Supplemental Security Income

The failure of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program clients to disclose earnings and bank accounts was responsible for 40 percent of the $1.6 billion in overpayments identified in fiscal year 1996. More current and comprehensive information is now available to detect undisclosed earnings. Although two new databases developed by the Office of Child Support Enforcement could provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) with more current and comprehensive earnings information, SSA has put minimal effort into incorporating the use of these databases into the claims-handling process. SSA cites competing priorities as the reason why it has not done more. Opportunities for better financial account information also exist. SSA could obtain up-to-date information on the financial accounts of SSI clients from financial institutions by accessing the nationwide telecommunication network, which links all financial institutions. Such information would help ensure that applicants whose bank accounts make them ineligible for the program do not gain eligibility. By eliminating ineligible persons at the time of application, SSA could avoid the expense of determining medical and vocational disability and other processing costs for invalid claims. SSA could also reduce the number and duration of overpayments to recipients who are overpaid because of newly acquired bank accounts or increases in existing ones.

GAO noted that: (1) unreported or underreported earnings and financial accounts continue to result in significant overpayments in the SSI program; (2) according to SSA's overpayment data, the failure of SSI clients to disclose earnings and financial accounts was responsible for approximately 40 percent of the $1.6 billion in overpayments identified for fiscal year 1996; (3) specifically, about $379.5 million in overpayments was the result of SSI clients not fully disclosing their earnings, and $268.1 million was the result of clients not disclosing financial account information; (4) more current and comprehensive information is now available to detect undisclosed earnings; (5) SSA detects overpayments resulting from undisclosed earnings primarily by matching information provided by SSI clients with earnings data used in the administration of other government programs; (6) however, computerized matches, which are not done until individuals are on SSI's rolls, have built-in delays in detecting overpayments that range from 6 to 21 months; (7) two databases developed for use by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) could provide SSA with more current and comprehensive earnings information; (8) SSA could check these databases prior to placing applicants on the rolls and thereby prevent overpayments caused by applicants failing to disclose earnings at the time of application; (9) these databases would also allow SSA to detect occurrences of undisclosed earnings to ongoing recipients within 4 to 6 months and thereby reduce the number and duration of the corresponding overpayments; (10) opportunities for improved financial account information also exist; (11) SSA detects undisclosed financial accounts by conducting computer matches once a client's eligibility has been established; (12) this match, however, can only detect undisclosed accounts that existed 9 to 21 months before; (13) SSA could obtain up-to-date information on the financial accounts of SSI clients from financial institutions by accessing the nationwide telecommunication network, which links all financial institutions; (14) such information would help ensure that applicants whose bank accounts would make them ineligible for the program do not gain eligibility; and (15) by eliminating ineligible individuals at the point of application, SSA could avoid the expense of determining medical and vocation disability and could also reduce the number and duration of overpayments to ongoing recipients who are overpaid because of newly acquired financial accounts or increases in existing ones.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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