10/09/2015

Recommendation 4: To improve SSA’s ability to detect, prevent, and recover potential Disability Insurance (DI) benefit overpayments due to the concurrent receipt of Federal Employee Compensation Act (FECA) benefits, the Commissioner of Social Security should strengthen internal controls designed to prevent DI overpayments due to the concurrent receipt of FECA benefits by implementing the alternative that provides the greatest net benefits.

Open

Open. We are working with Department of Labor to establish a legal agreement and anticipate implementation in FY 2026.

12/04/2023

Recommendation 1: The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration should ensure that the agency fully implements all event logging requirements as directed by OMB guidance. (Recommendation 20)

Open

Event Logging Tier 1 (EL1) requirements have been met, with critical logs now collected. Work on Tier 2 (EL2) continues in FY 2026. It will take several months to assess the new team's onboarding capacity, and the EL2 timeline will likely be extended, with priority given to high-impact systems.

01/29/2024

Recommendation 1:

The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration should ensure that the agency consistently tracks software licenses that are currently in use for its widely used licenses by, at a minimum, developing and implementing procedures for tracking license usage. (Recommendation 15)

Open

We anticipate implementing this recommendation in FY 2026.

01/29/2024

Recommendation 2: The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration should ensure that the agency consistently compares the inventories of software licenses that are currently in use with information on purchased licenses to identify opportunities to reduce costs and better inform investment decision making for its widely used licenses on a regular basis. At a minimum, it should develop and implement procedures for comparing the inventories of licenses in use to purchase records. (Recommendation 16)

Open

We anticipate implementing this recommendation in FY 2026.

12/28/2018

Recommendation 1: Implement systems controls to ensure compliance with current policy, including the two-Personal Identification Number review process.

Open

Open. We will address this recommendation through our system modernization efforts. We anticipate beginning development of an SSI underpayments user interface in FY 2027.

05/15/2019

Recommendation 3: Establish controls to remove the outstanding debt from terminated contingently liable beneficiaries and transfer the balance to the original debtor for an immediate payment of the overpayment or seek recovery through additional debt collection tools when available.

Open

Open. In FY 2025, we resumed development of the modernized debt management system and move closer to implementation.

03/05/2020

Recommendation 4: Revise notices sent to beneficiaries and their representative payees informing them of benefit increases due to additional earnings to include the employer(s) name, earnings amounts, a reminder to report

Open

Open. We created a new notice to ensure earnings are accurately posted to beneficiary records and to serve as a reminder for either the beneficiary or the representative payee to report errors that is pending implementation. We estimate completion in FY 2026.

09/21/2020

Recommendation 3: Implement controls, such as systems alerts and management reports, to identify beneficiaries in miscellaneous suspense status and ensure employees take corrective actions timely.

Open

Open. We plan to use the Consolidated Claims Experience (CCE) to implement this recommendation. We expect to add this issue to the CCE roadmap in FY 2027.

11/30/2020

Recommendation 3: Modify business procedures, using systems such as CCE or other applications, to better inform claims specialists of necessary actions when SSI recipients do not provide required information and evidence for Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) claims.

Open

Open. We plan to address this recommendation as part of our system modernization efforts. We expect to implement the recommendation in the 3rd quarter of FY 2026.

12/10/2020

Recommendation 5: Complete actions to implement our prior recommendation to establish an automated solution that identifies disabled SSI recipients who may be entitled to Childhood Disability Benefits.

Open

Open. We will address this recommendation as part of our system modernization efforts. We expect to add this issue to the CCE roadmap in FY 2026.

errors to SSA, and instructions on reporting errors.

04/22/2022

Recommendation 5: Update the Title II Redesign System to ensure it generates an alert when SSA has terminated benefits to a child upon attaining age 18; however, the benefit record indicates the individual is a full-time student after they attain age 18.

Open

Open. We have determined the appropriate solution to implement this recommendation, via Regular Transcript Attainment and Selection Pass Alerts. We will implement the alert in fiscal year 2026 and then engage in discovery to solve the root issues and make improvements in automation with subsequent releases.

09/20/2022

Recommendation 4: If SSA does not implement recommendation 3, then it should retain the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) non-wage income data in its systems beyond 2 years, so it is available for staff to process cases involving fraud or similar fault.

Open

Open. We determined that our agreement with IRS allows us to retain non-wage income data in our system for more than two years. We expect to begin implementing this recommendation in FY 2026.

Rec. #3: Update policy to establish timeframes for staff to resolve non-wage-related alerts before SSA overwrites IRS non-wage income data in its systems and/or administrative finality rules apply. SSA disagreed with the recommendation.

05/05/2023

Recommendation 1: Conduct a study to expand Access to Financial Institutions (AFI) searches between the SSI initial application and subsequent eligibility redeterminations.

Open

Open. In August 2025, we expanded AFI use to all SSI Aged initial claims. We continue data exploration and analysis to find an optimal frequency for AFI inquiries across SSI claims. We expect our work on this recommendation to continue through mid-year FY 2026.

09/18/2023

Recommendation 1: Determine whether SSA made inaccurate Workers’ Compensation/Public Disability Benefit (WC/PDB) offset determinations and improperly paid 13,033 beneficiaries with inaccurate WC/PDB information in its records.

Open

Open. The cases were released in June 2025 with expected completion in Q2 of FY 2026.

09/27/2023

Recommendation 2: Implement two new alerts to identify OASDI benefits being withheld pending a windfall offset determination over 12 months that do not have a Windfall Offset Data line on the Master Beneficiary Record (MBR).

Open

Open. We expect implementation by mid-year FY 2026.

09/29/2023

Recommendation 1: Take corrective action for the 135 allegations we identified in all three samples of our audit.

Open

Open. We have released cases to the Processing Centers. We expect to complete our actions on the cases in April 2026.

09/29/2023

Recommendation 2: Based on the results of its actions taken for sample allegations, take corrective action for the remaining

Open

Open. We have released cases to the Processing Centers. We expect to complete our actions on the cases in April2026.

population of 14,777 beneficiaries whose allegations were still pending.

09/29/2023

Recommendation 5: Establish a process to periodically follow up on the recovery of organizational payee overpayments established in the Social Security Online Accounting and Reporting System to ensure employees take additional action to recover misused benefits.

Open

Open. We expect to complete necessary actions by the end of FY 2026.

02/02/2024

Recommendation 2: Automate printing applicants’ responses to the earnings-test questions on the application summary SSA provides beneficiaries when they request to start receiving their OASDI benefits.

Open

Open. This application summary is printed from one of two systems, the Consolidated Customer Experience (CCE) TII Reduced Retirement Insurance Benefits (RIB) system or the Modernized Claims System (MCS). CCE T2 reduced RIB, currently piloted to 14 SSA field offices, has been generating the earnings-test questions since December 2024. On September 20, 2025, we rolled out the national implementation of CCE T2 RIB claims at which this recommendation will be addressed for CCE only as all CCE application summaries from the CCE T2 RIB will be generating the earnings-test questions. MCS will continue being used to take other benefit applications, which requires generation of these earnings-test questions on the application summary. Full implementation of this recommendation requires the complete rollout of all CCE T2/T18 functionality and the sunsetting of MCS. Implementation will

continue and we anticipate completion by the end of fiscal year 2026.

05/31/2024

Recommendation 2: Work with State Department officials and develop an electronic method to timely report death information for U.S. citizens who die abroad.

Open

Open. We met with the Department of State (DoS) in October 2024 to develop an electronic method for DoS to send electronic Consular Records of Death Abroad (eCRODA) to us. We are currently taking necessary actions internally to determine what type of agreement is needed and draft such agreement.

07/31/2024

Recommendation 1: Maximize technology (for example, develop automated program that compares Numident name, date of birth, sex designation, place of birth, parents’ names) to identify all instances where two different individuals’ Numident records are cross-referred and uncross-refer the records.

Open

Open. There are on-going death clean-up activities that may have marked some of the cross-referred SSNs as deceased, however, analysis needs to occur to determine the remaining deaths that need to be updated and any two different individuals who are cross-referred that need to be uncross-referred. We anticipate completing implementation of this audit recommendation by December 2026.

07/31/2024

Recommendation 4: Maximize technology (for example, develop automated program that compares Numident name, date of birth, sex designation, place of birth, parents’ names) to review the 2.4 million non-current payment status beneficiaries whose cross-referred Numident records contain death information, and input death

Open

Open. We expect to implement the recommendation in FY 2026.

information on their cross-referred record, as appropriate.

07/31/2024

Recommendation 5: Implement controls to prevent similar errors from occurring in the future.

Open

Open. The recommendation is to add a new Special Indicator code. We will hold internal discussions with Policy and Legal to review the requirements.

08/08/2024

Recommendation 1: Modify processing instructions for priority cases to include appropriate processing timeframes and follow-up procedures to support the Social Security Administration and Disability Determination Services’ monitoring of processing times.

Open

Open. We are taking appropriate actions to update the related policy. We project all policy updates to be completed by February 2026. In Summer 2026, we will release revised Program Operations Manual System (POMS) by incorporating feedback and resolving any issues identified from the Emergency Message (EM).

09/20/2024

Recommendation 5: Create integrity checks within SSA systems that result in alerts or exceptions for scenarios where the 5-month waiting period was applied incorrectly.

Open

Open. We are working on the business requirements for system enhancements and are working to implement the recommendation.

09/25/2024

Recommendation 5: Document and implement procedures for conducting and updating an organization and system-level risk assessment.

Open

Open. We have a documented process for the system-level security control assessments. We are in the process of conducting an organizational risk assessment now.

09/25/2024

Recommendation 8: Update policies and procedures to require that the senior accountable official for risk management, or other designated official, review and approve the continuous monitoring strategy and retain evidence of the review and approval.

Open

Open. We are working to designate an agency senior accountable official for enterprise-wide risk. That is the first step to implement this recommendation.