Social Security Number Verification
Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) quickly determines the validity of any Social Security number and allows you, the employer, to verify whether or not an employee’s name and Social Security number is exactly the same in your Human Resources Department files as it is in records kept by the Social Security Administration.
SSNVS is used for W-2 wage reporting purposes (for preparation of the Internal Revenue Service wage and tax statements) to ensure the records of current and former employees are correct.
This greatly aids employers in avoiding additional processing costs for unmatched records, and precludes unwanted correspondence from the IRS indicating your employee’s information is out of sync with their records.
We are qualified as third parties to lift this time-consuming responsibility from your busy Human Resources Department, and often do so in conjunction with background investigations on newly hired employees for clients, nationwide.
Social Security number verification can also be useful in determining whether a specific Social Security number is active or inactive. If a Social Security number is inactive, it is usually because the individual to whom it was issued is now deceased; when such a number is being used for employment, you have good reason to question the true identity of the user.
The government has established certain rules and guidelines for those who access official Social Security Number records:
- Searches can only be performed on current employees (current employees are defined as a person who has received and accepted a job offer) and former employees.
- A mismatch (the individual’s provided name and Social Security number do not match Social Security Administration records) does not imply that the employer or employee intentionally provided incorrect information.
- A mismatch does not make any statement about an employee’s immigration status and is not a basis, in and of itself, for taking any adverse action against an employee, such as laying off, suspending, or firing; doing so could subject employers to anti-discrimination and/or labor law sanctions.
- It is not proper to use Social Security number verification for non-wage reporting purposes, such as verifying identify, credit checks, mortgage applications, etc.
Please contact us to discuss how to best utilize SSNVS.
