Feb 4, 2010

Centenarian Project

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires federal agencies who want to collect information from the public to go through some formalities, one of which is publishing a notice in the Federal Register., about any new information collection forms. Here is an excerpt from a Paperwork Reduction Act notice that Social Security recently posted in the Federal Register:
Centenarian Project Development Worksheets: Face-to-Face Interview; Telephone Interview; Third Party Contact ... SSA [Social Security Administration] is conducting interviews with centenary beneficiaries age 103 and older to assess: (1) If the beneficiaries are still living; (2) to prevent fraud, through either identity misrepresentation or representative payee misuse of funds; and (3) to assess the well-being of the beneficiaries. SSA's San Francisco field offices are currently using this survey and we intend to expand its use to all other SSA field offices.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This strikes me as a waste of employee time and resources. I hope it is not expanded nationwide.

Anonymous said...

This isn't anything new -- SSA used to do these checks in the past, though the last time I recall personally having done them is about 12-15 years ago.

Our manager at the time used to handle it like a little awards ceremony for the claimants - he'd present them with a fancy certificate.

Anonymous said...

agree with first comment...waste of time and money, which neither the centenarians nor the agency have much to spare

Anonymous said...

As a manager doing these contacts, I can confirm that it is a waste of time and money. Being over 103 could be a reason to investigate some cases, but not everyone needs a personal visit and interview. We usually see the person asleep in a bed, ask for their driver license (like all 103 year olds have valid ID), and move on to the next.

Unknown said...

Useful writing , Incidentally , others are wanting a 2014 IRS 8404 , my colleagues came across a blank version here http://pdf.ac/a3Pur2.