FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Treasury Department announced today that social security numbers will no longer be visible through the envelope window of checks mailed to more than 14 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients beginning with September payments.

"It is a priority at Treasury to protect personal information," said Treasury Under Secretary Gary Gensler. "By removing social security numbers from the window of the mailings of Social Security checks, we will help safeguard the privacy of millions of Americans."

Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) issues nearly 900 million payments annually. Although most payments are now made electronically, 270 million of these payments are still made by check.

In 1998, social security numbers were removed from view in the envelope window used to mail Internal Revenue Service tax refund checks. Following Y2K preparations, FMS undertook steps to conceal the numbers from remaining checks. The final phase of the project, affecting fewer than 10 percent of Treasury check payments, will be completed next spring.

Beginning in September, FMS will use the check number rather than the social security number to identify and retrieve payments that are ineligible for delivery. During 1999, over 1 million ineligible Social Security payments with a value of approximately $620 million were removed from mailings. Pulling these checks prior to mailing eliminates inconvenience for the recipient or family of the recipient, and avoids a time consuming and costly claims process for recipients, banks, and the government.

Treasury has conducted a nationwide effort to convert all government payments to electronic transfer through its Electronic Funds Transfer campaign, EFT 99. As a result, approximately 70 percent of all government payments are made electronically today. Treasury offers direct deposit as a safe and secure means of payment to individuals who maintain an account at a financial institution.