Changes to the Use of Electronic Payroll Data to Improve Program Administration

We administer the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs under Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act), respectively. The OASDI program pays benefits to individuals who meet certain requirements, including being disabled and insured for disability. OASDI also pays benefits to certain members of disabled individuals’ families. We refer to meeting the requirements for OASDI disability benefits as OASDI disability “entitlement.” The SSI program provides financial support to: 1) adults and children with a disability or blindness; and 2) adults aged 65 and older. These individuals must meet all program eligibility requirements, including having resources and income below specified amounts. We refer to meeting the factors of eligibility for SSI payments as SSI “eligibility.” We use wage and employment information to decide who can receive OASDI disability benefits and SSI payments. We also use it to determine SSI payment amounts. Receiving complete, accurate, and timely wage and employment information allows us to administer our programs efficiently and to avoid improper payments that can occur when we do not have such information. Currently, we rely on individuals to report certain wage and employment information to us. Section 824 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA), Pub. L. 114-74, 129 Stat. 584, 607, authorizes the Commissioner of Social Security to enter into information exchanges with payroll data providers to obtain wage and employment information for the purposes of efficient program administration, and, to prevent improper OASDI disability and SSI payments without the need for additional verification. SSA published the Final Rule for the Use of Electronic Payroll Data to Improve Program Administration which revises our regulations to include procedures for implementing the access to and use of the information held by payroll data providers. We expect this final rule will support proper use of information exchanges with payroll data providers, which will help us administer our programs more efficiently and prevent improper payments under Titles II and XVI of the Act, which can otherwise occur when we do not receive timely and accurate wage and employment information. While this rule will not require any revisions to our existing information collections, the application of the revisions to these rules may cause a burden change to our currently approved information collections under 0960-0715. In addition, we also note that we will need to update the listing of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) citations to include references to 20 CFR 703(a)&(b); 404.1588(b)(3)(iii) & (b)(4); 416.708(c); and 416.709 for the following ICRs: 0960 0034, 0960-0138, 0960-0715, 0960 0807, and 0960-0820. Upon OMB’s approval of the final rule, we will adjust the figures associated with the current information collection for these forms to reflect the new burden and will also update the documentation to include the new or revised CFR citations. Respondents are applicants for, or beneficiaries of, OASDI disability; applicants for, or recipients of, SSI; their representatives; or SSI deemors.

The latest form for Changes to the Use of Electronic Payroll Data to Improve Program Administration expires 2028-01-31 and can be found here.

0960-0034 - Letter to Employer Requesting Information About Wages Earned by Beneficiary (SSA-L725)

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Income Security - General Retirement and Disability

Review document collections for all forms, instructions, and supporting documents - including paper/printable forms.