System name: Employee Indebtedness Counseling System, SSA/OPE.

Security classification:

None.

System location:

Social Security Administration, Office of Personnel, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235

Categories of individuals covered by the system:

Employees of SSA headquarters who request services or employees about whom SSA receives written inquiries because of employees' alleged delinquency in paying taxes and just debts.

Categories of records in the system:

Records in this system consist of the employee's name, SSN, telephone extension, office, branch, grade and area of service; nature of request, including personal information as to finances that the employee voluntarily provides; disposition, including employee's stated intentions; record of letters or tax forms sent as replies; letters from creditors or their representatives and copies of our replies and copies of tax levies against employees.

Purpose(s):

Files are used by staff members of OPE Benefits Services Section for work processing perspective in counseling and possible disciplinary action (OLMR, Employee Relations Branch) when indicated.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:

Disclosure may be made for routine uses as indicated below:

To a congressional office in response to an inquiry from that office made at the request of the subject of a record.
To DOJ, a court or other tribunal, or another party before such tribunal when:
- SSA, any component thereof; or
- any SSA employee in his/her official capacity; or
- any SSA employee in his/her individual capacity where DOJ (or SSA where it is authorized to do so) has agreed to represent the employee; or
- the United States or any agency thereof where SSA determines that the litigation is likely to affect the operations of SSA or any of its components,
is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and SSA determines that the use of such records by DOJ, the court or other tribunal is relevant and necessary to the litigation, provided, however, that in each case, SSA determines that such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.
Wage and other information which are subject to the disclosure provisions of the IRC (26 U.S.C. 6103) will not be disclosed under this routine use unless disclosure is expressly permitted by the IRC.
Information may be disclosed to contractors and other Federal agencies, as necessary, for the purpose of assisting SSA in the efficient administration of its programs. We contemplate disclosing information under this routine use only in situations in which SSA may enter into a contractual or similar agreement with a third party to assist in accomplishing an agency function relating to this system of records.
Nontax return information which is not restricted from disclosure by Federal law may be disclosed to GSA and NARA for the purpose of conducting records management studies with respect to their duties and responsibilities under 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 2906, as amended by NARA Act of 1984.
To student volunteers and other workers, who technically do not have the status of Federal employees, when they are performing work for SSA as authorized by law, and they need access to personally identifiable information in SSA records in order to perform their assigned Agency functions.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining and disposing of records in the system:

Storage:

Records are stored in paper form (e.g., individual file folders).

Retrievability:

Records are indexed and retrieved alphabetically by name.

Safeguards:

Files are maintained in locked steel file cabinets. Access to the files is limited to authorized employees who have a need for them in the performance of their official duties. Also, all employees periodically are briefed on PA requirements and SSA confidentiality rules, including the criminal sanctions for unauthorized disclosure of or access to personal records. (See Appendix G of this publication for additional information relating to safeguards SSA employs to protect personal information.)

Retention and disposal:

Routine cases are destroyed by shredding after 1 year. Tax review cases are maintained indefinitely. Ongoing cases in which there is in depth counseling may be maintained up to 3 years from date of last contact.

System manager(s) and address:

Associate Commissioner, Office of Personnel, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235

Notification procedure:

An individual can determine if this system contains a record about him/her by writing to the following address:

Director, Division of Personnel Operations, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235

When requesting notification, the individual should provide his/her name. An individual requesting notification of records in person need not furnish any special documents of identity. Documents he/she would normally carry on his/her person would be sufficient (e.g., credit cards, driver's license, or voter registration card). An individual requesting notification via mail or telephone must furnish a minimum of his/her name, date of birth, and address in order to establish identity, plus any additional information specified in this section. These procedures are in accordance with HHS Regulations 45 CFR Part 5b.

Record access procedures:

Same as notification procedures. Also, requesters should reasonably specify the record contents they are seeking. These access procedures are in accordance with HHS Regulations 45 CFR Part 5b.

Contesting record procedures:

Same as notification procedures. Also, requestors should reasonably identify the record, specify the information they are contesting and state the corrective action sought and the reasons for the correction with supporting justification showing how the record is incomplete, untimely, inaccurate or irrelevant. These procedures are in accordance with HHS Regulations 45 CFR Part 5b.

Record source categories:

Information is obtained from employees, creditors, IRS, State Tax Division of various States, and from records generated internally in SSA (e.g., Computer Printout 7887 Part I "Locator" used to find telephone extensions of employees).

Systems exempted from certain provisions of the Privacy Act: