System number:
60-0222.
System name:
Master
Representative Payee File, Social Security Administration,
Office
of Income Security Programs.
Security classification:
None.
System Location:
Categories of individuals covered by the system:
This system
maintains information about all payees and payee
applicants, including
persons whose certifications as representative
payees have been
revoked or terminated on or after January 1, 1991;
persons who have been
convicted of a violation of section 208 or
section 1632 of the
Social Security Act, persons convicted under other
statutes in connection
with services as a representative payee, and
others whose
certification as a representative payee SSA has revoked
due to misuse of
funds paid under Title II and Title XVI of the Social
Security Act;
persons who are acting or have acted as representative
payees; representative
payee applicants who were not selected to serve as representative payees;
representative payee applicants who have been convicted of an offense resulting
in more than one (1) year
imprisonment; payees and
payee applicants who have an outstanding
felony warrant;
organizational payees who have been authorized to
collect a fee for their
service; and beneficiaries/applicants who are
being served by
representative payees.
Categories of records in the system:
Records in this system consist of:
1. Names and Social Security numbers (SSNs) (or employer
identification numbers (EINs)) of representative payees whose
certifications for payment of
benefits as representative payees have
been revoked or
terminated on or after January 1, 1991, because of
misuse of benefits
under Title II or Title XVI of the Social Security
Act;
2. Names and SSNs
(or EINs) of all persons convicted of violations
of sections 208 or
1632 of the Social Security Act;
3. Names, addresses, and SSNs (or EINs) of persons
convicted of
violations of statutes
other than sections 208 and 1632 of the Social
Security Act,
when such violations were committed in connection with
the individual's
service as a Social Security representative payee;
4. Names, addresses, SSNs,
and information about the crime reported by the payee for those who have an
outstanding felony warrant or who have been imprisoned for a period exceeding
one (1) year. (An indicator will be used in the system to identify persons
identified as having an outstanding felony warrant);
5. Names, addresses, and SSNs (or EINs) of representative
payees
who are receiving
benefit payments pursuant to section 205(j) or
section 1631(a)(2) of
the Social Security Act;
6. Names, addresses, and SSNs of individuals for whom
representative payees are
reported to be providing representative payee services under section 205(j) or
section 1631(a)(2) of the Social
Security Act;
7. Names, addresses, and SSNs of representative payee applicants
who were not
selected as representative payees;
8. Names, addresses, and SSNs of persons who were terminated as
representative payees for
reasons other than misuse of benefits paid to them on behalf of
beneficiaries/recipients;
9. Information on the representative
payee's relationship to the
beneficiaries/recipients they serve;
10. Names, addresses, EINs
and qualifying information of
organizations authorized to
charge a fee for providing representative
payee services;
11. Codes which indicate the relationship
(other than familial)
between the
beneficiaries/recipients and the individuals who have
custody of the
beneficiaries/recipients;
12. Dates and reasons for payee
terminations (e.g., performance not acceptable, death of payee, beneficiary in
direct payment, etc.) and revocations;
13. Codes indicating whether representative
payee applicants were
selected or not
selected;
14. Dates and reasons representative payee
applicants were not
selected to serve as
payees and dates and reasons for changes of payees (e.g., beneficiary in direct
payment, etc.);
15. Amount of benefits misused;
16. Identification number assigned to the
claim on which the misuse
occurred;
17. Date of the determination of misuse;
and
18. Information about a felony conviction
reported by the
representative payee.
Authority for maintenance of the system:
Sections 205(a),
205(j), 1631(a) of the Social Security Act, and
the Social Security
Protection Act of 2004 (Pub. L. 108-203).
Purpose(s):
Information
maintained in this system will assist SSA in the
representative payee selection
process by enabling Social Security
field offices to more
carefully screen applicants and to determine
their suitability to
become representative payees. SSA also will use
the data for
management information and workload projection purposes and to prepare annual
reports to Congress on representative payee activities.
Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of
users and the purposes of such uses:
Disclosure may be made for routine uses as
indicated below.
However,
disclosure of any information defined as ``return or return
information'' under 26
U.S.C. 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code will
not be disclosed
unless authorized by a statute, the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS), or IRS regulations.
1. To the Department of Justice (DOJ), a
court or other tribunal,
or another party
before such tribunal, when:
(a) The Social Security
Administration (SSA), or any component
thereof; or
(b) Any SSA employee in his/her official
capacity; or
(c) Any SSA employee in his/her individual
capacity where DOJ (or
SSA, where it is
authorized to do so) has agreed to represent the
employee; or
(d) The
that the litigation
is likely to affect SSA or any of its components,
Is a party to
litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and
SSA determines
that the use of such records by DOJ, a court or other
tribunal, or another
party before the tribunal, is relevant and
necessary to the
litigation, provided, however, that in each case, SSA
determines that such
disclosure is compatible with the purpose for
which the records
were collected.
2. To a
congressional office in response to an inquiry from that
office made at the
request of the subject of the records.
3. To the General
Services Administration and the National Archives
Records
Administration (
2906, as amended
by the NARA Act of 1984, information which is not
restricted from disclosure
by Federal law for the use of those agencies
in conducting
records management studies.
4. To the
Department of Veterans Affairs, Regional Office,
and facilities of
that agency.
5. To the Department of State for
administration of the Social
Security Act in
foreign countries through services and facilities of
that agency.
6. To the American Institute, a private
corporation under contract
to the Department
of State, for administering the Social Security Act
on
7. To the
Department of Justice for:
(a) Investigating and prosecuting violations
of the Social Security
Act to which
criminal penalties attach,
(b) Representing the Commissioner of Social
Security, and
(c) Investigating issues of fraud or
violations of civil rights by
officers or employees of
the Social Security Administration.
8. To the Office of the President for
responding to an inquiry
received from that
individual or from a third party acting on that
individual's behalf.
9. To the Department of Veterans Affairs
(DVA) for the shared
administration of DVA's and the Social Security Administration's
representative payee programs.
10. To contractors
and other Federal Agencies, as necessary, for
the purpose of
assisting the Social Security Administration (SSA) in
the efficient
administration of its programs. We will disclose
information under this
routine use only in situations in which SSA may
enter into a
contractual or similar agreement to obtain assistance in
accomplishing an SSA function
relating to this system of records.
11. To a third
party such as a physician, social worker, or
community service worker,
who has, or is expected to have, information which is needed to evaluate one or
both of the following:
(a) The claimant's capability to manage or
direct the management of his/her affairs.
(b) Any case in which disclosure aids
investigation of suspected
misuse of benefits,
abuse or fraud, or is necessary for program
integrity, or quality
appraisal activities.
12. To a third party, where necessary,
information pertaining to
the identity of a
payee or payee applicant, the fact of the person's
application for or service
as a payee, and, as necessary, the identity
of the
beneficiary, to obtain information on employment, sources of
income, criminal
justice records, stability of residence and other
information relating to the
qualifications and suitability of
representative payees or
representative payee applicants to serve as
representative payees or their
use of the benefits paid to them under
section 205(j) or section
1631(a) of the Social Security Act.
13. To a claimant or other individual
authorized to act on his/her
behalf information
pertaining to the address of a representative payee
applicant or a selected
representative payee when this information is
needed to pursue a
claim for recovery of misapplied or misused benefits.
14. To the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB)
for the administration
of RRB's representative payment program.
15. To student
volunteers, individuals working under a personal
services contract, and
other workers who technically do not have the
status of Federal
employees, when they are performing work for the
Social Security
Administration (SSA), as authorized by law, and they
need access to
personally identifiable information in SSA records in
order to perform
their assigned Agency functions.
16. To the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) for the
administration of OPM's representative payee programs.
17. To the
Secretary of Health and Human Services or to any State,
any record or
information requested in writing by the Secretary for the
purpose of
administering any program administered by the Secretary, if records or
information of such type were so disclosed under applicable rules, regulations
and procedures in effect before the date of enactment of the Social Security
Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994.
18. We may disclose information to
appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies, entities, and persons when (1)
we suspect or confirm that the security or confidentiality of information in
this system of records has been compromised; (2) we determine that as a result
of the suspected or confirmed compromise there is a risk of harm to economic or
property interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or
integrity of this system or other systems or programs of SSA that rely upon the
compromised information; and (3) we determine that disclosing the information
to such agencies, entities, and persons is necessary to assist in our efforts
to respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and prevent, minimize, or
remedy such harm. SSA will use this routine use to respond only to those
incidents involving an unintentional release of its records.
Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining and
disposing of records in the system:
Storage:
Records are
stored in magnetic media (e.g., magnetic tape,
microfilm, and disc) and
manual forms.
Retrievability:
Data are
retrieved from the system by the SSN or the ZIP code and
name (in a situation
where the representative payee is an organization) of the representative payee,
or the SSN of the beneficiary/recipient.
Safeguards:
For computerized
records electronically transmitted between Central
Office and FO
locations (including organizations administering SSA
programs under
contractual agreements), safeguards include a lock/
unlock password
system, exclusive use of leased telephone lines, a
terminal-oriented transaction
matrix, and an audit trail. All microfilm
files are accessible
only by authorized personnel who have a need for
the information in
performing their official duties. Magnetic tapes are
in secured storage
areas accessible only to authorized personnel.
Access http://www.socialsecurity.gov/foia/bluebook/app_g.htm for additional
information relating to SSA data security measures.
Retention and disposal:
National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) guidelines will
be followed for
retention and disposal of records in the Master
Representative
Payee File. Changes are being made to the Master
Representative
Payee File to ensure
destroyed after two
weeks.
System manager(s) and address:
Associate
Commissioner, Office of Income Security Programs, Social
Security Administration,
Room 252
Boulevard,
Notification procedures:
An individual
can determine if this system contains data about him/
her by writing
to the systems manager at the address shown above and providing his/her name,
SSN or other information that may be in the system of records that will
identify him/her. An individual requesting notification of data in person
should provide the same information, as well as provide any identity document,
preferably with a photograph, such as a driver's license or some other means of
identification. If an individual does not have any identification documents
sufficient to establish his/her identity, the individual must certify in
writing that he/she is the person claimed to be and that he/she understands
that the knowing and willful request for, or acquisition of, a record
pertaining to another individual under false pretenses is a criminal offense.
If notification is requested by telephone,
an individual must verify his/her identity by providing identifying information
that parallels information in the record to which notification is being requested.
If it is determined that the identifying information provided
by telephone is insufficient, the individual will be required to submit a
request in writing or in person. If an individual is requesting
information by telephone on behalf of another individual, the subject
individual must be connected with SSA and the requesting individual in the same
phone call. SSA will establish the subject individual's identity (his/her name,
SSN, address, date of birth and place of birth, along with one other piece of
information, such as mother's maiden name) and ask for his/her consent in
providing information to the requesting individual.
If a request for notification is submitted
by mail, an individual must include a notarized statement to SSA to verify
his/her identity or must certify in the request that he/she is the person
claimed to be and that he/she understands that the knowing and willful request
for access to records concerning another individual under false pretense is a
criminal offense.
These procedures are in accordance with SSA
Regulations (20 CFR
401.40(c)).
Record access procedures:
Same as
Notification procedures. Also, a requester should reasonably
identify and specify the information he/she is attempting to obtain. These
procedures are in accordance with SSA Regulations (20 CFR 401.40(c)).
Contesting record procedures:
Same
as Notification procedures. Requester should also reasonably identify
the record, specify the information they are contesting and the corrective
action sought, and the reasons for the correction, with supporting
justification showing how the record is incomplete, untimely, inaccurate or
irrelevant. These procedures are in accordance with SSA Regulations (20 CFR
401.65(a)).
Record source categories:
Data in this
system are obtained from representative payee applicants and representative
payees, the SSA Office of Inspector General, and other SSA systems of records
such as the Claims Folder
System, 60-0089;
Master Beneficiary Record, 60-0090; Supplemental
Security Income
Record and Special Veterans Benefits, 60-0103; Master Files of SSN Holders and
SSN Applications, 60-0058; and Recovery of Overpayments, Accounting and
Reporting, 60-0094.
Systems exempted from certain provisions of the Privacy Act:
None.