or she has eight business days to visit an SSA office with the required documents to initiate the process to prove identity and support the correction of the SSA record. Until the TNC is resolved, even if it takes longer than eight days, the employee must be allowed to keep working and cannot be fired or have any other employment-related action taken against him or her because of the TNC.  If the employee fails to contact SSA within the eight day contest period, the employee is considered a no show and a final non-confirmation is issued by E-Verify.  At this point, the employer should discuss this situation with their immigration attorney and seriously consider terminating employment.  A recent electronic business process enhancement, EV-STAR, allows SSA to use the E-Verify system to inform the employer of the case resolution once the employee visits SSA and resolves the issue.

For employees who successfully resolve a TNC, correcting SSA records is a useful result of the E-Verify process, helping individuals identify and resolve problems with their Social Security records. The work done to update records to resolve an E-Verify mismatch would need to be done at the time the individual applies for Social Security benefits.

Here is a sample of the E-Verify Referral Notice to the Employer when there is an SSS No-Match.  For more information on this topic, we link to our website where we have our employer compliance resource center and list of services and solutions for employers.