Benefits Highlights

The Acronym Soup Series: Lesson #1

Acronyms abound in our society. Frequently acronyms are used to explain Social Security benefits. Recently, someone asked that I offer some Social Security Administration (SSA) language lessons. Here's lesson 1.

NH = Number Holder--literally meaning the person who has that Social Security number.

W/E = Wage Earner--the person who paid into the Social Security Trust Fund through work.

Both of these acronyms can refer to the worker who paid into the Social Security Title II trust fund by working for someone else or by being self-employed.

ER = Earnings Record - the Earnings Record is the computer-generated list of all of the person's wages.

• It gives potential benefit calculations.
• The calculations generated are based on the person's date of birth, date the disability began, and other factors, like prior entitlement.
• The SSA uses the earnings record of the wage earner to determine if the worker has sufficient work history to be insured.
• If the wage-earner has enough work credit to be insured for benefits, then the worker and the other family members who meet benefit eligibility criteria may also receive benefits.
• Even if the worker is dead, the worker is still the wage-earner if someone is entitled to survivor's benefits on the worker's record.
• Often when SSA employees refer to "the record" they actually mean the earnings record on which all of the individual's or the family's benefits were based.
• Social Security benefits are paid on the earnings record (ER) of the wage earner.

Here is an example. A person receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is being paid benefits based on her own work history, or Earnings Record (ER). She is the wage earner (W/E). She has a child who is five. In this situation, Mom is the wage earner (W/E) for the child's benefit as well.

Terri Uttermohlen