SSA has issued a request for comments for a “Review and Reassessment of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Representative Payee Selection and Replacement Policies.” 83 Fed. Reg. 64422 (Dec. 14, 2018). https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-12-14/pdf/2018-27051.pdf

SSA is “requesting information on the appropriateness of our order of preference lists for selecting representative payees (payees) and the effectiveness of our policy and operational procedures in determining when to change a payee.  We are seeking this information to determine whether and how we should make any changes to our representative payee program to help ensure that we select suitable payees for our beneficiaries.”  Comments must be submitted by January 28, 2019.

This action is required under the Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018.  SSA is duty bound to submit a report of its reassessment to Congress by October, 2019.

In addition to rearrangement of the order of preference for appointing payees, SSA also is “seeking comment about whether our policies and controls are sufficient to prevent an inappropriate change of payee.”  Under existing policies and procedures, if SSA needs to change a payee, it identifies a new payee using the order of preference list and other policies in POMS GN 00502.100 through GN 00502.181.