Posted Date:December 21, 2015
| Author: | Lisa DiCarlo, Director, Student Experience Group, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Issue Alert - CPS Reprocessing This Week to Correct 2015-2016 Records with Invalid SSA Match Results
In response to reports from schools last week, we have identified an issue with the Social Security Administration (SSA) match results for 2015-2016 Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and Student Aid Reports (SARs) distributed on December 10, 2015 and December 15, 2015. The ISIRs and SARs impacted by this issue had an incorrect SSN Match Flag value of "0" for students and/or parents of dependent students.
In order to resolve this issue quickly and ensure schools and students have the most current matching information, the Central Processing System (CPS) began reprocessing the impacted transactions on December 21, 2015. ISIRs and SARs resulting from the reprocessing will be sent to schools and students beginning on December 22, 2015 and will contain the correct, current results from the CPS match with the SSA.
Background
The issue resulted in the processing of ISIRs and SARs (in the FAA section) with student and/or parent SSN Match Flag values of "0," which is a placeholder value that is replaced with the correct match flag after the results from SSA are returned and transactions are processed.
The majority of the ISIRs and SARs affected by this issue were sent to schools and students as a result of CPS processing on December 10, 2015; a smaller subset of records were placed on hold on December 10, 2015 and were processed on December 15, 2015.
Overall, we have determined that 4,092 schools received ISIRs with the incorrect SSN Match Flag values. In total, incorrect match results were applied to 18,264 transactions. Some transactions only impacted student match results while some affected just parent match results.
Resolution
This reprocessing excludes any records impacted by the issue if a correction was made to the student's record after December 10, 2015. Any new CPS transactions resulting from those corrections included the correct SSN Match Flag values from the latest match between the CPS and the SSA.
Several methods exist for schools to identify records resulting from the reprocessing:
Reprocessed ISIRs will be sent under the IGSG16OP message class.
Paper SARs and ISIRs will include SAR comment code 172, which states:
- "This SAR was produced because we processed a change to your information based on information reported to us by another agency or as a result of a processing system change. Review your SAR to see what effect, if any, this change has had on your application, and call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) if you have any questions."
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ISIRs produced as a result of the reprocessing will include a value of "50" for the Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #230).
The FAA Information page in Student Inquiry on the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site will display "50 – Reprocessed because of a match delay" for the Reprocessing Code for the transaction resulting from the reprocessing.
Contact Information
We regret any inconvenience this issue may have caused you or your students.
If you have any questions regarding this message, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
You can also post questions to FSATECH. FSATECH is an electronic mailing list for technical questions about Federal Student Aid systems, software, and mainframe products. For more information on subscribing to FSATECH, go to: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/services/fsatechsubscribe.html.