Accuracy of Critical Payment System Payments
Office Affiliation: The Office of Audit
Audit Report Number: A-02-17-34020
We issued this report to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) accurately processed Critical Payment System (CPS) payments.
CPS issues Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance payments to beneficiaries in critical cases and special situations when no other system is sending payments, additional benefits are due, or beneficiaries report they did not receive a monthly benefit. Special situations include dire need, court orders, legislative mandates, and preliminary and expedited payments.
CPS requires that two SSA employees establish a CPS record and issue a payment. One employee initiates the payment and places it in a pending status. A second employee with an approver security role approves the pending transaction. This action notifies program service center staff to review the payment and adjust the beneficiary’s record appropriately.
We reviewed a random sample of 250 CPS payments from a population of 7,735 from 1 segment of the Payment History Update System made in Calendar Year 2014.