SSA gets new access to payroll data

Amid all hubbub of the White House's string of groundbreaking executive orders in the last couple of weeks, the Social Security Administration plans to leverage new data access authority.

The SSA's inspector general publicized agency plans to develop rules and policy to tap into real-time electronic payroll information to help reduce improper payments and improve administration of its benefits programs.

Specifically, SSA is permitted to require applicants to the Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income to authorize direct access to payroll records in order to determine eligibility.

One remaining hurdle requires SSA to enter into data agreements with private payroll data providers to get current wage information.

Previously, field office employees had to rely on getting and analyzing "mounds of paperwork with aging data, or rely on the beneficiary to report the data" in a timely manner, according to a Jan. 26 OIG blog post.

With the new payroll data-matching capability, field offices' workloads will be reduced, which can prevent improper payments, it said.

The agency plans to publish a notice of the move in the Federal Register, update its automated systems and develop training guidelines and procedures for agency employees.

It aims to complete that work and implement the electronic wage gathering provision by the end of the year.