The Work Number is a service that organizations can use to verify employment and income information. The more than 190 million records on The Work Number database are provided to us by over 2,000 employers and are updated on a regular basis.

The Work Number database can be accessed using either our web site, which can be found at http://www.TheWorkNumber.com, or our telephone-based system, which can be reached by calling 1-800-660-3399.

• The Home Depot
• Kelly Services
• Kroger
• Bank One
• Hewlett-Packard
• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• The Gap
• The Coca-Cola Company
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers

The Work Number has redesigned our Web site to make it more informative and easier to use. If you have a level of service where the employer is required in order to request a verification, you would simply log in to your account and search for the employer on the order page directly below where you enter the applicant's Social Security Number. If you have a level of service where you order a verification with just an SSN, we don't require an employer name from you.

A qualifying Social Service Organization is a government agency that is granting a low-income benefit. An agency that provides state or federal assistance to qualified applicants, like human services, social services, family services, Social Security Administration, Housing Authorities, Work Programs, and Medicaid. Child Support Enforcement Agencies are also considered social service agencies as well.

Additional organizations that qualify as Social Service Agencies:

• A non-profit company, with a government contract, may also qualify for Social Services ONLY IF administering a low-income program.
• A private company, with a government contract, may also qualify for Social Services ONLY IF administering a low-income program.

An Employer Code, also known as a Company Code, is a five-digit number that is used to identify a specific employer on The Work Number database. For example, the employer code for Wal-Mart is 10108 while the Employer Code for The Home Depot is 87843. You only need to know what a company's employer code is if you access The Work Number database using the telephone-based system, which can be reached by calling 1-800-660-3399. If you are using the web site, then you can just enter the name of the employer.

Register to use The Work Number by completing and signing a Service Agreement. By registering, you identify your agency to The Work Number and protect employees against unauthorized access of confidential information. The contact person for the service agreement should be a spokesperson for your office. We may need to contact this person to verify your information or explain changes to the service. It will be necessary to provide proof or your organizations qualifications to use this service and may need to complete an on-site inspection.

You must be able to respond to the following questions:

• What type of organization are you?
• What type of program do you administer?
• What contract do you have to prove your program operation?

The Work Number provides information given to us by Employers: Employee Name and Social Security Number, Employment Status, Most Recent Start Date and Termination Date (if applicable), Total Time with Employer, Job Title, Rate of Pay, Average Hours per Pay Period, Total Pay for Past 2 years, and the most recent twelve pay periods of Gross Earnings.

The verification can provide up to 36 months of pay dates, period ending dates, number of hours worked, and gross earnings. All of this information is as current as the most recent pay period.

The Work Number receives new information directly from its Employers' payroll systems on a per pay period basis. We do not manually key or scan any information into the database. Our Employers send us information in a specified file format at specified time intervals. We then load that information directly into The Work Number's computer database.

Absolutely. The Work Number is to be used only when the public aid applicant has expressly given their permission, through a written signature, for your department to verify their employment and income information. Child Support agencies are the exception, since Employers are legally required to respond to their requests. The Work Number audits a percentage of all verifications performed, and your signed Agreement gives us the authority to audit your specific activity. When an audit is performed, we look for the authorization signature from the applicant.

Your agency will save time and money by using The Work Number. The verification process will be much less cumbersome, allowing your caseworkers to devote more of their time to the clients they serve. Also, The Work Number will help you identify and prevent fraud more quickly and accurately and find unreported income.

Employers who send records to The Work Number use this service exclusively; in other words, they do not supply other vendors with the same payroll data, for the purposes of employment and income verification. Therefore, The Work Number is the effective "Sole Source" provider of access to these records.

The Work Number contains over 190 million employment and income records which are made available to federal, state and local agencies, or their contracted vendors, for the purposes of assisting with program eligibility, fraud control/prevention and quality assurance.

The Work Number database has grown at a rate of about 12 million employee records a year for the past several years.

The over 1,900 employers who provide data to The Work Number include:
Many national employers in high-turnover, low-wage industries such as retail, staffing, hospitality, restaurant and gaming. 85% of the federal civilian population, including the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, the Social Security Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. Plus, local employers, including dozens of hospitals and school districts.