Social Security’s representative payee program is supposed to assist disabled individuals manage their disability payments. The program was setup for people who are significantly impaired, who are determined by the agency to require assistance in managing their benefits. Unfortunately, sometimes the opposite occurs and the designated payee misuses the beneficiary’s benefits and takes advantage of the same people they are supposed to be protecting. Typically, Social Security will allow a payee to be a family member of the disabled person, and sometimes that family member uses the benefits in ways that do not benefit the disabled person.
To correct this problem, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a new bill to improve Social Security’s payee program. The Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2017 would:
- Strengthen oversight by increasing the number of performance reviews of payees, requiring additional types of reviews, and improving the effectiveness of the reviews by the requiring the Protection and Advocacy system of each state to conduct the reviews, on behalf of the Social Security Administration (SSA);
- Reduce the burden on families by eliminating the requirement to file an annual payee accounting form for parents who live with their children and for spouses;
- Enhance personal control by allowing beneficiaries to designate their preferred payee in advance of actually needing one; and ensures improved selection of payees by requiring the SSA to assess the appropriateness of the preference list used to select payees;
- Improve beneficiary protections by increasing information sharing between the SSA and child welfare agencies, and by directing the SSA to study how better to coordinate with Adult Protective Services agencies and with state guardianship courts;
- Limit overpayment liability for children in the child welfare system;
- Ensure that no beneficiary has a barred payee by codifying the ban on individuals with certain criminal convictions from serving as payees and prohibiting individuals who have payees from serving as payees for others.
To learn more about the new bill and what Congress hopes to achieve through its passage click here.
