In the past few weeks the Social Security Administration began sending out letters to employers informing them of a number of names that didn’t match the social security numbers submitted in the employer’s wage statements. The SSA hadn’t sent these letters our for nearly a decade. This year’s letters are significantly different from years’ past in that they didn’t contain any information on specific employees in most cases.

The National Council of Ag Employers along with other organizations was provided guidance on how to handle these letters. Please follow the link below to that guidance. The guidance gives a couple different paths you can take in responding to the letters. Read the guidance carefully multiple times before deciding what route to follow. None are wrong.

Please give us a call if you have any questions.

DSF

GUIDANCE ON HOW TO HANDLE SSA NO-MATCH LETTERS

This is just a quick note to make you aware that the Social Security Administration has begun sending out letters to employers commonly known as No-Match letters. These letters were commonplace a decade ago but the SSA stopped sending them out in about 2011.

These letters do not tell you exactly which employees have names and social security numbers that don’t match. They only typically tell you to go to a SSA website to find out who they are. They encourage you to use a system on the site that checks the names and numbers. We are in the process of gathering more information and formulating a proper response to these letters.

We will post a longer article soon or contact gins directly regarding the response employers should have in reaction to these letters. In the meantime please let us know if you received an SSA No-Match letter. More to follow.

I promised an update to the situation in the Senate when something happened. I waited a few days to see if anything would come of the setback Monday. Here’s where it looks like we stand right now. The farm press and general press have covered the failure of the Senate to pass a cloture vote on Monday this week. That vote would have ended debate on an amendment that replaced the House passed disaster bill with one that was very similar to the bill Senators Perdue, Isakson, Jones and Shelby had crafted. Unfortunately that cloture vote didn’t pass but the vote DID NOT KILL THE BILL as has been reported. I will add that watching the vote Monday, Senator Schumer was the one that cast the deciding vote for non passage. Sixty votes pass so forty-one kills it. He cast the forty-first vote against. If you think this is really about Puerto Rico you’re sadly mistaken.