Supplemental Security Income Recipients Who Had Not Cashed Their Checks Within 1 Year
- Audit report number
- A-09-13-23023
- Full report
- /~assets/audits/full/a-09-13-23023.pdf
- Summary report
- /~assets/audits/summary/summary-23023.pdf
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides a minimum level of income to financially needy individuals who are aged, blind, or disabled.
SSI recipients can cash checks issued after September 30, 1989, up to 1 year after their issue date. The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) will return to SSA any funds from checks that are not cashed within 1 year in the form of a credit in the 15th month after its issuance.
SSA records the receipt of the credit, generates an alert to the field office, and sets a diary. Field office employees are required to contact the recipient or representative payee to determine why they did not cash the check and take the appropriate action needed to resolve the issue (reissue the check if needed, clear the alert and diary, and update the SSI record).
Our objective was to determine whether SSA took appropriate action when SSI recipients had not cashed their checks within 1 year.
