GN 03301: Law and Regulations - Disclosure/Confidentiality
TN 3 (11-98)
A. List of Acronyms
ACCESS | Automated Controlled Correspondence Extraction System |
ADAP | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient |
AEQY | Alpha Access to Employer Identification Query |
AIDS | Acquired immune-deficiency syndrome |
AIMS | Administrative Instructions Manual System |
ALJ | Administrative Law Judge |
APA | Administrative Procedures Act |
ARC | Assistant Regional Commissioner |
BENDEX | Beneficiary and Earnings Data Exchange |
BEOG | Basic Educational Opportunity Grants |
BOC | Bureau of the Census |
CAN | Claimant"s account number |
CAP | Community Action Program |
CE | Consultative examination |
CENSUS | Census Bureau |
CFR | Code of Federal Regulations |
CHAMPUS | Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services |
CMPPA | Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act |
CSE | Child support enforcement |
DCA | Division of Civil Actions |
DDS | Disability Determination Service |
DEFRA | Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (DEFRA) |
DEQY | Detailed Earnings Query |
DHS | Department of Homeland Security |
DMF | Death Master File |
DOC | Data Operations Center |
DOE | Department of Energy |
DOEd | Department of Education |
DOI | Department of the Interior |
DOJ | Department of Justice |
DOL | Department of Labor |
DVA (VA) | Department of Veterans Affairs |
E/R | Earnings record |
EFOIA | Electronic Freedom of Information Act |
ERSEI | Earnings Recording and Self-Employment Income |
FICA | Federal Insurance Contributions Act |
FOI | Freedom of Information |
FOIA | Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) |
FPLS | Federal Parent Locator Service |
FRC | Federal Records Center |
FSF | Folder Staging Facility |
FSP | Foreign Service Post |
FTS | Federal Telecommunications System |
GAO | General Accounting Office |
GC | General Counsel |
GPO | Government Printing Office |
CMS | Center's for Medicare & Medicaid Services |
HUD | Department of Housing and Urban Development |
IAR | Interim Assistance Reimbursement |
IASMI | Indexes of Administrative Staff Manuals and Instructions |
IEDS | Independently entitled divorced spouse |
IRC | Internal Revenue Code (Title 26, U.S.C.) |
LIEAP | Low-Income Energy Assistance Program |
NH | Number holder, the person to whom a particular Social Security Number has been assigned |
NUMIDENT | Numerical Identification |
OAO | Office of Appeals Operations |
OCPR | Office of Claims and Payment Requirements |
OCREO | Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity |
OCRO | Office of Central Records Operations |
OCSE | Office of Child Support Enforcement |
OD | Office of Disability |
ODIO | Office of Disability and International Operations |
OFO | Office of Financial Operations |
OGC | Office of the General Counsel |
ODAR | Office of Disability Adjucation and Review |
OIG | Office of the Inspector General |
OM | Office of Management |
OMB | Office of Management and Budget |
OPI | Office of Public Inquiries |
OPIR | Office of Program and Integrity Reviews |
OPM | Office of Personnel Management |
OPR | Office of Pre-Claims Requirements |
PA | Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) |
PHS | Public Health Service |
PIA | Primary Insurance Amount |
P.L. | Public Law |
PLS | Parent Locator Service |
POMS | Program Operations Manual System |
POS | Program Operations and Systems |
PSRO | Professional Standards Review Organization |
RC | Regional Commissioner |
RFPA | Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 |
RO | Regional Office |
RRB | Railroad Retirement Board |
RUIA | Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act |
RUSB | Records Use and Services Branch |
SCS | Sensitive Case Staff |
SDX | State Data Exchange |
SEQY | Summary Earnings Query |
SMI | Supplementary Medical Insurance |
SOLQ | State Online Query |
SSN | Social Security Number |
SSR | Supplemental Security Record |
SVES | State Verification Exchange System |
TANF | Temporary Assistance For Needy Families |
TIN | Tax identification number |
TPQY | Third Party Query System |
TSC | Teleservice Center |
UC | Unemployment compensation |
U.S.C | United States Code |
USDA | U.S. Department of Agriculture |
USPS | U.S. Postal Service |
VR | Vocational rehabilitation |
WC | Workers" compensation |
B. Glossary - Jargon and Special Terms
Access | The release of a record to the individual to whom it pertains, or to the parent of a minor or the legal guardian of an incompetent person when the parent or guardian is acting on behalf of his/her ward. NOTE: This does not include release to representative payees or authorized representatives. See “Disclosure” below. |
Accounting | A record kept of any disclosure made without the subject individual"s consent, excluding records of disclosure within SSA or under the FOIA. |
Adverse action | A claim filed by an individual which has an adverse effect on the claim of another person or persons already on the rolls . Adverse actions are of two types, “adverse claim” and “adverse adjustment,” which are defined separately below. (See GN 01010.110.) |
Adverse adjustment | A type of “adverse action” (defined above) in which an award of benefits to a new claimant will reduce benefit payments to another beneficiary already on the rolls. EXAMPLE: One or more auxiliaries become entitled when there are already beneficiaries in another household. The family maximum requires the benefits to the earlier beneficiaries to be reduced. |
Adverse claim | A type of “adverse action” (defined above) in which an award of benefits to a new claimant, or reinstatement of benefits to a beneficiary, results in the nonentitlement of a prior claimant. |
Agency | See “Federal agency” and “State agency.” |
Applicant | An individual who has applied (submitted a written request for benefits) on behalf of himself/herself or on behalf of another person. (See “claimant” below for the relationship between “applicant” and “claimant.”) The status of “applicant” continues until: |
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Authorized representative | An individual appointed in writing by another individual to represent the latter individual before SSA and who has been accepted by SSA. Only an individual, not a firm or organization, may be an authorized representative. If an attorney is a member of a law firm or Legal Aid Society, the individual attorney, and not the law firm or Legal Aid Society, is the authorized representative. NOTE: Authorized representatives are most often attorneys, but they may also be paralegals, members of the clergy, physicians, or any other responsible person acceptable to SSA. |
Beneficiary | A person entitled to benefits or payments under any Social Security program. When there is a representative payee, the person on whose behalf the benefits are payable is the beneficiary. A “primary beneficiary” is a NH entitled to benefits based on his/her own work record. An “auxiliary beneficiary” is someone entitled to benefits based on someone else"s work record, by virtue of relationship to the NH. |
Blue Book | An informal name for the Social Security Administration Privacy Act Notices of Systems of Records (published with a blue cover), described below under its complete title. |
Claimant | A person on whose behalf a claim has been filed. Someone applying on his/her own behalf is both “applicant” and “claimant.” A person applying on someone else"s behalf is the “applicant” and the person on whose behalf the claim was filed is the “claimant.” |
Court of competent jurisdiction | A court that has legal authority to hear a particular case. |
Court order | An order signed by the judge of a court. (An order signed by a clerk is not a court order.) |
Designated representative | A responsible individual designated in writing by an individual (or by a parent or guardian on behalf of his/her ward) seeking access to his/her own medical records (or the ward"s records). |
Disclosure | The release or showing of personal information about an individual to a third party, other than to a parent or guardian exercising access rights on behalf of his/her ward. (See “access” above.) NOTE: The term does not include release of information to the individual to whom it pertains, nor release to a minor"s parent or legal guardian if the parent or guardian is acting on the individual"s behalf. These situations are considered “access” (see GN 03340.000). |
Federal agency | (For purposes of disclosure by SSA), any component of the Executive Branch of the United States Federal Government, other than SSA or any component thereof, or any other party acting as agent for a Federal agency. NOTE: The term does not include any Federal court, the Congress, nor any component or agency thereof (such as GAO). SSA defines itself as one “agency” for PA purposes. |
Health-maintenance program | Any noncommercial program (such as Medicare and Medicaid) designed to provide an individual with health care (both prevention and treatment) or to subsidize the cost of such care. A commercial insurance company may administer such a program for a State or local agency. |
Income-maintenance program | Any noncommercial program designed to: |
Income maintenance programs include subsidized housing, food stamps, TANF, general assistance, title XX services, fuel subsidies, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, government pension programs, and State supplementation. Loan programs are not income maintenance programs. |
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Incompetent | A person who has been declared incompetent by a court and for whom a legal guardian has been appointed. |
Individual | A human being, living or deceased. |
Maintain | To keep, collect, use or disseminate a record or to have control over or responsibility for a system of records. |
Minor | An individual considered to be a minor under applicable State law. |
Notification | Telling an individual whether or not he/she is the subject of a system of records. Under the PA, an individual |
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Numident | SSA"s computerized system of numerical identification for individuals, consisting of each person"s name, together with other identifying information such as date and place of birth, parents" names, etc., plus the SSN assigned to that person. |
Public | (For purposes of the FOIA), any individual or entity other than a Federal agency or a Federal or State court. |
Record | Any item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual that SSA maintains by the individual"s name, SSN, or other personal identifier. |
Return information | See “tax return information” below. |
Routine use | Use of a record, with respect to its disclosure, for a purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which it was collected. NOTE: “Routine use” is not disclosure; it is use for a particular purpose by the recipient. After an agency discloses a record, then the recipient uses it. |
Routine use disclosure | Disclosure pursuant to paragraph (b)(3) of the PA, which requires that the disclosure be: |
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Social Security Administration Privacy Act Notices of Systems of Records | A book published periodically by SSA, as required by the PA, which lists all systems of records maintained by SSA along with the system manager and routine uses established for each system of records, and other information (informally referred to as the “Blue Book”). |
SSA |
NOTE: “SSA” does not include:
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State agency |
NOTE: The term does not include:
NOTE: Although Native American tribes are independent of any State government, the tribes and their agencies may, like State agencies, invoke the FOIA in requesting personal information from the Federal government. Therefore the same laws and procedures generally apply regarding disclosure to the tribes as to disclosure to the States. |
Statistical record | A record which is: |
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Subject individual | The individual to whom a record pertains. |
System manager | The SSA official responsible for confidentiality of or disclosure from a system of records. |
System of records | A collection of information which: |
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Tax return information | Information taken from a tax return filed with IRS. NOTE: “Returns filed with IRS” include forms W-2, which employers submit to SSA, since SSA forwards the forms to IRS after extracting the wage information. EXAMPLE: Information taken from SSA"s posted earnings records, such as wages and self-employment income, name and address of employer, dates of employment, and the fact that earnings are or are not posted for a given period (but not information alleged on an SSA application form or other paper that is not a tax return). |
Wage information | Includes: |
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