SSA: Let Us Send Letters

Speaking of the Social Security Administration's "no-match letters," the New York Times reports that SSA officials have pleaded with a federal judge to let them send out more than 140,000 letters the agency has already prepared informing employers about discrepancies between Social Security numbers provided by workers and the agency's own records.

The judge had ordered a halt to the mailings as part of a temporary ban on implementing new federal rules cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants. The judge said the agency could send the letters if references to the new rules were removed, but acting deputy SSA commissioner David A. Rust said doing so would place a huge new burden on the agency at a time when it is struggling to deal with backlogs of retirement and disability claims.