Guide for Organizational Representative Payees

Monitoring of representative payees

SSA must make sure payees fulfill their responsibilities. We actively monitor payees through reports and visits.

Under the law, you are required to submit a form SSA-6234-F6, Representative Payee Report  (See Exhibit B ) each year. This form asks you for information such as how you used the beneficiary's payments, how much (if any) was saved, and whether or not the beneficiary's custody changed. Only certain state mental institutions are exempt from this requirement.

If you are a FFS payee, we require you to show each year that you continue to meet the requirements for charging a fee for your representative payee services. For example, you are required to present proof of current bonding and licensing, where licensing is available, and that you continue to serve at least five beneficiaries.

In addition, we regularly visit certain payees, including FFS payees. Before we visit you, we will call and set an appointment.

When we visit, we will interview you about how you manage beneficiary funds and what you do to make sure beneficiaries’ needs are met. We will then review the records you keep to document payments you received and how you spend and save beneficiary funds. The records we will review include bank records and ledgers that document your management of beneficiary funds as well as receipts and cancelled checks for purchases you have made for beneficiaries. We will also ask the beneficiaries you serve about your performance.

These visits also help us maintain effective lines of communication between SSA and your organization. We use some of this time to review your responsibilities with you. You will have the opportunity to ask us questions and to ask us for help to resolve any problems related to your representative payee responsibilities. Finally, we will send you a report documenting our review findings. In our experience, most payees are doing a good job. Sometimes we may make recommendations to help a payee improve record keeping. If we find that a payee is not following SSA’s rules, the report will tell the payee about any problems that must be changed. If we suspect a payee has misused beneficiary funds, we will contact our Office of Inspector General to discuss criminal prosecution.