quote:Linda Trevino, who lives in a Chicago suburb, applied for a job last year at a local Target department store, and was denied. The reason? She already worked there -- or rather, her Social Security number already worked there.
Follow-up investigation revealed the same Social Security number had been used to obtain work at 37 other employers, mostly by illegal immigrants trying to satisfy government requirements to get a job.
quote:"There are strict limitations on disclosure. Can someone see if anyone else has reported earnings under their Social Security number? The answer would be no."
quote:But neither the Social Security Administration nor the IRS tells consumers that something unusual is happening with their Social Security numbers. It seems consumers are the last ones in on the joke.
“This is the schizophrenia of the federal government," Huse, the former Social Security inspector general said. "The Homeland Security people are screaming about the accuracy of records, and you have the IRS taking money from wherever it comes."
quote: As things stand, payments made by workers that land in the Earnings Suspense File -- for 2002, Social Security taxes paid on wages of $56 billion -- represent essentially free money to the system, since they come with no future payout liabilities.
posted
You can ask for a copy of your work history from the SSA. DH and I are having a conflict with the Iowa Dept. of Revenue about taxes. They claim we owe taxes for 95-96. We didn't even live her in 95, and in 96 there is a great amount of earnings that were received before we moved to Iowa, so they aren't entitled to taxes on that. So, I got copies of our work history from the SSA, which showed that I worked for a company in Illinois for 1995. Now I have to get a copy of my tax return for 96 from the IRS and go from there.
The SSA also sends an update every year that gives you info on earnings and what you would get at retirement. If your SSN is used by others, there should be some indication that there are more earnings than you are aware of, I think. I can't remember exactly what it looks like and don't know where I stashed my latest copy.
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posted
There's also been a lot of talk about how many different things now use our Social Security numbers for identification. Things that really shouldn't.
Some places have even required one for you to use a check to pay for your purchases. Does your doctor's office really need your social security number?
Does anyone know just who really should have access to your Social Security number?
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But a lot of it depends on where you live. California's SB 168 has created the need for BCBS to change their member numbers from SSNs to some other number. Which is cool.
I used to work at Hallmark, and right before I stopped working, they instituted a bunch of changes, including employees having to wear photo IDs with the employee number on them, which was the social security number, of course. I seemed to be the only one freaked out about walking around with my social security number and name on me.
CaySedai, you didn't read that article, did you. Or the second quote? You basically don't have a right to see if someone else reported earnings using your social security number. Basically, when you ask for that earnings report, they will send you the one that matches your name, social security number. The fact that there are 37 other people using different names and your social security number won't show up on your ssa report due to IRS regulations.
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posted
Many states also put your SSN on your driver's license, which you usually use as a form of ID wherever. I even had to show mine to get my kid out of school for a doctor's appt (until the school office folk got used to seeing me -- I'm there a LOT as a volunteer reader and reading mentor, among other things).
Plus, I worked for Social Security for nine years, most of it with the SSI program, which is for people who are aged, blind or disabled and have low income. Lots of disabled children, premature infants, etc. qualify. Especially when I worked in an office outside Chicago, I'd find seven year olds with work history that didn't add up. Sure, kids can earn money modelling or acting or whatever, but $20,0000.00 a year at a meat-packing plant?
I was instructed not to tell the people about it, since it was obviously an illegal immigrant usung the SSN. They said, "We have to straighten out the earnings when they get citizenship, and transfer them to the record of the person who actually earned them (once tthey have a real SSN."
"But what if they never get citizenship? What if the IRS goes afterthe parents for not claiming the child's income?"
"We cross that bridge when we come to it. Hopefully, you'll be retired by then." Ha, ha.
That was the singlemost frustrating, soul-sucking job I ever had. Actually, it was the only job I ever had, in the traditional sense of the word.
But anyway. It happens, and they only bother with it when it causes a problem, because it's hard to figure out who is actually earning the money being reported on little Angela's SSN, and they have other jobs to do. Jobs that their bosses actually keep stats on, jobs that can make the office look good on paper.
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Our insurance company just changed this year, making our member number something other than our SSN. I was actually quite pleased, I don't like my SSN out there unless it's really necessary.
Our driver's licenses used to have them, but I asked once and was told that you could request they be taken off. I have ever since.
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Kayla, when I worked for Social security, the earnings were all sorted by number. When people retire, we'd ask them about discrepancies in their work history, and have them explain fluctuations of more than $2,000.00 from year to year.
Usually, It wasn't a problem at all, but if there was a problem, we'd use tax returns and things to set it straight.
The earnings reports are basically printouts of that info, and they go out to different groups of numbeers everyy year. If there is a problem with the report, they expect you to come ask about it. We always did.
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posted
Many medical and pharmacy insurance cards are now converting your SSN to a unique number that gives a patient more privacy. But I literally sit on top of thousands of SSNs in my computer records, and naturally, am very protective of my patients' Protected Health Information. But sometimes in the past, companies and corporations would sell addresses and phone numbers for marketers to promote ads. This is not supposed to happen with the new HIPAA laws in effect, but these same laws may prevent the persons in the above examples from getting personal information concerning their own SSN being misused.
Tragic!
The gentleman that files my taxes once tried to stop paying Social Security and was informed that he had to relinquish his SSN, which he was willing to do. But his employer informed him that he could give up his SSN and stop paying Social Security, but would no longer be able to be employed by them, since they were unwilling/unable to stop contributions to Social Security.
He was very angry and decided to not pursue giving up his SSN, but that is what spurned him to go on and do taxes for friends and family. This was his way of defeating a system that is unfriendly to the individual contributor in many ways.
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