In 2018, Social Security Administration (SSA) reported that there are 6 million rep payees serving 8.3 million beneficiaries nationwide, responsible for $70 billion in SSA benefits.*
What is the Rep Payee Program?
The Protection and Advocacy (P&As) Network, consisting of 57 organizations across the country, are working in collaboration with NDRN and SSA to protect beneficiaries by educating representative payees of their responsibilities and identifying cases of financial exploitation.
In ‘18-’19, the P&As began 2,437 rep payee monitoring reviews with 1,384 payee interviews completed. These cases were conducted all across the country and territories. 173 reviews were fully completed and closed by SSA.
What were the program outcomes?
- 1,384 payee interviews
- 6,185 beneficiary interviews
- 8,298 financial records reviewed
- 62,711 beneficiaries were impacted by the reviews conducted
- 173 reviews fully closed
How are rep payees performing?
- Reviewers found 4 out of 5 payees had at least one deficiency.
- 730 required a P&A issued corrective action plan.
- 61 instances of conduit payeeship were identified, when a payee was not providing any payee services and directly allotted SSA benefits to the beneficiary or a third party.
- P&As flagged 46 payees for suspected financial misuse or health and safety concerns.
What referrals were made?
- 14% of reviews had at least 1 referral. As leaders in the community, P&As provided referrals to additional resources to payees and beneficiaries as needed.
- 36.4% of referrals were made to non-urgent community resources, such as affordable clothing, food, or education.
- 9.7% of referrals were made to local government authorities, such as a Department Public Health, concerning immediate health and safety threats to beneficiaries.
- 54.4% of referrals were made back to the P&A for additional advocacy services.
