A recent report says that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has sent more than $20 million in benefits to the wrong people.
An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into SSA’s Electronic Representative Payee System (eRPS) found that the agency sent $22.8 million in benefits to the wrong people.
All the important information about representative payee applications is kept in the web-based program eRPS.
Also, people who get Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits but are not able to handle them themselves, like children or people with serious disabilities, have representative payees who do it for them.
These payees are usually family members or friends.
FED warns Social Security beneficiaries about retiree payments
Getting Social Security or Extra Security People who would not be able to handle their own income benefits, like children or people with serious disabilities, have representative payees take care of them.
These payees are usually family members or friends. The report says that when employees are expected to do manual tasks without enough supervision, they are more likely not to follow rules and instructions.
The report also found that the Social Security Administration made mistakes when recording the payer types for about 9,300 beneficiaries.
As a result, the government agency either did not get the right accounting reports from about 3,900 payees or got extra reports from those people.
Rep payees have to fill out a form every year to report the benefits they received on behalf of the recipient.
The report says that the agency will keep giving benefits to the wrong people without keeping a close enough eye on how they are used if things do not get better.
This makes it more likely that beneficiaries will not get what they need and that payments that are supposed to go to them will be misused.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) suggests reviewing beneficiaries with discrepancies
The OIG suggested that to fix the issues, employees should be reminded of the right way to apply and beneficiaries with payee inconsistencies should be looked over. SSA will follow through with the suggestions.
The SSA has been fighting over a billion dollars in wrong payments to stop underpayments and over payments, which happen when someone gets less or more benefits than they are entitled to because their benefits were calculated wrong.
Newsweek has already reported on other instances of elderly and disabled people receiving benefits being hit with large debt repayment demands, some amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.
This happened because their benefits were overestimated. Some people have been told by the government agency that they need to pay in full within 30 days, even if they had nothing to do with the wrong payment.
How will this impact Social Security beneficiaries across the country?
This audit is part of a plan to help the SSA deal with its ongoing problems with processing payments worth billions of dollars.
The agency has had trouble with these over payments, which happen when people get less or more than they are entitled to because of mistakes in how the benefits are calculated.
A lot of money has been wrongly given out by the government because of these mistakes, which has led to calls for tighter controls and more accountability.
The elderly and disabled have been hit the hardest by these mistakes because they depend on these Social Security payments.
In the past few years, beneficiaries have been told to repay huge amounts, often tens of thousands of dollars, after getting wrong payments because of things they could not control.
Some people have had to return these over payments within 30 days of getting notice from the SSA. This has put too much stress on people who are already having a hard time with money.
