Supplemental Security Income: SSA Could Enhance Its Ability to Detect Residency Violations

摘要

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the nation's largest cash assistance program for the poor. The program paid about $35 billion in benefits to about 6.8 million aged, blind, and disabled recipients in 2002. Most SSI recipients are also eligible to receive medical benefits under the Medicaid program. Benefit eligibility and payment amounts for the SSI population are determined by complex and often difficult to verify factors such as an individual's living arrangements, including whether an individual resides in the United States. Individual circumstances such as permanent residence may change frequently, requiring staff to regularly reassess recipients' eligibility for benefits. Thus, the SSI program tends to be difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive to administer. The programs complexity has also made it susceptible to overpayments. In recent years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has identified a general increase in the amount of annual overpayments made to (1) individuals who are found to have violated program residency requirements or (2) recipients who leave the United States and live outside the country for more than 30 consecutive days without informing SSA. This problem, which we refer to as a residency violation, has caused concern among both program administrators and policy makers.