Supplemental Security Income Recipients Receiving Payments in Bank Accounts Outside the United States
Office Affiliation: The Office of Audit
Audit Report Number: A-06-14-14037
Section 1611(f) of the Social Security Act states that, with limited exceptions, no individual shall be considered eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for any month throughout which the individual is outside the United States.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York negotiates international direct deposit agreements on the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) behalf. To be eligible for international direct deposit, Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) beneficiaries must reside outside the United States.
If an individual is a concurrent beneficiary and the OASDI record shows an address outside the United States, SSA’s systems generate a foreign address alert that notifies the appropriate SSA field office that the SSI recipient may be outside the United States and therefore ineligible for SSI payments.
The objective of our report was to determine the appropriateness of continued SSI payments to recipients who received payments direct deposited into accounts at banks outside the United States.