From an Emergency Message that the Social Security Administration (SSA) released yesterday:
... On July 2, 2018, SSA will mail a one-time advance notice to participating correctional and mental health reporters and facilities to inform them of a recent legislative change to Title XVI incentive payments. ...
Social Security Act requires that the institution enter into a written agreement with SSA. ...
Beginning August 09, 2018, the legislation effective date, the Prisoner Update Processing System (PUPS) will pay incentives using the new Title XVI incentive payment rules for inmate admission information that result in the suspension of monthly benefits to our SSI recipients. The new Title XVI incentive payment rules provide the following:
For every Title XVI recipient we suspend due to the inmate information provided, we will pay the institution:
- $400 for information received within 15 days of the confinement; or
- $200 for information received after 15 days but within 90 days after confinement.
We will continue to pay for inmate information for our Social Security beneficiaries as we normally do under our current incentive payment law:
For every Title II beneficiary we suspend due to the inmate information provided, we will pay the institution:
- $400 for information received within 30 days of the confinement; or
- $200 for information received after 30 days but within 90 days after confinement. ...
This isn't new at all. Only the amounts have changed.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's a tremendous net money-saver for the agency in stopping improper payments. It's such a great idea I'm surprised SSA actually does it.
Ideally, there'd be better linking of systems so that jails could automatically do the suspension input and the benefit could be stopped much quicker and reinstated quicker on release (much like funeral homes do the Electronic Death Registry input so that SSA doesn't have to), although I can see some qualms because we do get the occasional false report.