Social Security

Since legislation was enacted in 1986 requiring employers to review documents of prospective employees to establish their right to work in the United States, the Social Security card has become one of the primary documents used to determine employment eligibility. However, concerns have deepened that the card is easily counterfeited and does not prevent individuals from illegally working in the United States. As a result, some Members of Congress have asked, on several occasions, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the cost of issuing a counterfeit-resistant card. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act required SSA to develop a prototype counterfeit-resistant card made of a durable tamper-resistant material with various security features that could be used to establish reliable proof of citizenship or legal noncitizenship status. That Act also required SSA and GAO to estimate and compare the cost of producing and disseminating several types of enhanced cards to all living number holders over 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods. Earlier that year, a Member of Congress asked CBO to estimate the cost of issuing a counterfeit-resistant card, believing an earlier SSA estimate of producing such a card was high. This report (1) explains differences in CBO's and SSA's estimates for replacing the Social Security card, (2) evaluates SSA's estimates for the cost of issuing a more secure card, and (3) presents additional issuance options.

GAO noted that: (1) the wide variation between SSA's and CBO's estimates is due primarily to the different issuance assumptions used by each agency in its estimates; (2) CBO's estimate was an informal staff-level estimate of the cost to issue an enhanced card to 172 million number holders who it believed would request the new card; (3) SSA's estimate is based on issuing enhanced cards to 277 million number holders; (4) SSA's 1997 estimates of the cost for issuing an enhanced card generally appear to be reasonable if a new card were to be given to all 277 million current number holders; (5) regardless of the material from which the card is made or technology used for security purposes, issuing an enhanced card to all number holders using current procedures would cost a minimum of about $4 billion or more; (6) ultimately, SSA's costs will depend on how Congress decides to implement the issuance of a new card; (7) alternatives to the high cost associated with a mass issuance of new cards exist; (8) one alternative would be to issue a new enhanced social security card only to those who need it to verify work eligibility; (9) Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggest this approach could involve up to an estimated 118 million individuals--about 43 percent of the 277 million current number holders; (10) this option would help maximize control over illegal workers while significantly reducing SSA's costs; (11) in a second approach, SSA could issue the new card only to those applying for a new social security number and those who normally request replacement cards; (12) this option would also substantially reduce the cost of card issuance but provides no new employment authorization internal controls for many current number holders; (13) a third alternative could use state drivers' licenses and identity cards instead of social security cards for work eligibility verification purposes; (14) states renew these documents every few years and already include security features and a photograph; (15) the states could obtain current citizenship information from SSA for up to 87 million individuals for work authorization purposes; and (16) this option would avoid the enormous costs associated with reissuing the current social security card but would likely impose a significant burden on the states to make work eligibility determinations for the remaining 190 million individuals, and moreover, it would not necessarily enhance public confidence in the social security system.