A recent audit reveals that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has mistakenly paid over $20 million in benefits to the wrong recipients.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted this review of the SSA’s Electronic Representative Payee System (eRPS), highlighting that $22.8 million was disbursed incorrectly. eRPS is a digital tool used for managing representative payee applications and associated data.
Typically, representative payees, such as family members or friends, manage Social Security or Supplemental Security Income payments for individuals unable to do so, like children or those with significant disabilities.
The core problem lies in incorrect payee data within the eRPS system. Employees are tasked with manually updating payment records, which can lead to mistakes. Although the application provides alerts for inconsistencies, the report emphasizes, “employees should verify both eRPS and payment records after processing applications to confirm proper updates.”
When manual actions are necessary and controls are lacking, the report states, “there’s a greater chance employees won’t follow policies correctly.”
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Additionally, the report revealed that the SSA misclassified about 9,300 payees, hindering their ability to get the necessary accounting reports and resulting in unnecessary reports from roughly 3,900 payees. Each year, payees must submit a form to account for the benefits received on behalf of the beneficiary.
“If changes aren’t made, the agency risks continuing to issue payments to incorrect payees without proper monitoring, which could lead to misuse of funds and unmet needs of beneficiaries,” stated the report.
To address these issues, the OIG recommended that the SSA review cases with payee discrepancies and remind staff to follow the correct application processes. The SSA has promised to adopt these recommendations.
The SSA is also striving to rectify over a billion dollars in erroneous payments due to both underpayments and overpayments, where recipients are inaccurately assessed and receive more or less than what they are entitled to.