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HEHS-94-234R 1 (1994-09-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackqw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Health, Education and Human Services Division B-258485 September 26, 1994 The Honorable Slade Gorton United States Senate Dear Senator Gorton: On May 4, 1994, you asked us to look into a constituent's concerns about the Social Security Administration's (SSA) accounting system that generates reports on the amount of social security benefits paid to individuals each year. Your constituent, Mr. Leroy Mason, described events related to his social security benefit statement (form SSA 1099) for tax year 1993. SSA is required to send these forms to beneficiaries to help them file their income tax returns. Mr. Mason said that several data entries on his form 1099 were erroneous. Although he did not articulate any specific question, Mr. Mason expressed concern that these erroneous data are ultimately aggregated with information for other beneficiaries like him and used to justify the need for more resources. As agreed with your staff, this letter responds to your request. In summary, we found that Mr. Mason's form SSA 1099 does contain inaccurate data on the amount of benefits he was paid and the amount of benefits that he repaid to SSA in 1993. We did not, however, find any evidence that the problems he describes adversely impact SSA's budgetary data in the larger sense. SSA produces overpayment budgetary data from a different accounting system than the one that generates 1099 forms. Although these two systems share data, system limitations cause a loss of detail about account actions. Ultimately, this loss can produce erroneous information on 1099 forms, as in cases like Mr. Mason's. However, the source data for budgetary purposes were correct. The problem that Mr. Mason encountered began when his former employer did not report that the income in question was deferred compensation. Since 1990, employers have been directed to report deferred compensation payments, such as Mr. Mason's, in a separate box of the W-2 form (form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement). Our review of Mr. Mason's W-2s shows that his former GAO/HEHS-94-234R Accuracy of Form SSA 1099

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