State mailers with labels bearing the Social Security numbers of recipients were sent again to tens of thousands of people in Wisconsin repeating the same mistake that happened only 13 months ago.

EDS Corp., a Texas-based private vendor contracted to prepare the state mail, discovered on Monday that the mailing labels of benefits brochures sent to 260,000 Medicaid, SeniorCare and BadgerCare members had the recipients' social security numbers printed on it. The firm stopped mailing the brochures to 225,000 other recipients on Tuesday.

The state Department of Health and Family Services, which issued the brochures, blamed the EDS for the mistake. According to Twincities.com, Bill Ritz, a spokesman for the company, said. "The mistake occurred when the data file was created for a routine mailing sent in the past three or four days."

The spokesman said EDS would pay for recipients' credit monitoring for one year to make sure that their identities will not be used by fraudsters.

In December 2006, Wisconsin's Department of Revenue mailed 171,000 tax booklets with the recipients social security numbers printed on the mailing labels.