BASIC (09-05)

A. Policy

1. Circumstance of Disclosure

A primary claimant, applicant, or beneficiary or NH is entitled to know certain information about individuals who are or who have been entitled on his/her Social Security record as explained below (see GN 03340.055). The primary claimant, applicant, or beneficiary or NH is the person under whose SSN a claim is filed.

NOTE: This does not include information about individuals whose claims are still pending.

“Applicants” include proper applicants who are not claimants (as described in GN 03301.002B. and GN 00204.003A.).

See GN 03316.115 for instructions concerning disclosure in adverse actions.

A primary claimant or beneficiary or NH may be provided the following information about auxiliaries.

• Name;

• Benefit amount (i.e., the amount of the benefit and the effective date of that benefit amount and any changes in the benefit amount and the effective dates of those changes)

  (NOTE: This does not include the amount of any monthly check or the amount of any retroactive benefit check. The actual check amount could be different from the benefit amount due to a number of factors such as a deduction for a Medicare premium, work deduction, or a deduction for an overpayment.); and

• Date(s) and period(s) of entitlement, including date(s) benefits were terminated.

NOTE: When a folder contains material pertaining to more than one person, each person's material must be treated for disclosure purposes as if it were in a separate folder.

2. What Not to Disclose

Do not disclose any of the following information about auxiliaries to the primary claimant or beneficiary or NH.

• Auxiliary’s SSN;

• Auxiliary address;

• Whether or not benefits were paid (or were in suspense, etc.);

• Current payment status;

• Amounts of benefit checks;

• Names of representative payees or copies of payee applications or payee accountings; or

• New names of adopted children (See GN 01010.330A.4.).

EXAMPLE:

A NH inquires about his son being entitled to benefits on the NH’s record. The NH wants to know when his son became entitled, and the amount of his benefit. The NH also wants to know the amounts of the actual checks issued to his son, including any retroactive checks.

You may disclose the son’s entitlement date and the amount of the benefit he was awarded at that time. You may also disclose any subsequent changes in the son’s benefit amount and the effective dates of those changes. However, you may not disclose the amounts of any of the son’s checks.

IMPORTANT: Be especially careful if an auxiliary’s Numident record contains special indicator (SI) 6. This indicates that the has been issued a new SSN as a result of abuse, harassment or life endangerment. See RM 10215.230 for special actions that are required when special indicator 6 appears on Numident record.

B. Procedure

See GN 03316.001D.