Larson, Davis Welcome Social Security’s Response to Concerns about Potential Use of Commercial Payroll Data

East Hartford, CT – House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chair John B. Larson (D-CT) and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chair Danny K. Davis (D-IL) issued the following statement regarding a response from Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi to their letter urging the Social Security Administration (SSA) to halt any plans to expand its use of commercial electronic payroll data to reduce or cut off benefits, and to first conduct rulemaking with strong beneficiary protections:

“We applaud Acting Commissioner Kijakazi for recognizing the importance of this issue and the seriousness of the concerns raised. It is essential that the public be able to review and comment on any proposed use of commercial electronic payroll data to automatically reduce or cut off Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits that workers have earned or are entitled to,” said Chairs Larson and Davis. “As we wrote to the Acting Commissioner in June, in recent years, new and serious concerns have come to light about inaccuracies in commercial electronic payroll databases and the significant challenges workers often face when trying to correct errors with the credit reporting agencies who operate and sell these databases. We expect that any SSA regulations will not presume that information provided by commercial payroll data providers is accurate, and will include review by SSA employees prior to benefit adjustment. We also expect that any regulations will not place the burden on beneficiaries to correct errors with Equifax or other commercial payroll data providers,” the chairs concluded. 

In 2015, Congress permitted SSA to significantly expand its access to and use of commercial payroll data, to identify earnings that could result in benefits being reduced or cut off. Congress required SSA to issue regulations within one year of enactment. SSA has not yet implemented this expanded use and has now announced it will conduct rulemaking as required by the 2015 law. 

Read the letter by Chairs Larson and Davis to Acting Commissioner Kijakazi expressing their concerns here.

Read Acting Commissioner Kijakazi’s reply here.

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