Treasury Services
Notification of change (NOC) entries now required for Social Security Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments
July 15, 2012
Notification of change (NOC) is a method used by a financial institution to notify a Federal agency to correct or change account information in an entry the Federal agency processed through the ACH. For example, a routing number change resulting from the merging of two financial institutions may require one of the institutions to initiate an NOC to the respective Federal agency to make the appropriate routing transit number (RTN) change to their recurring payment files. NOCs are used for Federal government (both civilian and military) payments that are made on a recurring basis. Examples include:
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
- Railroad Retirement Board (RRB)
- Federal Salary
- Certain contract payments made on a recurring basis
Conversely, NOCs should not be used in the following circumstances:
- Title/ownership of account
- Interest of the recipient or beneficiary in the account
- Where the recipient is changing accounts from one financial institution to another
- Account information for one-time payments (e.g., IRS Electronic Tax Refunds)
- Change in the name of the recipient (e.g. following marriage)
Under these circumstances, the recipient must complete a new Direct Deposit authorization.
Over the past several years, many financial institutions have been contacting SSA’s local offices directly to make changes to account information on recurring benefit payments. However, SSA does not have the resources to continue this exception process and will therefore have to discontinue these services immediately. As a result, financial institutions wishing to make changes to account information of SSA recurring payments must begin using the NOC process in accordance with the National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA) rules and guidelines prescribed in the U.S. Treasury’s Green Book, the Federal government’s guide for financial institutions processing Federal government ACH payments.
For more information on processing NOCs for Federal government payments, please visit the Green Book website .
Announcement
Effective immediately, the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) local offices will no longer make direct changes to account information on recurring benefit payments. Financial institutions wishing to make changes to account information of SSA recurring payments must begin using the notification of change (NOC) process in accordance with the National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA) rules and guidelines prescribed in Treasury’s Green Book website .
