Summary

Despite Social Security Administration (SSA) procedures to detect supplemental security income recipients in county and local jails, GAO found that $5 million had been erroneously paid to prisoners in the jail systems it reviewed. SSA had been unaware of many of these payments and, therefore, had made no attempt to recover them. Various factors contributed to these payments. First, SSA field offices have not been compiling information regularly on prisoners in country and local jails. Second, the supplemental security recipient--or the person or organization designated to receive payments on the recipient's behalf--has not been reporting the incarceration, as required. Third, SSA sometimes falls short in periodically reviewing--either by mail or interview--a recipient's continued financial eligibility for supplemental security income. Under a new SSA initiative, field offices will be required to obtain prisoner information from country and local jails, and SSA plans to monitor field office compliance with this requirement. It is too early to tell, however, whether this initiative will be successful.

GAO found that: (1) a total of $5 million has been erroneously paid to prisoners in local and county jail systems; (2) these erroneous payments are the result of SSA field offices' inability to obtain prisoner information on a regular basis, SSI recipients' failure to report their incarceration, and SSA inability to verify recipients' eligibility for SSI; (3) the Commissioner of Social Security has sent draft legislation to Congress that would authorize payment to each correctional facility reporting newly admitted SSI beneficiaries; (4) erroneous payments to individual prisoners range from $100 to more than $17,000; (5) 136 prisoners have received more than $5,000 in erroneous SSI payments and 19 prisoners have received more than $10,000 in erroneous SSI payments; and (6) SSA is requesting its field offices to obtain prisoner information from both county and local jail systems and emphasizing the importance of monitoring field offices' compliance with this procedure.