United States General Accounting Office

GAO Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee

on Oversight, and the Chairman,

Subcommittee on Human Resources,

Committee on Ways and Means, House

of Representatives

August 1996 SUPPLEMENTAL

SECURITY INCOME

SSA Efforts Fall Short

in Correcting

Erroneous Payments to

Prisoners

G O A

years

1921 - 1996

GAO/HEHS-96-152

GAO United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

Health, Education, and

Human Services Division

B-262256 

August 30, 1996

The Honorable Nancy L. Johnson

Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight

Committee on Ways and Means

House of Representatives

The Honorable E. Clay Shaw

Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources

Committee on Ways and Means

House of Representatives

Recent media reports have focused attention on instances of prisoners

receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. SSI is a

means-tested program that provides cash payments to aged, blind, or

disabled individuals to help them meet basic needs—food, clothing, and

shelter. Prisoners are ineligible for SSI because prisons and jails meet these

basic needs.

The SSI program, which is administered by the Social Security

Administration (SSA), is federally funded, but some states provide

supplemental payments. In 1995, about 6.5 million SSI recipients received

nearly $25 billion in federal payments and $3 billion in state supplemental

payments. SSI is one of the fastest-growing federal entitlement programs.

Because of your concern about prisoners receiving SSI payments, you

asked us to (1) determine if SSA has made erroneous SSI payments to

prisoners in selected large county and local jail systems,1

 (2) if this has

occurred, determine why, and (3) review SSA’s efforts to prevent such

payments.

To meet these objectives, we interviewed SSA officials and representatives

from 23 county and local jail systems. We also obtained computerized

information on current prisoners from 12 of these large jail systems. These

prisoners represent about 20 percent of the nationwide prisoner

population at county and local jails. In addition, we obtained information

on prisoners recently released from two jail systems (including 1 of the 12

systems). To determine whether SSA made erroneous payments, we

matched each prisoner’s Social Security number (SSN) with SSI payment

records. We carried out our work between September 1995 and June 1996

in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

1

A jail system may include more than one individual jail.

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(See apps. I and II for a more detailed discussion of our scope and

methodology.)

Results in Brief Despite SSA procedures to identify SSI recipients in county and local jails,

we determined that a total of $5 million had been erroneously paid to

prisoners in the jail systems we reviewed. This includes $3.9 million to

prisoners who were still incarcerated at the time of our review (current

prisoners) in 12 systems and $1.1 million to prisoners who were paid while

incarcerated, but had been released by the time we did our review (former

prisoners) in 2 systems. SSA has been unaware of many of these erroneous

payments and, therefore, had made no attempt to recover them.

A variety of factors have contributed to these payments. First, SSA field

offices have not been obtaining information regularly on prisoners from

county and local jails. Second, the SSI recipient—or the individual or

organization designated to receive payments on the recipient’s behalf—has

not been reporting the incarceration, as required. Finally, SSA’s efforts—to

periodically verify, either by mail or interview, a recipient’s continued

financial eligibility for SSI—are sometimes ineffective.

In October 1995, as part of a new nationwide initiative to identify prisoners

receiving SSI, SSA began emphasizing the necessity of implementing

already-existing procedures. These procedures require SSA field offices to

obtain prisoner information from county and local jails. SSA also began

monitoring field office compliance with these procedures. It is too early to

evaluate the effectiveness of this initiative as it relates to current

prisoners. But we noted that the initiative does not require field offices to

obtain information on former prisoners.

Background The SSI program is authorized by title XVI of the Social Security Act. To

qualify for SSI, an individual must meet financial eligibility and age or

disability criteria. Generally, SSA determines an applicant’s age and

financial eligibility; the state’s Disability Determination Service determines

an applicant’s initial medical eligibility. The maximum monthly benefit in

1995 was $458 per month for an individual, increased to $470 in 1996.

An individual is ineligible for SSI in any given month if throughout that

month he or she is an inmate of a public institution (42 U.S.C. 1382

(e)(1)(A)). The title XVI regulation defines an inmate of a public institution

as a person who can receive substantially all of his or her food and shelter

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while living in a public institution. SSA operating instructions provide that a

prison is a public institution.

SSI recipients may receive their payments in one of several ways: (1) SSI

checks can be mailed to them at their residences or, in some cases, to post

office boxes; (2) SSI checks can be direct-deposited into recipients’

checking or savings accounts; or (3) SSI checks can be sent to recipients’

representative payees—individuals or organizations that receive checks on

behalf of SSI recipients who are unable to manage their own affairs

(including legally incompetent people, alcoholics, drug addicts, and

children).2

 A representative payee is responsible for dispensing the SSI

payment in a manner that is in the best interest of the recipient.

SSA Procedures for

Verifying Continuing

Eligibility for SSI

Many events can affect a recipient’s eligibility or payment amount. SSA

requires that recipients voluntarily report these events and also monitors

and periodically reviews recipients’ financial eligibility.

Self-Reporting SSI recipients are responsible for reporting information that may affect

their eligibility or payment amounts. If the recipient has a representative

payee, the payee is responsible for reporting such information to SSA.

Significant events to be reported include a change in income, resources,

marital status, or living arrangements, such as admission to or discharge

from a public institution.

Redetermination A redetermination is a review of financial eligibility factors to ensure that

recipients are still eligible for SSI and receiving the correct payment.3

 A

redetermination addresses financial eligibility factors that can change

frequently, such as income, resources, and living arrangements.

Redeterminations are either scheduled or unscheduled. They are

conducted—by mail, telephone, or face-to-face interview—at least every 6

years, but may be conducted more frequently if SSA determines that

changes in eligibility or erroneous payments are likely. The

redetermination process includes a question about whether the recipient

spent a full calendar month in a hospital, nursing home, other institution,

or any place other than the recipient’s normal residence.

2

After December 1996, eligibility for SSI will no longer be based on drug addiction or alcoholism. A

recipient with an alcohol or drug addiction condition who is eligible, based on another condition, will

receive payment through a representative payee only if SSA determines the recipient to be incapable of

managing his or her own funds. (P.L. 104-121 section 105.)

3

SSA relies on a separate process, Continuing Disability Reviews, to monitor disabled SSI recipients’

continuing medical eligibility.

Page 3 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
B-262256 

SSA Liaison With

Institutions

Since the SSI program was established, SSA has recognized the potential for

erroneous payments if SSI recipients become residents of public

institutions, including state and federal prisons and county and local jails.

SSA headquarters has established computer-matching agreements with

state prison systems and the federal Bureau of Prisons. Under these

agreements, the participating states and the Bureau can regularly provide

automated prisoner information to SSA. SSA matches the information

against its payment records to identify SSI recipients incarcerated in state

and federal prisons.

According to information provided by SSA, the process of matching

prisoner information against the SSI payment records is a cost-effective

way to identify SSI recipients who are in prison. However, to succeed, SSA

determined it is essential that field offices work closely with public

institutions, both county and local, to facilitate the flow of information

concerning the SSI population. Accordingly, SSA has, for years, instructed

its field offices to (1) maintain regular contact (for example, regular visits)

with prisons in their areas and (2) establish procedures for promptly

obtaining information on events, such as admissions and discharges, that

affect SSI eligibility and payment determinations.

Recent Legislation On May 24, 1996, the Commissioner of Social Security sent draft legislation

to the Congress. This proposed legislation is designed to promote timely

carrying out of SSI provisions requiring cessation of payments to prisoners.

The legislation would authorize the Commissioner to enter into

agreements with willing state and local “correctional facilities.” Under

these agreements, the Commissioner would pay the facility for each report

of a newly admitted inmate who has been a Social Security or SSI

beneficiary but is not, as a prisoner, entitled to payments.

In August, the Congress passed The Personal Responsibility and Work

Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The act authorizes the

Commissioner of SSA to enter into agreements with interested institutions.

Under these agreements, the institutions would provide SSA with the

names, SSNs, and other information about their inmates. SSA, subject to the

terms of the agreements, would pay an institution for each inmate who SSA

subsequently determines is ineligible for SSI. The act specifies, however,

that the institution’s primary purpose must be to confine individuals for

offenses punishable by confinement for more than 1 year. This 1-year

requirement would seem to preclude SSA from entering into agreements

Page 4 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
B-262256 

with, as well as making payments to, county and local jails, which

generally incarcerate prisoners for shorter periods.

Incidence of Prisoners

Receiving SSI Is

Widespread

Overall, in the jail systems we reviewed, we detected a total of $5 million

in erroneous SSI payments to prisoners. This includes $3.9 million to 2,343

current prisoners in 12 jail systems and $1.1 million to 615 former

prisoners in 2 jail systems. Typically, an erroneous payment continued for

6 months or less and totalled about $1,700. SSA was unaware that many of

these payments had occurred.

SSA Erroneously Paid

Many Current Prisoners

SSA had made erroneous payments to 2,343 prisoners, who were

incarcerated in the 12 jail systems at the time of our work. These 2,343

prisoners represent about 4 percent of the prisoners with verified SSNs in

these jail systems. As shown in table 1, SSA made payments to some

prisoners in each of the 12 jail systems. The percentage of prisoners who

received SSI payments differed somewhat among these jail systems,

ranging from 2 to about 7.7 percent.

Page 5 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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Table 1: Current SSI Recipients in

Each County and Local Jail System

Receiving SSI

Prisoners with verified SSNs

Jail system Total Number Percent SSA regiona

New York City 9,374 357 3.81 II

Broward Co., Fla. 2,510 49 1.95 IV

Dade Co., Fla. 8,529 185 2.17 IV

Orange Co., Fla. 3,211 66 2.06 IV

Shelby Co., Tenn. 3,401 193 5.67 IV

Cook Co., Ill. 7,686 591 7.69 V

Hamilton Co.,

Ohio 1,751 59 3.37

V

Harris Co., Tex. 3,358b 59 1.76c VI

Los Angeles Co.,

Calif. 7,848b 528 6.73c

IX

Santa Clara Co.,

Calif. 1,586b 99 6.24c

IX

Maricopa Co.,

Ariz. 2,352b 105 4.46c

IX

King Co., Wash. 1,814 52 2.87 X

Total 53,420 2,343

aSee app. II for states covered by each SSA region.

bPrisoners incarcerated for at least 30 days.

cThe percentage was calculated using the number of prisoners incarcerated for at least 30 days.

If all prisoners, regardless of length of incarceration, were used, this percentage would be lower.

However, this jail system only provided information on prisoners incarcerated for 30 days or more.

In addition, there were 926 SSI recipients in jail at the time of our review

who had not yet been there for 1 full calendar month. Collectively, these

926 prisoners were being paid about $387,000 a month. To the extent these

prisoners remain in jail for at least 1 calendar month and SSA remains

unaware of their incarceration, SSI payments made after a full month of

incarceration would be erroneous.

SSA’s Erroneous Payments

to Current Prisoners in the

Millions of Dollars

In the 12 systems we reviewed, as of the date we reviewed each system,

we estimate that SSA paid $3,888,471 to the 2,343 current prisoners (see

table 2). The average amount paid to an individual prisoner varies among

the jail systems, but the overall average is approximately $1,700. Some

payments are much larger.

Page 6 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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Table 2: Erroneous Payments: Total

and Average Amounts, by Jail System Erroneous payments

Jail system

SSI

recipients Total Average

New York City 357 $649,165 $1,818

Broward Co., Fla. 49 59,047 1,205

Dade Co., Fla. 185 338,680 1,831

Orange Co., Fla. 66 89,998 1,364

Shelby Co., Tenn. 193 419,630 2,174

Cook Co., Ill. 591 972,623 1,646

Hamilton Co., Ohio 59 40,782 691

Harris Co., Tex. 59 66,696 1,130

Los Angeles Co., Calif. 528 929,703 1,761

Santa Clara Co., Calif. 99 162,306 1,639

Maricopa Co., Ariz. 105 104,192 992

King Co., Wash. 52 55,649 1,070

Total 2,343 $3,888,471 $1,660

Erroneous payments to individual prisoners ranged from less than $100 to

over $17,000. We determined that 136 prisoners received in excess of

$5,000, including 19 who received more than $10,000. The percentage of

current prisoners by range is shown in figure 1.

Page 7 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
B-262256 

Figure 1: Range of Erroneous

Payments for Current Prisoners Percentage of Prisoners in Each Range

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

1-200

201-400

401-600

601-800

801-1,000

1,001-2,000

2,001-5,000

5,001-10,000

>10,000

Range of Erroneous Payments (in Dollars)

6.9 6.4

18.2

9.3

11.0

22.4

19.8

5.0

0.8

Notes: (1) The number of prisoners is 2,343. (2) Percentages may not add to 100 because of

rounding.

Large erroneous payments to prisoners occurred because SSA paid some of

them for long periods of time. For example, one SSI recipient was arrested

on June 27, 1993, and was still in jail on November 30, 1995.4 SSA paid this

prisoner monthly for this entire period. The erroneous monthly payments

totaled about $13,000. As of November 30, 1995, this SSI recipient was still

in jail and SSA was continuing to pay him.

SSA Paid Most Current

Prisoners for 6 Months or

Less

We determined that 85 percent of the 2,343 current prisoners had received

erroneous payments for a period of 6 months or less, at the time of our

review.5

 However, some were paid for longer periods. We found a total of

4

This date is the ending date that we used to calculate the total erroneous payments to recipients. It is

the date the jail system provided us with data on its prisoners; it is not the prisoners’ release date.

Some prisoners remained in jail after these dates.

5

According to county and local jail officials, jails house prisoners for 1 to 3 months. These officials

said, however, it is not uncommon for longer-term prisoners to be housed in county jails because of

overcrowding in state prisons.

Page 8 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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94 prisoners that had been paid for more than 1 year, including 13 who

were paid for more than 2 years. The range of months during which

payments continued is shown in table 3.

Table 3: Range of Months During

Which Erroneous Payments Continued Prisoners erroneously

paid

Month(s) of erroneous payments Number Percenta

1 742 31.7

2 461 19.7

3 323 13.8

4 207 8.8

5 161 6.9

6 93 4.0

7 to 12 262 11.2

13 to 24 81 3.5

25 to 36 10 .4

37 to 48 3 .1

Total 2,343

aPercentages may not add to 100 because of rounding.

SSA Is Unaware That Many

SSI Recipients Are

Incarcerated

The erroneous payments to current prisoners are likely to increase. Based

on a review of SSA’s records, we estimate that at the time of our review, SSA

was unaware that 1,570 of the 2,343 recipients were in jail. SSA therefore

continued to erroneously pay them. But SSA had stopped paying the

remaining 773 and, for some of them, established an overpayment.

SSA Erroneously Paid

Many Former Prisoners

We obtained information, from two jail systems, for 15,998 former

prisoners who were released from jail between January 1 and June 30,

1995. We determined that of these former prisoners, 615 (3.8 percent)

received SSI while incarcerated. In total, these former prisoners received

about $1.1 million in payments. The number of former prisoners, total

erroneous payments, and average amount to individual prisoner by jail

system are shown in table 4.

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Table 4: SSI Payments to Former

Prisoners, by Jail System Erroneous payments

Jail system

SSI

recipients Total Average

Cook Co., Ill. 419 $901,792 $2,152

Wayne Co., Mich. 196 225,076 1,148

Total 615 $1,126,868

Included in the count of 419 former prisoners in Cook County are 17 who

were also in our population of current prisoners. This indicates that these

17 were in prison and received SSI payments on at least two occasions.

In Cook County, where we had data for both current and former prisoners,

erroneous payments to former prisoners were higher. In that county,

about 73 percent of the former prisoners were erroneously paid $1,000 or

more, compared with 48 percent of the current prisoners. The difference is

predictable because former prisoners have completed their time in the

county or local jail and current prisoners have not. In Wayne County,

where we only had data on former prisoners, 38 percent of the former

prisoners were erroneously paid $1,000 or more.

SSA Is Not Recovering

Erroneous Payments From

Many Former Prisoners

Based on a review of SSA’s records, we estimate that SSA is unaware that it

erroneously paid 454 (74 percent) of the 615 former prisoners (see table

5).

Table 5: Erroneous Payments to

Former Prisoners, by Jail System

SSA unaware

Former prisoners erroneously paid

Jail system Total Number Percent Amount

Cook Co., Ill. 419 306 73 $690,070

Wayne Co., Mich. 196 148 76 164,915

Total 615 454 74 $854,985

As of December 1995, SSA was making SSI payments to 340 of the 454

former prisoners. However, SSA was not recovering these payments by

withholding a portion of the current payments.

Page 10 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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Several Factors

Contributed to

Prisoners Receiving

SSI Benefits

Our review suggests that many of the erroneous payments to prisoners

stem from the fact that SSA field offices were not following existing

instructions. These indicate that field offices should contact county and

local jails to detect incarcerated SSI recipients. Other reasons for such

payments include SSI recipients (or their representative payees) not

reporting incarcerations and redeterminations not identifying some

incarcerated SSI recipients.

SSA Field Offices Are Not

Obtaining Prisoner

Information From County

and Local Jails

At the start of our review, we contacted 23 county and local jail systems to

determine if they were regularly providing prisoner information to SSA.

Only 1 county was, although a few said SSA contacted them occasionally to

determine if specific people were incarcerated. In addition, 1 other county

indicated that it initiated contact with SSA, but had not provided data. SSA

had contacted 6 additional systems about regularly obtaining information

on prisoners, but these had not yet provided any data. The remaining 15

systems reported that they had not been contacted by SSA about regularly

providing information on prisoners. For example, according to an SSA

branch office manager, no one from SSA had visited the jails in the office’s

service area in more than 20 years.

SSI Recipients and

Representative Payees Are

Not Reporting

Incarceration as Required

Our review of SSA records indicates that although some SSI recipients or

their representative payees report incarceration to SSA as required, many

do not. We determined that of the 615 former prisoners who were

erroneously paid, 217 had representative payees while in prison. We also

determined that of these representative payees, 164 did not report the SSI

recipient’s incarceration. About 87 percent of the representative payees

who did not report were relatives; 1 percent were social agencies or other

types of public and private organizations; and 12 percent were “other”

types. Similar reporting problems were noted for current prisoners.

Redeterminations Have

Not Identified Some

Incarcerated SSI

Recipients

In the redetermination process, SSA attempts to verify that recipients

remain financially eligible for SSI and receive the correct payment. SSA

records indicate that while in jail, 88 prisoners each had one

redetermination and 4 prisoners each had two or more. We found that 32

of these 92 prisoners continued to be incarcerated and receive SSI

payments after the redeterminations. According to SSA records, 22 of these

redeterminations involved face-to-face contact between an SSA employee

and the recipient or the representative payee. According to SSA officials, it

is possible for inmates who are temporarily free, on work release or some

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other similar arrangement, to appear for a redetermination and

subsequently return to jail. In addition, representative payees may

complete the redeterminations, including face-to-face, on behalf of the SSI

recipient. The identity of the actual individual who appeared at the

face-to-face redetermination is not included in SSA’s computerized record,

and a detailed review to determine who appeared at the interview was

beyond the scope of our work.

SSA Has Initiated a

Major Effort to Detect

Incarcerated SSI

Recipients in County

and Local Jails

SSA’s operating instructions contain provisions for field offices to contact

local jails in order to obtain prisoner data from them. However, SSA only

recently began implementing this program systematically. According to

agency officials and internal documents, most of the jails nationwide had

been contacted by April 1996 to obtain information on current prisoners

and future admissions, but not on former prisoners.

Current Initiative Began in

Late 1995

According to agency officials, in March 1995, SSA field offices were

instructed to contact local jails in their service areas and report to their

regional offices concerning which jails would agree to provide SSA with

prisoner data. However, the field offices did not consistently comply with

these instructions, these SSA officials stated. In October 1995, after the

start of our review, SSA headquarters issued a follow-up memo to the

regional offices, directing them to instruct their field offices to

(1) complete a detailed census of all jails in their jurisdictions and

(2) report to headquarters by November 30, 1995. It was during this period

of time that the agency initiated a concerted effort to contact all county

and local jails nationwide.

According to agency officials, prisons and jails are being contacted in the

following order: (1) all state prisons, (2) the 25 largest county and local

jails nationwide, and (3) all other county and local jails. According to SSA

documents, as of March 1996, SSA had identified 3,878 county and local

jails: SSA had obtained written agreements covering 2,647 of these and had

agreements pending with 235. In addition, 843 jails were already reporting

to SSA or held prisoners for less than 30 days; 153 jails had not responded

or had refused to cooperate.

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Current Initiative

Addresses Current

Prisoners and New

Admissions

SSA has requested that facilities it has contacted provide lists of their

inmates to the local field offices. The agency has offered flexible reporting

guidelines for frequency and format of the lists (computerized or on

paper). In general, SSA has requested that facilities that have provided data

to it previously or on a trial basis continue providing data. In addition, SSA

has requested that facilities that have not provided any lists in the past

provide (1) a current census of their inmates and (2) continuing lists of

new admissions to the facility. Specifically, we found that SSA has

contacted the 25 largest jail systems in the country and requested prisoner

data from them. Most of these systems had agreed to supply SSA with

prisoner data beginning in early to mid-1996. One system (Orange County,

Calif.) began providing data in April 1995, and another system (New York

City) has agreed to a pilot project including data beginning with

January 1995.

Conclusions For many years, SSA has lacked an effective program to detect SSI

recipients in county and local jails. It has relied primarily on (1) the

recipients or their representative payees to voluntarily report

incarceration and (2) redeterminations. Neither of these mechanisms has

been completely effective; as a result, SSA has erroneously paid millions of

dollars to thousands of prisoners in county and local jails. SSA was

unaware of most of these payments. The number of SSI recipients who

received SSI while in jail, including those with representative payees and

those with redeterminations, raises numerous questions, including

whether payments were obtained fraudulently.

SSA’s recent initiative—to obtain better information on SSI recipients

currently in county and local jails—is a positive step. However, the effort

is not comprehensive enough. In general, SSA has begun to obtain

information on current prisoners and new admissions. But SSA has not

attempted to develop information, when available, on SSI recipients who

may have been incarcerated and received payments in prior years. We

found that this information is available and can provide SSA the means to

identify and initiate recovery of many more erroneous payments.

Recommendations In order to identify SSI recipients who have been erroneously paid in prior

years, we recommend that the Commissioner of SSA direct SSA field offices

to obtain information from county and local jails on former prisoners. SSA

should then process this information to (1) determine if it made erroneous

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payments to any of these former prisoners, (2) establish overpayments for

the ones it paid, and (3) attempt to recover all erroneous payments.

Agency Comments

and Our Response

SSA commented on a draft of our report in a letter, dated July 16, 1996, and

acknowledged that investigation of the productivity of securing

information on former prisoners appears desirable and worthy of further

examination. However, SSA expressed concerns about the availability of

data, the potential negative effect of requests for more data on existing

reporting arrangements with county and local jail officials, the

cost-effectiveness of processing data on former prisoners who may no

longer be receiving SSI payments, and other matters. SSA believes these

concerns need to be resolved before implementing our recommendations.

(The full text of SSA’s comments is included in app. III.)

Availability of Data During its recent initiative to identify current prisoners, SSA identified local

officials who know what data are available and can be provided. It should

not be difficult or time-consuming, therefore, for SSA to contact these

officials and determine if information on former prisoners is available. In

addition, to identify information on former prisoners, SSA need not

establish that “the majority” of county and local jail systems have such

information, given that the largest jail systems account for the majority of

prisoners.

Potential Negative Effects

of Requests for More Data

During the course of its initiative, SSA expanded the number of agreements

with local correctional facilities to report prisoner information. According

to SSA, some of these facilities were initially reluctant to enter into these

agreements because SSA does not have the authority to pay for this

information. However, unlike information on current prisoners, which

requires monthly or quarterly reporting, information on former prisoners

only requires a onetime effort by the local jail systems. Therefore, SSA need

not assume that requesting such data will jeopardize existing agreements.

If county and local jail systems are initially reluctant to provide data on

former prisoners, SSA could emphasize the potential benefit to state

programs (such as the recovery of erroneously paid state supplements)

that such data exchanges may provide.

Cost-Effectiveness of

Processing Data on Former

Prisoners

We agree that SSA stands a better chance of recovering erroneous

payments if the former prisoner is still receiving SSI. However, the fact that

he or she is not currently receiving SSI should not prevent the

Page 14 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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implementation of our recommendation. To ensure program integrity, SSA

has a responsibility to identify erroneous payments and collect

overpayments. Once established, overpayments made to former prisoners

remain in the record and could be recovered if the person again begins to

receive SSI. Furthermore, SSA has the authority to recover SSI debts through

a tax refund offset.

Other Matters SSA also took issue with the fact that we reported that until recently,

identifying prisoners was not a priority at SSA. According to SSA, however,

policies and operating procedures call for field offices to (1) maintain

contacts with local institutions and (2) determine prisoner eligibility for

payments. In our review, we found that field offices had not been

following this guidance. We made minor changes to the text of the report

to clarify this point.

SSA also expressed concern about a statement in the report that erroneous

payments to prisoners may be partially due to the vulnerability of

redeterminations to abuse. Although we do not discuss the

redetermination process in great detail, our review of SSA records indicates

that 32 of 92 prisoners in our sample continued to receive benefits after a

redetermination. If this process had been working as intended, SSA would

have determined that these prisoners were no longer eligible to receive

benefits. We made minor changes to the text of the report to clarify this

point.

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional

Committees and Subcommittees; the Director, Office of Management and

Budget; and other interested parties.

This report was prepared under the direction of Christopher C. Crissman,

Assistant Director. Other GAO contacts and staff acknowledgments are

listed in appendix IV.

Jane L. Ross

Director, Income Security Issues

Page 15 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Contents

Letter 1

Appendix I 

Scope and

Methodology

18

Prisoner Information Obtained From Jail Systems 18

SSN Verification 18

Identifying Prisoners With SSI Records 19

Verification of County Data 19

Information on Former Prisoners 19

Appendix II 

SSA Regions

20

Appendix III 

Comments From the

Social Security

Administration

22

Appendix IV 

GAO Contacts and

Staff

Acknowledgments

25

Tables Table 1: Current SSI Recipients in Each County and Local Jail

System

6

Table 2: Erroneous Payments: Total and Average Amounts, by

Jail System

7

Table 3: Range of Months During Which Erroneous Payments

Continued

9

Table 4: SSI Payments to Former Prisoners, by Jail System 10

Table 5: Erroneous Payments to Former Prisoners, by Jail System 10

Figures Figure 1: Range of Erroneous Payments for Current Prisoners 8

Figure II.1: SSA Regional Boundaries 21

Page 16 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Contents

Abbreviations

EVS Enumeration Verification System

SSA Social Security Administration

SSI Supplemental Security Income

SSN Social Security number

Page 17 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix I 

Scope and Methodology

To determine if jail systems provide information on prisoners to SSA, we

contacted 23 large county and local jail systems that met the following

criteria: (1) a minimum average daily prisoner population of at least 1,000,

with emphasis on the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, (2) geographic

dispersion, and (3) populous SSA regions. Of the 23 systems we contacted,

we subsequently requested data from the 13 that met the following

additional criteria: (1) an ability to provide us with automated data tapes

suitable for matching, (2) willingness to provide the data at no cost, and

(3) not currently providing SSA with prisoner data.

Based on the above criteria, between September 1995 and January 1996,

we obtained automated data on current prisoners from 12 county and local

jail systems. They collectively represent about 20 percent of the county

and local prisoner population nationwide. The jail systems that provided

data to us are in 10 states, in 6 of SSA’s 10 regions. The jail systems that

provided current prisoner data to us were: Broward County (Fla.); Cook

County (Ill.); Dade County (Fla.); Hamilton County (Ohio); Harris County

(Tex.); King County (Wash.); Los Angeles County (Calif.); Maricopa

County (Ariz.); New York City; Orange County (Fla.); Santa Clara County

(Calif.); and Shelby County (Tenn.).

In addition, during February and March 1996, we obtained data on former

prisoners from Cook County and from Wayne County (Mich.).

Prisoner Information

Obtained From Jail

Systems

From 12 of the county and local jail systems, we obtained data for

prisoners who were under their jurisdiction on specific dates. The dates

were selected by the jail systems, based on their available resources. Jail

systems also supplied available personal identifiers, including name,

Social Security number (SSN), date of birth, place of birth, mother’s maiden

name (or next of kin), ethnicity or race, home address, and date of

incarceration.

SSN Verification We received information on a total of 97,813 current prisoners and

eliminated duplicate records. This reduced the initial universe to 79,595

prisoners. We processed the information on these prisoners through SSA’s

Enumeration Verification System (EVS), which uses key variables (name

and date of birth) to verify the SSNs provided or determine an SSN if none is

provided. We obtained verified SSNs for 53,420 of the 79,595 prisoners. We

could not verify SSNs for the remaining 26,175 prisoners.

Page 18 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix I 

Scope and Methodology

Identifying Prisoners

With SSI Records

To determine which prisoners had SSI records, we matched the verified

SSNs against the Supplemental Security Record. We identified 12,951

prisoners with SSI records. We analyzed these 12,951 records to determine

if any of the prisoners received benefits while they were incarcerated; we

then extracted and analyzed the records of these prisoners.

Verification of County

Data

To test the accuracy of the current prisoner data provided by the counties,

we selected a random sample of 240 current prisoners we had identified as

having been paid SSI benefits while incarcerated (20 prisoners from each of

12 counties). We supplemented the random sample with 100 judgmentally

selected cases (considering large payments to prisoners, long periods of

incarceration, SSI eligibility date versus incarceration date, and other such

factors). We requested that the jail systems verify (1) the booking date (the

first day the prisoner was incarcerated) and (2) whether the prisoner was

continuously incarcerated between the booking date and the date on

which the jail created the list of inmates in its system. We requested that

the jails verify the information from a source other than that used to

produce the original data.

The results of our random sample indicate that overall, our data were

reliable. For five counties, no errors were found for the sample cases. For

three counties, one case that could not be verified was found for each. For

three other counties, minor errors were found in the data. For the final

county, some of the information we had originally been provided was

incorrect. At that time, the county had not yet entered the release dates for

some prisoners into its computer system. As a result, the original

information showed 123 SSI recipients in jail on November 16, 1995 (the

date on which the county produced the original data), when they actually

had been released before that date. We eliminated these cases from our

review. Of the original 20 randomly selected cases in this county, 10 were

unaffected, with the original information being correct.

Information on

Former Prisoners

To obtain information on former prisoners, we asked two county systems

(Wayne and Cook) to provide us with automated lists of all the prisoners

released from their systems in the first 6 months of 1995. We received

information on 16,821 prisoners, with no duplicate records. We processed

these data through EVS, and obtained 15,998 verified SSNs. We matched the

verified SSNs against the Supplemental Security Record to detect former

prisoners who received SSI, and extracted and analyzed their records.

Page 19 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix II 

SSA Regions

The 10 SSA regions are shown in figure II.1. As discussed in appendix I, we

obtained our data from county and local jail systems in 10 states—New

York, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Arizona, California,

Washington, and Michigan—in 6 regions—II, IV, V, VI, IX, and X.

Page 20 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix II 

SSA Regions

Figure II.1: SSA Regional Boundaries

VII

VIII

X

VI

IV

V

III

II

I

IX

The 10 States With County and Local Jail Systems in Our Review

Page 21 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix III 

Comments From the Social Security

Administration

Page 22 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix III 

Comments From the Social Security

Administration

Page 23 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix III 

Comments From the Social Security

Administration

Page 24 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
Appendix IV 

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts Diana Eisenstat, Associate Director, (202) 512-7215

Harry Johnson, Evaluator-in-Charge, (202) 512-7248

Staff

Acknowledgments

In addition to those named above, the following also made important

contributions to this report: Jeremy Cox, Evaluator; Mary Ellen

Fleischman, Evaluator; James P. Wright, Assistant Director (Study Design

and Data Analysis); and Jay Smale, Social Science Analyst (Study Design

and Data Analysis).

(106800) Page 25 GAO/HEHS-96-152 Payments to Prisoners
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