High-Dollar Improper Payments

Agency Accountable Official

Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI)

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

High-Dollar Improper Payments

Recovery Efforts – RSDI and SSI

Administrative Payments

What's New

Program Integrity, Payment Accuracy, Service Delivery, Program Access, Accountability

Reporting Requirements

Executive Order 13520 requires the head of each agency to compile a quarterly report on any high-dollar improper payments. The Executive Order requires the agency to submit this report to the agency’s IG and the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, as well as make available to the public, a report of high-dollar overpayments identified by the agency.

Part III to OMB Circular A-123, Appendix C defines a high-dollar overpayment as any overpayment made to an individual or entity in excess of 50 percent of the correct amount of the intended payment, where:

The total payment to an individual exceeds $5,000 as a single payment or in cumulative payments for the quarter; or
The payment to an entity exceeds $25,000 as a single payment or in cumulative payments for the quarter.

Methodology

We complete annual payment accuracy reviews from a representative sample of both Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income benefit payments, and OMB agreed that we will use that sample to identify payments that meet the criteria for high-dollar improper payment reporting.

Results

High-Dollar Improper Payments Reports
Fiscal Year	Quarter	Issue Date	Reporting Period	Number of High-Dollar Errors
2010	3	7/30/10	4/1/10 – 6/30/10	0
2010	4	10/29/10	7/1/10 – 9/30/10	0
2011	1	1/26/11	10/1/10 – 12/31/10	0
2011	2	4/15/11	1/1/11 – 3/31/11	0
2011	3	7/28/11	4/1/11 – 6/30/11	0
2011	4	10/26/11	7/1/11 – 9/30/11	0
2012	1	1/31/12	10/1/11 – 12/31/11	0
2012	2	04/30/12	1/1/12 – 03/31/12	0
2012	3	07/19/12	4/1/12 – 6/30/12	0

Since these findings are based on samples and given the vast number of cases we handle, we realize that there may be some cases with undetected high-dollar improper payments. However, we performed a similar analysis of our representative sample cases for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 and achieved similar results.