Social Security Mismatch Compliance
Bryan Little, Farm Employers Labor Service
updated April 30, 2019
Numerous employers have asked FELS about letters dated March 2019 sent by the Social Security Administration.
The letter informs the employer that dozens or even hundreds of Internal Revenue Service Forms W-2 the employer had submitted to SSA contain information that does not match SSA’s records. The letter asks the employer to provide correct information to SSA within 60 days. The letter asks the employer to “review the name and SSN information you submitted on the Form W-2 and provide us necessary corrections on the Form W-2C within 60 days of receipt of this letter” and asks that the employer use the Employer Report Status in an online facility on SSA's website called Business Services Online to identify employee name and Social Security number combinations that do not match SSA records.
These letters, however, do not identify the employees whose information does not match SSA's records. The Employer Report Status page permits an employer to check employee name and Social Security number combinations one employee at a time.
In the case of one employer who contacted FELS, SSA’s letter indicated the agency had processed more than 1600 Forms W-2 submitted by the employer, of which more than 750 contained information that did not match SSA’s records.
An employer should not ignore the implication arising from knowledge that the name and Social Security number provided by an employee do not match SSA’s records—at least where the employee presented a Social Security card bearing that name and number to prove employment authorization: that the employee might have offered bogus information to the employer when hired.
If the employee offered and you accepted a Social Security card as a List C document (verifying eligibility to be employed) when you were examining documents to complete Section 2 of USCIS Form I-9, you no doubt examined that document, determined that it appeared to be genuine and to relate to the person offering it, and signed the attestation at the end of Section 2 to that effect.
The fact that SSA is now informing you this name and number combination does not match its records might indicate a problem with the employee's claim of employment eligibility.
You may not, however, assume a no-match indicates the employee is not employment eligible and that you are employing that person in violation of federal law. Various typographical and reporting errors can lead to a no-match. You are best served by following the procedures outlined in SSA to Resume Sending "No-Match" Letters this Spring, published in the March 13 issue of AgAlert® and the March issue of FELS Newsletter. (see: https://www.fels.net/1/2019-03-newsletter.html# anchor0.)
You are not required, either by the new SSA no-match letters or elsewhere in federal law, to access SSA’s Business Services Online or Social Security Number Verification System to learn the specific identities of employees whose names and numbers don’t match SSA’s records. An employer directing an employee to correct a discrepancy (and the employee is unable to do so) may face a situation where the employee’s inability to correct the discrepancy might constitute constructive knowledge of the employee’s lack of legal status if the card containing the discrepant number was used as a List C document to demonstrate employment eligibility on that employee’s Form I-9.
Given that you have received the SSA letter, however, you should as noted above not ignore its implication: that one or more of your employees may have provided you fraudulent SSN/number combinations when they were hired. Using the BSO facility at the SSA website will allow you to learn which employees have discrepant name/number combinations according to SSA’s data. Once you learn the identities of employees whose names/number combinations do not match SSA’s records, you can verify that the information you reported for those employees matches what they provided you at the time of hire. If it does, you can follow the procedures outlined in SSA to Resume Sending "No-Match" Letters this Spring, published in the March 13 issue of AgAlert® and the March issue of FELS Newsletter. (see: www.fels.net/1/2019-03-newsletter.html#)
If you have questions or concerns, please contact FELS at 800-753-9073 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..