Representative Payees

Protecting Beneficiaries of Social Security Disability Benefits

NDRN and the Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Network are working in collaboration with the Social Security Administration to monitor representative payees throughout the country. Through this collaboration, the P&As have expanded protection of Social Security beneficiaries by educating representative payees of their responsibilities and identifying cases of misuse.

Background

A representative payee is a person who acts as the receiver of Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income for a person who is not fully capable of managing their own benefits. Unfortunately, government investigations – some of which were conducted by P&A agencies – have uncovered representative payees who have stolen or misused funds, exploited, neglected and even abused the people with disabilities they were supposed to be helping.

In March 2018, legislation was passed by the U.S. Senate to increase oversight and protection for some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. The bill, called the Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act (H.R. 4547), increased independent oversight of the Social Security Administration’s Representative Payee Program.

This webpage was developed at the U.S. taxpayer’s expense

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