The Social Security Administration (SSA) overpaid high school students $225.3 million and in many cases lacked evidence that students were actually in school, according to a new audit from the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
If a parent dies, full-time students at an elementary or secondary school are eligible to receive SSA benefits until they reach the age of 19. The SSA is supposed to verify that students are attending school full-time.
However, inadequate oversight of student beneficiaries has led to millions in overpayments.
According to the audit, an estimated 106,336 students received $225.3 million in overpayments. Further, the SSA "did not have evidence of school attendance for $968 million in student benefits paid to 246,252 beneficiaries."
"This occurred because SSA’s current procedures relied on students and schools to report when they discontinued full-time attendance before their expected end of school year," the OIG said. "In addition, SSA employees did not record graduation dates on the [Master Beneficiary Record] MBR and did not retain supporting documentation of student attendance."
In one example, a student said they were attending school full time between May 2012 and May 2013.
"However, based on our contact with school officials, we found the student dropped out of school in August 2012 after attending for only 18 days," the OIG said. "Neither the student nor the school reported this to SSA, resulting in a $5,328 overpayment in student benefits from September 2012 through May 2013."
A total of 1.5 million students received benefits for at least one month between 2007 and 2013. The OIG used a random sample of 275 students for the audit.
The estimated overpayments could be as high as $345 million, and unsupported benefits, when there was no evidence of attendance, ranged up to $1.3 billion, according to the OIG’s estimates.
Children who receive Social Security benefits are only eligible until they turn 18, but the benefits can continue if they are still attending high school at least 20 hours a week.
The agency uses a form (SSA-1372) to identify the name of a student’s school, and a name and telephone number for an official who can vouch for their attendance.
Students are not eligible for benefits after they graduate or reach age 19, whichever occurs first.
The OIG recommended that the SSA "raise awareness" and encourage schools to report when a student stops attending, and "remind employees that they must retain evidence of student attendance."
The audit also instructed the SSA to verify school attendance for 44 students the OIG identified who were missing forms, thus providing no evidence they were attending school.
The SSA refused, arguing that is not in their job description.
"SSA stated that verifying the accuracy of data that students report is not an existing SSA policy requirement or included in its business process," the OIG said. "SSA also stated it could not enforce action against terminated students who do not comply by completing student forms."
"SSA acknowledged the evidence of student attendance is missing; however, it believes the lack of evidence does not indicate that students were improperly paid," they said.