TN 40 (12-00)

A. Background

As provided in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA 96), the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) has developed a database to aid in enforcing child support orders. That database, the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH), contains 3 collections of information provided to OCSE by the States and Federal agencies:

• a registry of all newly-hired employees in the nation, i.e., a compilation of all W-4s filed by employers,

• quarterly wage information, and

• quarterly unemployment compensation information.

PRWORA 96 also provided authority for the information in the NDNH database to be disclosed to SSA. SSA will use the information in the NDNH database in its effort to prevent/reduce payment errors. We expect field offices to have access to the OCSE databases starting in January 2001.

B. Policy

Before payment is authorized in certain high-risk cases, you must query the NDNH database to determine if the individual and any deemor have any undisclosed income.

1. Initial claims

Initial claims situations requiring negative verification are:

• cases where disability was approved after deferral of nondisability factors;

• cases that require a Preeffectuation Review Contact (PERC);

• cases that are subject to prepayment review of underpayments of $5000 or more; and

• cases involving unstated income.

2. Posteligibility cases

Posteligibility situations requiring negative verification are:

• cases that are subject to prepayment review of underpayments of $5000 or more; and

• cases involving unstated income.

NOTE: If the case is already alerted for review with an S2 or U5 diary, no query is required.

C. Procedure

1. Query the NDNH database

Query the database when one of the conditions in SI 00810.550B is present. You should obtain the query during the interview to preclude the need for subsequent contact. (See MSOM QUERIES 003.015 for instructions on how to query the database.)

2. NDNH database indicates no undisclosed income

If the query confirms the individual’s/deemor’s allegation that he or she has not received wages or unemployment compensation, no documentation of the negative result is needed.

3. NDNH database indicates potential undisclosed income

1. Ask the individual/deemor about the item posted. Provide details about the posting (name of the employer, amount of wages and period earned, date of unemployment compensation payment, etc.). If it will help the person to remember, show him or her the query response.

   If it appears the item posted belongs to someone other than the individual/deemor (e.g., the name shown on the query is different), discontinue further development. Refer the posting to OCO if earnings discrepancy development is indicated (see RM 03803.000).

2. If the individual/deemor agrees that the posted wage or unemployment compensation item was paid to him or her, obtain verification of the monthly amount (see SI 00820.130 for wage verification and SI 00830.230 for unemployment verification).

3. If the individual/deemor disagrees with the posting, contact the employer or paying State for additional information about the posting.

   • If the employer or the State provides enough information to determine the posting is not attributable to the person, document your findings for the file per GN 00301.285 through GN 00301.289.

     If it appears that someone else is using the individual’s name and SSN, discontinue further development. Refer the posting to OCO if earnings discrepancy development is indicated (see RM 03803.000).

   • If information provided by the employer or State verifies that the posting is attributable to the person, count the income as the individual’s and post the verified monthly amounts to the SSR.

   • If the information provided by the employer or State is inconclusive, accept the allegation that the income was not paid to the person. Obtain the individual's statement signed or recorded on a DROC to that effect and with any supporting evidence available.

D. References

• Earnings disagreements, RM 03812.000

• Earnings discrepancies, RM 03803.000

• Taking the Claim, GN 00203.004