MSU Human Resources >> The-work-number >> Employment and Income Verification FAQs

Employment and Income Verification faqs

What is The Work Number?

The Work Number is an automated service used by about 3,000 businesses and other organizations nationwide that securely provides instant employment and income verifications. It can be used by MSU employees when applying for a loan, buying a car, leasing an apartment, qualifying for public assistance or similar instances where proof of employment or income is needed. The Work Number streamlines the transfer of information between employers and verifiers. The service is available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, making it faster for MSU employees to apply for credit rapidly and easily even on weekends or during evening hours, often without the need to provide further cumbersome paper documentation such as pay stubs to lenders or other service providers.

What would an MSU employee use The Work Number services for?

The most common reasons MSU faculty, staff and student employees would use The Work Number would be to substantiate employment and income information to a bank, credit union, credit card provider, car dealership or other organization in order to secure a loan, acquire credit, purchase a car or other large item or apply for government services that require proof of employment and/or income. For the employee, it will usually be as simple as providing your lender with MSU's organization code and your Social Security number.

What information can The Work Number provide or confirm about employees to authorized verifiers in order to assist in verifying employment and income?

Name
Most recent date of hire
Termination date (if no longer employed)
Total time length of employment with MSU
Current job title
Current rate of pay
Gross year-to-date earnings including base pay, overtime and bonuses
Gross earnings for last year and two years past, including base pay, overtime and bonuses

Are there types of verifications that cannot be provided by The Work Number?

While the information The Work Number can provide is satisfactory for the majority of straightforward employment and income verifications, certain types of verifications need to be processed by staff at various MSU offices.

Payroll:

Requests for verifications related to low-income based services, retirement, Friend of the Court, Department of Human Services (DHS), or Social Security should be faxed to the MSU Payroll Office at (517) 353-1675. All requests require written authorization from the employee and that written authorization should be included upon submission to MSU Payroll Office. Processing of verifications may take 5 to 10 days for completion.

Human Resources:

Requests for verifications related to teacher certifications or federal investigator-led verifications for certain federal jobs must still be handled by MSU Human Resources.

Who will The Work Number Provide my information to?

Verifiers who use The Work Number to verify information about your income and employment can include any lending institution, property manager, government agency or other organization that has a FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) permissible purpose to verify employment and income information. Common permissible purposes include for the extension of credit, as part of an account review, for employment purposes or when ordered by a court. Verifiers who use The Work Number are required to provide a permissible purpose for each employment or income data request.

How do I provide consent for this information to be released?

Most often, you provide consent when signing a loan application, lease agreement or similar document when requesting a service or benefit. That consent generally lasts for the life of the obligation (e.g., until the loan is repaid, the account is closed, etc.). That consent can be in the form of a document you sign, an electronic signature you provide or, in some cases, by a salary key you generate to give someone authorization to access your employment and income information via The Work Number.

What is a salary key and when do I need to generate one?

A salary key is a unique six-digit number you can obtain from The Work Number and give to those you wish to have one-time access to your employment and income data through The Work Number. Salary keys will only be issued directly to you by The Work Number. If you have already provided the verifier with consent via an application or form you signed, then a salary key will typically not be needed. Salary keys are needed in two specific circumstances. 1) If you have not provided consent to the verifier through applications you have signed, they will need a salary key from you in order to access your information. 2) If you worked as an MSU Student Employee between 2011 and the present, verifiers will require a salary key to access your information, even if you have since graduated and become a regular employee. This is due to additional consent requirements that apply to students and student information under FERPA.

How do I generate a salary key?

To generate a salary key, visit the Employment Verification page and sign on to The Work Number website using your MSU NetID and password. On the "employee" page, select the Salary Key tab. Next select "create a salary key" and then select the "New Salary Key" button and a generated salary key will be created. If you require assistance, the MSU HR Solutions Center staff can help you through this process. Call 517-353-4434 for assistance. Salary keys expire after one use and employees can only have up to three salary keys active at any given time. There is no charge to the employee for this service.

Is the process secure?

The Work Number protects sensitive employee information by credentialing all verifiers prior to system use, authenticating the verifier at login, requiring the verifier to have Consumer Consent and a valid Permissible Purpose for requesting the data and monitoring and auditing verifier activity to ensure compliance with the above safeguards. The Work Number complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which ensures that employees can see who is requesting their data and provides a mechanism to dispute data that they believe to be inaccurate. At any time, MSU faculty, staff and student employees can log in to The Work Number website using their MSU NetID and password to view which verifiers have accessed their employment and income information.

How will The Work Number work with MSU? (Or "How does the verification process work?")

MSU will send secure confidential files containing current employment information to The Work Number for their use in responding to employment and income verification requests. Many major lenders and other types of verifiers are already accustomed to using The Work Number for their employment verification requests and are already credentialed as authorized verifiers. Once the employee provides such a lender or other verifier with consent, their social security number and MSU's organization code, the verifier works with The Work Number to complete the verification. In most cases, information is immediately available. If the lender or verifier you are working with is not currently credentialed with The Work Number, the employer or lender can contact the MSU Human Resources Solutions Center to get a coupon allowing the lender a trial use of The Work Number (The verifier will need to go through The Work Number credentialing process).

What if The Work Number process doesn't work for my lender for some reason?

If The Work Number process does not work for your lender for any reason, they can still contact the MSU HR Solutions Center (517-353-4434 or 1-800-353-4434) for assistance with their request. The Solutions Center, in partnership with the Payroll office, is able to provide or confirm the same information as The Work Number, including:

Name
Most recent date of hire
Termination date (if no longer employed)
Total time length of employment with MSU
Current job title
Current rate of pay
Gross year-to-date earnings including base pay, overtime and bonuses
Gross earnings for last year and two years past, including base pay, overtime and bonuses

However, immediate response is only available through The Work Number's automated services. Using the HR Solutions Center instead of The Work Number will require additional time (5 to 10 days) for the request to be processed including verifying consent, researching data in necessary systems, coordinating with the Payroll office on salary information and communicating the information back to the verifier.

What if I don't want verifiers to be able to see my information in The Work Number database?

If you want all verifiers to be blocked from accessing your employment and income information, you can send a request from your MSU.edu email to SolutionsCenter@hr.msu.edu requesting your information be blocked from verifiers.

Human Resources

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