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This past year Payroll and HR Professionals have been bombarded with updates on the Social Security Administration's attack on mismatched Social Security Numbers. Sure, mismatched SSNs are a problem, but should employers be held liable to the extent of facing civil and criminal action? Whew…they are serious!
Speaking of mismatched numbers, what do you think is the most commonly misused Social Security Number? I'll make it multiple choice.
• 123-45-6789
• 999-99-9999
• 078-05-1120
Believe it or not, it's 078-05-1120. In 1938, a wallet manufacturer in New York wanted to promote its product by showing how nicely the new Social Security cards would fit into them. The company's VP/Treasurer thought it would be cute to use the actual SSN of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Whitcher. A sample of Hilda's card was inserted into each wallet. The wallets were then sold by Woolworth's all over the country. By 1943, over 5,755 people were toting Hilda's card in their new wallet and claiming it as their own. Over the years, that number has grown to more than 40,000 people.
But what about poor Hilda? Her fellow employees teased her by singing “Here comes the million-dollar baby from the five and ten cent store”. The FBI even showed up at her door to grill her about the widespread use of her number. Hilda was eventually given a new number and her old number was assigned to “issued by Woolworth”. In her later years, Hilda was quoted as saying “They started using the number. They thought it was their own. I can't understand how people can be so stupid.”
Barbara Black
Payroll Manager
MBM Corporation
Luckily, Vista 3.2 takes care of this situation for all its clients. Vista provides a SSN Validation routine that checks for duplicate numbers within the system and also has a user specified routine that verifies the number against the Social Security number table (tblssn) that is updated at the beginning of every month via a PTF. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/ssnvhighgroup.htm.
This routine verifies that the entered Social Security number falls within the area number (first three digits) and group number (fourth and fifth digits) provided in the Social Security High Group list. This routine is specified within a system-provided DBOPT setting with a dbopt_id of “ssn validation”. The opt_values that are available include 0=None, 1=Validate Only, 2=Dupe Check Only, and 3=Validation and Dupe Check.
Besides the Vista routine other informational tidbits to remember about the Social Security number include:
- No SSNs with an area number in the 000, 800 or 900 series have been assigned.
- No SSNs with an area number above 772 have been assigned in the 700 series.
- No SSN's with a "00" group number or "0000" serial number have been assigned.
- No SSNs with an area number of "666" have been or will be assigned.
To supplement the validation routine, PDS released an enhancement in 3.2, PTF# 320239. PDS has created an interface file that can be downloaded into the SSA website to verify the SSNs that you have in the Vista database match what is in the SSA database. This text file has basic employee information which includes Employee Name, SSN, Date of Birth, and Gender Code. Upon submission the SSA will compare this file against its database and return to you a file with any errors or information that needs to be corrected.
It is important to mention that employers will first need to register with the SSA for file submission.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/ssnv.htm#overview
Dwight White
Quality Assurance Manager
PDS
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