What is the DRO Representative Payee Review Program?
April 2, 2019 by DRO SSA Grants Supervisor Kara Hinton / representative payee
In 2018, Congress passed HR 4547, the Strengthening Oversight and Beneficiary Protections Act, which created a new program for the Protection & Advocacy (P&A) system - the Representative Payee Review Program. The program allows P&As like Disability Rights Ohio to perform regular reviews of representative payees within the Social Security Administration.
What is a representative payee?
Individuals who receive Social Security benefits are called beneficiaries. If a beneficiary cannot manage their own money, a representative payee may be assigned to help them. A rep payee can be an individual or organization.
What does the Representative Payee Review Program allow DRO to do?
DRO provides a number of services through our new Representative Payee Review Program, including:
- Assisting representative payees in not only performing their duties in accordance with the Social Security Administration guidelines but also in understanding what their obligations are to the person they are serving.
- Reviewing financial records the representative payees use to keep track of the Social Security benefits to ensure no issues are present.
- Speaking in depth with the representative payee as well as the beneficiary about the payeeship to address any concerns or issues they may have.
- Making needed outside referrals if other issues or needs are uncovered during the review process.
- Ensuring any issues found are addressed through the appropriate agencies.
How does DRO get cases to review?
The Social Security Administration assigns some review cases to us. These may be random monitoring cases, or they may be cases that have given the SSA cause for concern.
We can also complete a review if a DRO staff member uncovers a concern while working with a client or when we receive a tip from the community. If you have knowledge of a representative payee who may be abusing or neglecting their responsibilities or their beneficiary, please contact our intake department so the Representative Payee Review team can look into the matter further.