Debit Cards Coming In Florida

From the Treasure Coast Palm newspaper:

The government's use of ATM debit cards for payments to citizens is to expanding to incorporate thousands of Social Security recipients in Florida. ...

Nationwide, about 60,000 Social Security checks are forged annually and 600,000 are reported stolen, officials said. Millions of dollars are involved.

So by August, the federal Department of the Treasury is planning to start offering debit cards to Social Security recipients who don't have bank accounts in Florida. The federal program could help many of the nearly 11,000 Treasure Coast Social Security recipients.

While no local figures are available, nationally about 28 percent of Social Security retirement recipients nationally don't have checking accounts. The percentage figure is much higher — 59 percent — among disabled and lower-income individuals getting Social Security supplemental payments.