Despite the fact that half of them qualify for benefits on the basis of their addiction alone, most addicts are not required to be in treatment. Finding qualified representative payees to manage addicts' benefits has been a long-standing problem for the Social Security Administration.
Most payees are either friends or relatives.
In the absence of tight controls, addicts are free to buy drugs and alcohol to maintain their addictions. GAO believes that organizational payees would be in a better position to provide the strict controls needed over benefit payments to addicts. We regret that electronic text of GAO Testimony is not available at this time. See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information.