Rail Employer Reporting Instructions

Part II – Establishment of Employee Records

Chapter 1: Establishing New Records for New Hires

1

Records for new hires

Records for newly hired railroad employees are established from the annual reports of service 

and compensation. Thus, it is important that the social security numbers (SSN) and names under 

which the employees' service and compensation are reported are correct.

A current employee may appear to be a new hire if the employee is reported under an incorrect 

SSN. Because the incorrect SSN will not match an existing Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) 

record, a new record will be established for the incorrect SSN. That error is detected and 

corrected only after investigation with Social Security Administration (SSA) and the employer 

and, possibly, the employee. An incorrect SSN initiates a time-consuming and costly process that 

is avoidable when an employer verifies that the SSNs on a report are correct.

The RRB requests employers to verify the SSN of their new hires to help prevent records from 

being established under incorrect numbers. Employers are expected to review the Social Security 

Card of new hires. If the new hire does not have a social security number or does not have a copy 

of their card, have the new hire file Form SS-5, Application for Social Security Number Card, 

with SSA. To prevent transcription or keying errors, match the SSNs in your current report of 

service and compensation to the previous report. Verify that all SSNs that do not match the 

previous report are new hires.

SSA Employee Verification Service (EVS)

It is the employer's responsibility to obtain correct SSNs from all employees of their 

organization. SSA has developed a free Employee Verification Service (EVS) that will match 

your record of employee names and SSNs with SSA's records before you prepare and submit 

your service and compensation reports. There are several methods you can choose from to take 

advantage of this easy to use system:

To verify up to 5 

names/SSN's Call their toll-free-number (800) 772-6270

To verify up to 50 

names/SSN's Submit a paper listing to your local Social Security Office

To verify over 50 

names/SSN's

Mail or fax a completed registration form and privacy statement 

to SSA.

Contact SSA at (800) 772-6270, to receive more information about this service.
Rail Employer Reporting Instructions

Part II – Establishment of Employee Records

Chapter 1: Establishing New Records for New Hires

2

New records

The RRB will establish and verify a new record as follows: 

1. RRB establishes a new employee record when a service and compensation report is 

received containing a SSN that does not match an existing record. At this point, the new 

record is incomplete as it contains only the first five letters of the surname. 

2. RRB sends new records to SSA annually for a match with SSA records. New RRB 

records which match SSA records are considered as verified and the full surname from 

SSA's record is posted to RRB's records along with employee's gender and date of birth. 

3. New RRB records which do not match SSA records produce referrals to employers for 

reconciliation. The new RRB record will remain unverified with only a five-letter 

surname until either RRB or SSA changes their records and a match occurs. See Part VII, 

Chapter 2.