Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse (2007) / Chapter Skim
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3 Performance of Representative Payees
3 Performance of Representative Payees
Pages 36-54
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From page 36... ...
The final section presents the committee's conclusions and recommendations on representative payee performance. CONTACT AND COMMuNICATION BETWEEN REPRESENTATIvE PAyEES AND BENEFICIARIES The frequency and quality of communication between payees and beneficiaries are important for ensuring that beneficiaries' needs are being met: it is a key indicator of the degree to which payees are performing their duties.
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From page 37... ...
reported contact within the past month. Smaller proportions reported their most recent contact to have been 2-3 months ago, 5.1 percent (0.9)
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From page 38... ...
However, the percentage saying "yes" was slightly lower for them than for the representative payees. While less than a majority of beneficiaries reported having discussed housing needs, the percentage was slightly higher than that reported by representative payees.
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Quality of Communications A large majority of representative payees reported that their beneficiaries are able to verbally express their needs very well, 59.9 percent (1.4) , well, 13.9 percent (1.0)
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From page 40... ...
In this section we examine perceptions of these duties and responsibilities, as well as self-reports of payee performance. Perceptions of Duties and Performance Training and support of representative payees are crucial for smooth and effective operation of the payee program.
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During the committee's TABLE 3-2 Payee and Beneficiary Knowledge of Payees Responsibilities (in percentage) Payees Beneficiaries Payee Responsibility Saying Yes Saying Yes Adequate clothing for beneficiary 98.8 (0.3)
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From page 42... ...
Those biases include response acquiescence, which is the tendency to agree with survey questions regardless of their content, and social desirability bias, which is the tendency to represent oneself to others (including survey interviewers) in a positive manner.
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From page 43... ...
payments. To assess familiarity with the additional reporting requirements, payees who represent beneficiaries who receive SSI benefits were asked if, to their knowledge, SSA expected them to report when a beneficiary's monthly resources exceed $2,000 (or $3,000 for a couple)
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From page 44... ...
In some instances, SSA staff may be able to assist beneficiaries in taking legal action against payee misuse. However, SSA staff reported not having adequate resources to assess whether a new payee is truly more "suitable" than the old one and often not having resources to double-check the information that potential representative payees provide.
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SOURCE: Data from the national survey of representative payees and beneficiaries conducted for the National Academies Committee on Social Security Representative Payees (2006)
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From page 46... ...
NOTE: The numbers in parentheses are the standard errors of the estimate; see footnote 1. SOURCE: Data from the national survey of representative payees and beneficiaries conducted for the National Academies Committee on Social Security Representative Payees (2006)
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From page 47... ...
Payees whose beneficiaries received SSI benefits were also asked what they did to make sure that savings and other resources did not reach the maximum SSI limit above which beneficiaries are no longer eligible for Social Security benefit payments. The most common strategy mentioned was checking beneficiary resources on a regular basis, reported by 66.1 percent (3.2)
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From page 48... ...
MEETING BENEFICIARy NEEDS Ultimately, the purpose of the SSA Representative Payee Program is to ensure that beneficiaries' needs for basic necessities are met. In this section we present the survey findings from payee and beneficiary reports on the degree to which beneficiaries experienced any unmet basic needs during the previous year.
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From page 49... ...
In fact, although the number of these reports were small overall, beneficiaries were twice as likely to report having been without utilities TABLE 3-5 Representative Payee and Beneficiary Reports of Unmet Beneficiary Needs During the Past (in percentage) Payees Beneficiaries Beneficiary/ Unmet Need Saying Yes Saying Yes Payee Ratio Place to live 0.7 (0.2)
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SOURCE: Data from the national survey of representative payees and beneficiaries conducted for the National Academies Committee on Social Security Representative Payees (2006)
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During the committee's site visits, some SSA staff stressed that beneficiaries are reluctant to report issues of unmet need, either resulting from a payee's failure to address known problems or a payee's failure to exercise discretion regarding beneficiary funds. Some staff noted limited resources for the office to follow up on problems brought to their attention.
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SOURCE: Data from the national survey of representative payees and beneficiaries conducted for the National Academies Committee on Social Security Representative Payees (2006)
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From page 53... ...
should be periodically reviewed and updated by SSA staff, and its existence regularly communicated to representative payees. Meeting Beneficiary Needs and Saving Funds Over one-half of beneficiaries had not spoken with their payees about putting some Social Security benefit dollars in savings, and most had no money saved for their future, although one-quarter had saved some amount of benefit payments.
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From page 54... ...
For beneficiaries receiving SSI payments, well over one-half of payees checked beneficiaries' resources on a regular basis and maintained a budget for them. Most payees and beneficiaries reported having no arguments regarding how Social Security payments were spent.
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