SSA Needs To Determine the Cost Effectiveness of Manually Identifying SSI Recipients With Income From Other Federal Sources

Gao ID: HRD-82-33 January 8, 1982

While developing and testing a multiple correlation matching computer program to detect erroneous payments within and between various Federal programs, GAO observed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) present process for manually matching Supplemental Security Income (SSI) records with payment records of certain other Federal agencies.

GAO found that, while SSA has used this manual matching system for nearly 5 years, it has not collected data essential for assessing whether the system is effective. GAO noted that SSA has no information on the disposition of cases referred to district offices. Moreover, the personnel and other costs involved at the district office level in investigating and resolving the cases are unknown, and there is no mechanism in place for obtaining this information. GAO also found that, because SSA does not record the ultimate resolution of cases, it is possible that a single case may go through the process year after year, wasting valuable district office resources.

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.

Director: Joseph F. Delfico Team: General Accounting Office: Human Resources Division Phone: (202) 512-7215


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