Deadline Has Passed to File Reports
The deadline for filing your annual reports of service
and compensation, February 29, 2004, has come and gone. If you still
have not filed your reports, you will be hearing from us. We are developing
a delinquent list to send out subpoenas in the very near future. It
is imperative that we receive this information for the benefit of your
employees as well as the Railroad Retirement trust funds.
Your employees need this data reported on their records so that they
can verify that their employment was correctly reported and they can
track their status for eligibility for benefits from this agency.
Employee Address Request
Employers are required to file with the Railroad Retirement Board an
address report for all new hires. In addition to this report which
is due by April 1 each year, the RRB ran the address request project
early this year in order to reduce the number of undeliverable Forms
BA-6, Certificate of Service and Compensation. In order to accomplish
this, the address information must be received and processed no later
than May 12, 2004. If you received a listing, please fill in the
missing address and return it to the Board as soon as possible.
You can also file your missing addresses on the Internet through our
secure site called the Employer Reporting System (ERS) if you have access. To
learn more about the ERS or apply for access, go to PL04-02. If
you have questions contact QRSC at the telephone number or e-mail address
listed above.
Verifying Social Security Numbers
The RRB is responsible for maintaining accurate service and compensation
records for every employee who has worked in the railroad industry. The
identifier we use to record the employee data is the social security
number (SSN) reported to us by the employer. We must verify the
accuracy of the SSN through the Social Security Administration (SSA).
If the identifying information reported to the RRB on the employee’s
SSN matches correctly with the information at the SSA, the SSN is automatically
verified on the RRB database and posted to the employee’s account. If
the information does not match correctly, the account remains unverified
and the reported service and compensation may be posted to an incorrect
account number.
We are in the process of investigating with SSA all accounts that remain
unverified. If you receive a GL-24 letter stating that the service
and compensation reported for an employee cannot be validated because
SSA indicates the SSN reported by your organization belongs to another
individual or it is not in the SSA database, please review your records,
complete the bottom half of the form with your findings, and return to
the address on the letter. We understand that some of these accounts
are former employees and |
you may
not have any current information. In that case, please indicate
this on the form and return it to us. If you have any questions,
contact a Compensation Specialist at (312) 751-4992.
Automated Reporting
The RRB intends to convert all employers who file paper reports into
automated filers. This can reduce the number of manual errors which
result from processing paper reports. In addition to the RRB Internet
site for Employer Reporting that we reported on in the last quarterly
issue of this newsletter, we also have a PC Reporting program available
on CD-ROM. This software has been available for several years,
but we continue to receive more than half of the annual reports on paper. If
you filed your 2003 BA-3a Annual Report on paper, let us know the problems
that are preventing you from switching to an automated format.
The CD-ROM program will allow you to complete all of your annual reports:
Form BA-3a, Form BA-6a, Address Report and Form BA-11, Report of Gross
Earnings. All you have to do is key in the data, click a button,
download the information onto a floppy disk, and mail the disk and the
G-440, Report Specification Sheet to the RRB. The program is compatible
with Windows 2000 and Windows Office XP operating systems.
So, if you filed your 2003 annual reports on paper, look for your copy
of the CD-ROM PC Reporting program in the mail. If you previously
used the program and want an updated version contact the Quality Reporting
Service Center.
We are also reaching out to organizations that currently use spreadsheets
(i.e. Excel, QuattroPro, Lotus) to record payroll information. We
can help you to covert your spreadsheet report into the required format
so that your report can be processed by our mainframe computers. If
you can copy this data to a 3.5" floppy diskette or CD-ROM, you
can become an automated filer. If you are interested, contact QRSC
at the telephone number or through our e-mail account listed on the front
in the header. We will send you the instructions and a QRSC Specialist
can walk you through the process.
Benefit Year 2004 Starts July 1st
A new RUIA benefit year is upon us yet again. Benefit year 2004
starts on July 1, 2004 and ends June 30, 2005 for most unemployment and
sickness insurance benefit claimants. To be qualified for RRB UI
and/or SI benefits, an employee must have $2,800 in creditable railroad
earnings in calendar year 2003, counting no more than $1,120.00 per month. If
2003 was an employee’s first year of railroad work, he or she must
also have railroad service in at least 5 months of 2003. The maximum
daily benefit rate for UI and SI benefits increases to $56.00 for registration
periods beginning after June 30, 2004. |