Major Causes of Improper Payments
The graph below indicates the major causes of improper payments (overpayments and underpayments) in FY 2011 for the SSI program using OMB’s three categories of error:
| Major Causes of SSI Improper Payments in FY 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|
| % of Improper Payments | Major Types of Errors | |
| Verification and Local Administration Errors | 56% | Detection of unreported financial accounts and wages |
| Authentication and Medical Necessity Errors | 29% | Existence or changes to living arrangements and In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) |
| Administrative and Documentation Errors | 15% | Incorrect computations, misapplication of an income or resource exclusion, and wrong month of change |
The following tables indicate the major causes of SSI overpayments and underpayments, for FYs 2007 - 2011, as determined by our payment accuracy reviews:
| Major Causes of SSI Overpayments FY 2007 – FY 2011 | |
|---|---|
| Financial Accounts | The applicant or recipient (or his or her parent or spouse) has financial accounts that exceed the allowable resource limits ($2,000 individual/$3,000 couple) that may result in periods of SSI program ineligibility. |
| Wages | The recipient (or his or her parent or spouse) has actual wages that exceed the wage amount used to calculate payment. |
| Other Real Property | SSI ineligibility may result if the recipient is the owner of real property other than his or her principal place of residence. |
| Major Causes of SSI Underpayments FY 2007 – FY 2011 | |
|---|---|
| In-Kind Support and Maintenance | In-Kind Support and Maintenance is unearned income in the form of food or shelter received. The error results when the recipient’s amount of In-Kind Support and Maintenance is less than the amount used to calculate payment.
|
| Living Arrangement | This deficiency occurs when we pay the recipient based on a living arrangement with a lower payment rate when the recipient should have been paid based on a living arrangement with a higher payment rate. |
| Wages | The recipient (or his or her parent or spouse) has actual wages that are less than the wage amount used to calculate payment. |