Supplemental Security Income: Increased Receipt and Reporting of Child
Support Could Reduce Payments (Letter Report, 01/12/99, GAO/HEHS-99-11).

GAO provided information on: (1) opportunities for increasing the number
of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) single-parent families receiving
child support and for improving the reporting of such support to SSA;
(2) the potential for reducing SSI payments by increasing the extent to
which SSI children in single-parent families are served by the Child
Support Enforcement (CSE) program and have support collected for them
and support collected by CSE programs is reported by custodial parents
to SSA.

GAO noted that: (1) SSI benefits could be reduced and single-parent
families' incomes increased if more children on SSI received CSE
services; (2) the Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs provided
services to almost 45,000 SSI children in single-parent families in
those states and collected child support for more than one-quarter of
those served; (3) however, more than 52,000 other SSI children in
single-parent families in those states did not receive CSE services; (4)
GAO estimates that if their parents had been required to cooperate with
CSE services, annual SSI benefits to these children would have been
reduced by about $4.2 million, while the net annual income (considering
the child support and the resulting adjustments to the SSI benefits) of
the SSI single-parent families would have been increased by $2.6
million; (5) these potential benefit reductions would be offset by the
costs for SSA to administer a child support cooperation requirement and
by the costs, which could be considerable, for CSE programs to provide
services; (6) even though savings to the government are not guaranteed,
increasing the number of SSI children receiving CSE services would help
promote parental responsibility and increase the incomes of single
parents, helping them to achieve and maintain economic independence and
reducing their dependence on public assistance; (7) among the SSI
children in single-parent families for whom the three states' CSE
programs collected support, GAO found strong evidence that many parents
had not reported the income to SSA as they were required to do; (8) the
Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs collected support for 15,427
SSI children--12,841 living in those states and an additional 2,586 SSI
children living in other states; (9) for 68 percent of these children,
SSI records did not contain a report of child support income, indicating
that their parents did not report the income to SSA; (10) GAO estimates
that, in these three states, SSA overpaid $7.7 million in annual SSI
benefits because this unreported support was not considered in
calculating children's SSI benefits; and (11) these overpayments could
be minimized in the future if SSA and CSE established a routine method
of exchanging information on SSI recipients and child support
collections.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  HEHS-99-11
     TITLE:  Supplemental Security Income: Increased Receipt and 
             Reporting of Child Support Could Reduce Payments
      DATE:  01/12/99
   SUBJECT:  Income maintenance programs
             Reporting requirements
             Welfare benefits
             Child support payments
             Single parents
             Eligibility determinations
             Overpayments
             Data collection
IDENTIFIER:  HHS Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program
             Medicaid Program
             Food Stamp Program
             Supplemental Security Income Program
             HHS Child Support Enforcement Program
             Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program
             New York
             Texas
             Florida
             AFDC
             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Report to the Committees on Finance, U.S.  Senate, and Ways and
Means, House of Representatives

January 1999

SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME -
INCREASE RECEIPT AND REPORTING OF
CHILD SUPPORT COULD REDUCE
PAYMENTS

GAO/HEHS-99-11

SSI and Child Support

(116000)


Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  CSE - Child Support Enforcement
  HHS - Department of Health and Human Services
  SSA - Social Security Administration
  SSI - Supplemental Security Income
  TANF - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Letter
=============================================================== LETTER


B-279807

January 12, 1999

The Honorable William V.  Roth, Jr.
Chairman
The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Finance
United States Senate

The Honorable Bill Archer
Chairman
The Honorable Charles B.  Rangel
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Ways and Means
House of Representatives

In 1996, over a quarter of the nation's children lived in a household
where only one parent was present, usually the mother.  About 42
percent of female-headed families with children had incomes at or
below the poverty level, and a majority of these families received
government aid to help meet their basic needs.  For four of the
largest federal programs that provide such aid--Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, the Food Stamp Program, and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)--child support received by a
custodial parent is required to be considered as income in
determining eligibility and benefit amounts. 

To reinforce the idea that parents have the primary responsibility
for supporting their children and to minimize government costs of
providing aid, single parents with children applying for or receiving
TANF (since 1975) or Medicaid (since 1984) are required as a
condition of eligibility to cooperate with state Child Support
Enforcement (CSE) agencies in seeking child support income. 
Cooperation involves identifying and helping to locate the
noncustodial parent of a child and, if needed, taking steps to help
establish paternity.  In addition, as of 1996, states have the option
of requiring food stamp applicants and recipients to cooperate with
CSE. 

In contrast, single parents receiving SSI on behalf of their children
are not required to cooperate with CSE agencies.  These parents are,
however, required to report any child support income received to the
Social Security Administration (SSA), which administers the SSI
program.  In June 1998, about 60 percent of the 904,554 children
under age 18 receiving SSI lived in single-parent families.  In about
9 percent of these cases, the parents reported child support income
to SSA.  These statistics suggest that there is potential for
increasing child support income in the other families.  They also
suggest that some families receiving child support may not report it
to SSA. 

Because of congressional interest in enhancing parental
responsibility and self-sufficiency among families receiving public
assistance and concern about the need for improved management of the
SSI program, we explored opportunities for increasing the number of
SSI single-parent families receiving child support and for improving
the reporting of such support to SSA.  More specifically, we
identified the potential for reducing SSI payments by increasing the
extent to which (1) SSI children in single-parent families are served
by the CSE program and have support collected for them and (2)
support collected by CSE programs is reported by custodial parents to
SSA.  We focused our work on the CSE programs of Florida, New York,
and Texas, three of the four states with the largest numbers of
children receiving SSI.\1 We did our work between May 1997 and
December 1998 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.  (See app.  I for information on our scope and
methodology.)


--------------------
\1 The four states with the largest number of children receiving SSI,
in descending order, are New York, California, Florida, and Texas. 
We did not include California in our review because it does not have
a statewide automated CSE data system.  The three states included in
our review represented about 20 percent of SSI children nationwide in
June 1998. 


   RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1

SSI benefits could be reduced and single-parent families' incomes
increased if more children on SSI received CSE services.  The
Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs provided services to almost
45,000 SSI children in single-parent families in those states and
collected child support for more than one-quarter of those served. 
However, more than 52,000 other SSI children in single-parent
families in those states did not receive CSE services.  We estimate
that if their parents had been required to cooperate with CSE
services, annual SSI benefits to these children would have been
reduced by about $4.2 million, while the net annual income
(considering the child support and the resulting adjustments to the
SSI benefits) of the SSI single-parent families would have been
increased by $2.2 million.  These potential benefit reductions would
be offset by the costs for SSA to administer a child support
cooperation requirement and by the costs, which could be
considerable, for CSE programs to provide services.  Even though
savings to the government are not guaranteed, increasing the number
of SSI children receiving CSE services would help promote parental
responsibility and increase the incomes of single parents, helping
them to achieve and maintain economic independence and reducing their
dependence on public assistance. 

Among the SSI children in single-parent families for whom the three
states' CSE programs collected support, we found strong evidence that
many parents had not reported the income to SSA as they were required
to do.  The Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs collected
support for 15,427 SSI children--12,841 living in those states and an
additional 2,586 SSI children living in other states.  For 68 percent
of these children, SSI records did not contain a report of child
support income, indicating that their parents did not report the
income to SSA.  We estimate that, in these three states, SSA overpaid
$7.7 million in annual SSI benefits because this unreported support
was not considered in calculating children's' SSI benefits.  These
overpayments could be minimized in the future if SSA and CSE
established a routine method of exchanging information on SSI
recipients and child support collections. 


   BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2

The Congress established SSI in 1972 to ensure a minimum cash income
to needy aged, blind, and disabled persons, including needy children
under age 18 if they have severe disabilities.  SSI, now the nation's
largest cash assistance program for the poor, in 1997 paid about $26
billion in federal funds to about 6.5 million low-income aged, blind,
and disabled recipients.  Although SSI primarily serves adults, the
number of children receiving SSI has increased from 127,000 in
December 1975 to 928,000 in December 1997.  SSA administers the
program, which is authorized by title XVI of the Social Security Act. 

In 1975, in response to growing numbers of families receiving Aid to
Families With Dependent Children, the Congress created the CSE
program to reduce welfare spending and help single-parent families
achieve or maintain economic self-sufficiency.\2 The program provides
assistance in obtaining financial and medical support for children
through locating noncustodial parents, establishing paternity and
support obligations, and enforcing those obligations.  The Congress
expanded the CSE program over the years, and today state CSE agencies
are required to provide services automatically to families receiving
TANF, foster care payments or services, or Medicaid and to any other
family that requests them.\3 State CSE agencies have responsibility
for administering the program through state and local offices.  At
the federal level, the Office of Child Support Enforcement within the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has oversight
responsibility for the program.  The federal government pays 66
percent of the states' administrative costs for the CSE program, with
the states paying the remainder.  The federal government also pays
states incentive payments for performance in establishing paternity
and support orders, collecting current support, collecting past due
support, and operating cost-effectively.\4

In 1997, the CSE program collected about $13.4 billion in child
support for families receiving TANF and other families.  About $10.8
billion of this was distributed to families and $2.2 billion retained
by the government as recoupment of TANF payments.  The Social
Security Act requires that TANF recipients assign their rights to
child support to the state government and that cash child support
payments collected for TANF families be retained by the government as
recoupment for benefits.\5 In the same year, CSE collected child
support for about 13 percent of the TANF child support cases. 

The requirement that persons cooperate with CSE as a condition of
receiving TANF or Medicaid benefits on behalf of children emphasizes
that parents, not the government, have primary responsibility for
supporting their children.\6

However, TANF, Medicaid, and Food Stamp Program applicants and
recipients may not be required to cooperate with CSE if they claim to
have good cause for refusing to do so and the state agencies
administering these programs determine that the circumstances claimed
make cooperation not in the best interests of the child.  Good causes
for refusing to cooperate may include, for example, fear of physical
or emotional harm to the child and/or custodial parent.  For TANF
recipients who are required to cooperate but fail to do so, states
are required to reduce these recipients' TANF grants by at least 25
percent and may opt to eliminate TANF aid for the entire family.\7

The SSI program, on the other hand, does not require cooperation with
CSE as a condition of eligibility for receipt of SSI benefits.\8
However, under the Social Security Act, two-thirds of any child
support received by, or on behalf of, an SSI recipient is to be
counted as income in calculating SSI benefits.  The amount of child
support counted as income results in a dollar-for-dollar decrease in
the amount of SSI benefits to which a child is entitled.  These
adjustments can reduce the benefit level, depending on the size of
the benefit, to zero, making the child ineligible for benefits. 

When SSI parents receive child support for their children, they are
required to report this income to SSA for benefit determinations. 
SSA relies on applicants and recipients to accurately report their
income and assets, and SSA policy requires that its staff obtain
documentation to verify the amount of income and resources that
applicants report.  To ensure recipients' continuing financial
eligibility and possibly detect some types of income and resources
that clients may not have reported, SSA uses computer matches of SSI
payment records against recipient financial information contained in
the payment files of third parties, such as other federal and state
government agencies.  However, SSA does not match computer data with
state CSE agencies' child support collection systems. 


--------------------
\2 CSE refers to the program authorized by title IV, part D, of the
Social Security Act. 

\3 Persons required to cooperate with state CSE agencies may not be
charged fees for CSE services. 

\4 In the calculation of performance incentives, collections on TANF
cases and former TANF cases receive twice the weight as collections
on cases of persons who have never received TANF. 

\5 Medicaid recipients assign to the government only their rights to
medical child support payments and payments for medical care from any
third party.  Thus, only cash child support designated for medical
expenses is retained by the government. 

\6 Many Medicaid and food stamp recipients are also TANF recipients
and are therefore required to cooperate with CSE.  Non-TANF
recipients of Medicaid are required to cooperate with CSE only in
establishing paternity and seeking medical support.  In those states
that have opted to require it, non-TANF food stamp recipients are
required to cooperate with all CSE services.  As of December 1997,
seven states had chosen to require food stamp recipient cooperation
with state CSE agencies. 

\7 A survey conducted by the American Public Human Services
Association in the summer of 1997 found that 16 states eliminate the
entire family's assistance for failure to cooperate with CSE. 

\8 Most SSI recipients are also Medicaid recipients and, if they are
single parents, are required to cooperate with the CSE program for
the establishment of paternity (if needed) and the collection of
medical support for children in single-parent homes.  Moreover, some
families with a child receiving SSI may also have one or more other
children receiving TANF.  In those cases, the families would be
required to cooperate with CSE to receive TANF benefits.  Generally,
a child does not receive both SSI and TANF. 


   OPPORTUNITIES EXIST TO INCREASE
   THE NUMBER OF SSI CHILDREN
   RECEIVING CHILD SUPPORT
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3

Our analysis in three states indicates that opportunities exist to
serve more SSI children through the CSE program, which should result
in increased child support income for some families and reduced SSI
payments.  Providing CSE services to additional families would entail
costs for SSI and CSE program administration, but would help promote
parental responsibility, increase some families' incomes, and reduce
the need for public assistance. 


      MORE THAN HALF OF THE
      CHILDREN RECEIVING SSI IN
      SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES IN
      THREE STATES DID NOT RECEIVE
      CSE SERVICES
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.1

In Florida, New York, and Texas, 97,095 children under age 18
received SSI in single-parent families as of September 1997.\9 This
represented about half of all SSI children in those states.\10 The
three states' CSE programs provided services to a total of 44,756, or
46 percent, of the SSI children in single-parent families in those
states during the periods of our review.  These services resulted in
child support collections for a significant number of families.  More
than half (54 percent), however, of these states' SSI children in
single-parent families did not receive CSE services.  As shown in
table 1, we did not find a CSE record for 47, 53, and 65 percent,
respectively, of children receiving SSI in single-parent families in
Florida, New York, and Texas during the periods of our review.\11



                                Table 1
                
                  Receipt of Child Support Services by
                Children Receiving SSI in Single-Parent
                        Families in Three States

                                  Children receiving SSI in single-
Children's state of residence              parent families
------------------------------  --------------------------------------
                                        Receiving CSE   Not receiving
                                Total     services\a     CSE services
                                ------  --------------  --------------
                                                Percen          Percen
                                Number  Number       t  Number       t
------------------------------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Florida                         30,459  16,235      53  14,224      47
New York                        42,026  19,825      47  22,201      53
Texas                           24,610   8,696      35  15,914      65
Total                           97,095  44,756      46  52,339      54
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Data are for children in Florida receiving SSI as of July
1998, and in New York and Texas as of September 1997. 

\a Services provided by the Florida CSE during the 12 months ending
mid-July 1998, by the New York CSE for the 8 months ending August 31,
1997, and the Texas CSE for the 12 months ending July 31, 1997. 

Taken together, the three states' programs collected support for
12,841, or 29 percent, of the 44,756 SSI children they served. 
Individually, the Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs collected
support for 32, 21, and 39 percent, respectively, of the SSI children
living in those states whom they served.\12 The median annual amount
of support collected for these SSI children was $487 in Florida, $350
in New York, and $501 in Texas.  (See also tables II.1 and II.2 for
more detailed data.)


--------------------
\9 For the purposes of our analysis, the terms single parent and
single-parent family do not refer to the marital status of parents or
the number of parents in a household but rather to the situation in
which children are living in a home where only one of their natural
or adoptive parents is present.  In some instances, someone other
than a parent, such as an adult caretaker or representative payee,
may receive SSI benefits on behalf of a child. 

\10 The SSI children in single-parent families in Florida, New York,
and Texas represented 55, 54, and 45 percent, respectively, of all of
the SSI children in each of these states. 

\11 We found a small number--less than 10 percent--of single parents
of SSI children not receiving services who had reported child support
income to SSA.  They may receive child support through means other
than the CSE program, such as through the courts or directly from
noncustodial parents. 

\12 State CSE agencies can also provide services to children residing
in other states, which we discuss later in this report. 


      SSI BENEFITS COULD BE
      REDUCED AND FAMILIES'
      INCOMES INCREASED IF MORE
      CHILDREN ON SSI RECEIVED CSE
      SERVICES
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.2

Providing CSE services to SSI children in single-parent families who
are not currently receiving them can potentially increase child
support income for some of them and reduce reliance on SSI benefits. 
It is not possible to estimate precisely the potential for child
support collections among the SSI children not currently receiving
services because doing so requires information about the potential
for payment by noncustodial parents, which is not available.  To
estimate SSI benefit reductions that might result from more SSI
children receiving CSE services in the three states included in our
review, we applied each state's collection rate for the SSI children
it currently served to the children not currently served and assumed
that the same median amounts of support could be collected.  The
actual amounts of CSE collections that may result from serving these
families could be higher or lower than this estimate. 

With this methodology, we estimate that CSE could collect a total of
$6.4 million in support for an additional 14,119 SSI children.\13
With two-thirds of the support counted as income for SSI benefit
calculations, we estimate SSI benefits for children in these states
could be reduced by a total of $4.2 million annually--$1.3 million in
Florida, $1 million in New York, and $1.9 million in Texas.  Despite
this reduction in benefits, the SSI families' incomes would be
increased by a net of $2.2 million because not all of the child
support received would result in a reduction in SSI benefits.  (See
table I.1 for detailed calculations.)


--------------------
\13 These data exclude SSI children whose SSA records indicated the
receipt of child support. 


      REQUIRING PARENTS OF SSI
      CHILDREN TO COOPERATE WITH
      CSE INCREASES COSTS FOR SSI
      AND CSE BUT ENSURES THAT
      CHILD SUPPORT IS PURSUED FOR
      THOSE RECEIVING AID
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.3

Like any enforcement effort, requiring that all single parents
applying for or receiving SSI for their children cooperate with CSE
services as a condition of receiving aid comes at a cost.  SSI
eligibility workers would need to perform additional tasks to
implement the requirement, and CSE's caseloads would increase,
raising costs for these programs.  However, such a requirement would
increase the likelihood that noncustodial parents fulfill their
financial responsibilities toward their children, thereby reducing
custodial parents' dependence on the government for support. 

A cooperation requirement would necessitate that SSI eligibility
workers, like workers in other programs, provide information about
the CSE program to single parents receiving or applying for SSI on
behalf of their children.  SSI eligibility workers would have to
explain the requirement for cooperation with CSE services, obtain
information from parents for the referral of children's cases to CSE
agencies, and make the case referrals.  For the TANF program, for
example, some CSE agencies develop an intake form to be used by the
TANF agency in obtaining information on the family and the
noncustodial parent to help the CSE agency establish an enforceable
case.\14 Also, in other programs, applicants must be notified of the
right to claim good cause for not cooperating, and then
determinations must be made about whether good cause exists.\15
Additional time required for tasks like these would likely lengthen
the initial SSI eligibility interview and increase associated
paperwork. 

In November 1997, SSA began interviewing a nationwide sample of
approximately 1,000 SSI recipients about child support issues to
determine the extent to which SSI recipients try to obtain child
support and to estimate the potential cost of adding a component on
child support issues in the initial SSI eligibility interview.  SSA
officials told us that the agency has a draft legislative proposal
under review by the Office of Management and Budget that would
require persons applying for or receiving SSI on behalf of children
to show they have tried to obtain child support.  The proposal does
not require these individuals to cooperate with or to seek support
specifically through the CSE program--as opposed to other means--as
is now required for TANF and Medicaid recipients.  The nationwide
study would also help to estimate the costs for SSA to implement its
legislative proposal. 

Establishing a CSE cooperation requirement for SSI recipients would
also increase the workload and federal and state costs of the CSE
program.\16 In New York and Texas, serving currently unserved SSI
children would increase the total CSE caseload in those states (as of
Aug.  1997) by about 2 percent; for Florida, the increase would be
about 1.3 percent.  There appears to be no generally accepted
methodology for calculating the actual costs of serving additional
families in the CSE program.  Although we did not estimate CSE costs
for providing services to additional families, we believe they could
be significant, potentially large enough to offset the savings in SSI
benefit reductions.  While the CSE program would bear the costs of
providing services to all of the SSI families with children, it would
not collect child support for all of them, limiting the amount of
savings through SSI benefit reductions.  Moreover, 34 percent of
these CSE costs would be borne by the states, which would generally
not experience savings from the reduced SSI benefits.  Nevertheless,
government cost reduction is not the only goal of the CSE program. 
It also promotes parental responsibility and strives to increase the
incomes of single parents, helping them to achieve and maintain
economic independence and reducing their dependence on public
assistance. 


--------------------
\14 In some jurisdictions, TANF applicants must cooperate with CSE
(usually in the form of an interview with a state CSE agency) before
financial assistance is provided. 

\15 In the Aid to Families With Dependent Children (now TANF) program
for fiscal year 1995--the latest year for which data were
available--8,387 claims of good cause were made and 5,462 were found
valid.  The monthly average number of families receiving AFDC was 4.9
million in fiscal year 1995. 

\16 State CSE agencies are required to provide services to anyone who
requests them, and SSI recipients may all request services. 


   SSI OVERPAYMENTS OCCUR FROM
   NONREPORTING OF CHILD SUPPORT
   INCOME
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4

In addition to exploring the potential for more SSI recipients to
receive CSE services, we also determined the extent to which those
already receiving CSE services were reporting to SSA the child
support income collected for them by state CSE agencies.  Our
analysis of data for three states indicated that many single parents
of SSI children did not report to SSA the child support collected for
them by the CSE program.  On the basis of this analysis, we estimated
that SSA overpaid about $7.7 million in SSI benefits in 1 year as a
result of such nonreporting.  SSA could identify or prevent many of
these types of overpayments if it had information on CSE collections
for SSI children from one of the existing or soon-to-be-operational
sources of computerized CSE collections data. 


      MANY PARENTS DID NOT REPORT
      CHILD SUPPORT INCOME TO SSA
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.1

The Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs provided CSE services
for SSI children living in those states as well as to some SSI
children living in other states.\17 The three states' CSE programs
served a total of 55,884 SSI children in single-parent families,
including the 44,756 we identified living in Florida, New York, and
Texas and an additional 11,128 SSI children residing in other states. 
These CSE programs collected support for 15,427, or 28 percent, of
these SSI children.\18

Our comparison of SSA and CSE records indicates that many parents of
SSI children with child support income did not report the income to
SSA.  As shown in table 2, we found no indication of child support
being reported for 10,432, or 68 percent, of the SSI children for
whom the three states' CSE programs collected support.  (See also
tables II.1 and II.2 for more detailed information by state on the
numbers and percentages served and for whom collections were
made.)\19



                                Table 2
                
                  Parental Reporting of Child Support
                    Collections by Three States' CSE
                  Programs for SSI Children in Single-
                            Parent Families

                                 SSI children for whom CSE collected
                                           child support\a
                                --------------------------------------
                                            Parent      Parent did not
                                           reported     report support
                                        support to SSA      to SSA
                                        --------------  --------------
                                 Total          Percen          Percen
State CSE\b                     number  Number       t  Number       t
------------------------------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Florida                          5,828   1,755      30   4,073      70
New York                         5,720   1,704      30   4,016      70
Texas                            3,879   1,536      40   2,343      60
Total                           15,427   4,995      32  10,432      68
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Data are for children in Florida receiving SSI as of July
1998, and in New York and Texas as of September 1997. 

\a Collections made by the Florida CSE during the 12 months ending
mid-July 1998, by the New York CSE for the 8 months ending August 31,
1997, and by the Texas CSE for the 12 months ending July 31, 1997. 

The total amount of unreported child support collected by these three
states for SSI children was almost $12 million.\20 Because parents
did not report this income to SSA, SSA was not able to adjust benefit
amounts accordingly.  We estimate that as a result, SSA overpaid $7.7
million in SSI benefits in 1 year in these three states (see table
3).\21



                                Table 3
                
                   Estimated Annual SSI Overpayments
                  Resulting From Nonreporting of Child
                 Support Collected by Three States' CSE
                                Programs

                                                             Estimated
                                                                annual
                                                             overpayme
State collecting support                                            nt
-----------------------------------------------------------  ---------
Florida                                                      $2,858,20
                                                                     5
New York                                                     3,206,240
Texas                                                        1,658,028
Total                                                        $7,722,47
                                                                     3
----------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------
\17 A state CSE agency gives services to all children in the state
who have requested services or whose custodial parents are required
to cooperate with CSE.  In addition, a CSE agency in one state will
provide services to a child in another state when asked to do so by
the CSE agency in the child's state of residence. 

\18 The Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs' child support
collection rates for the SSI children they served, including children
living within and outside those states, were 32, 21, and 37 percent,
respectively.  These individual state and aggregate rates are very
similar to the collection rates cited earlier that are based only on
the SSI children served who reside in those states. 

\19 Because we relied on a computerized match of extracts of CSE and
SSI automated records and not a detailed review of case file
information, we were not able to confirm that the child support
collections recorded in the CSE records were in fact distributed to
each child's custodial parent and, therefore, were required to be
reported to SSA.  In some cases, for example, where other children in
a family were receiving TANF, the support collected for the SSI child
may have been inappropriately retained by the government and not
distributed to the family.  In other cases, the child support for an
SSI child could have been past due for a previous period of time
during which the child was receiving TANF; in this case, the child
support collected may have been retained, appropriately, by the
government and not distributed to the family.  In both cases, the
support would not be counted by SSA as income because the family did
not receive it. 

\20 To arrive at this total, the collections by New York's CSE over
an 8-month period were projected to 12 months. 

\21 For our estimate, we calculated the estimated annual SSI
overpayment for each child as two-thirds of the annual unreported
child support (the amount considered as income under law) or the
annual SSI benefit, whichever was less, and summed these amounts for
all children for whom support was not reported. 


      DATA ON CSE CHILD SUPPORT
      COLLECTIONS ARE AVAILABLE
      FOR VERIFYING SSI
      RECIPIENTS' INCOME
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.2

We have in the past reported on the need for SSA to verify
information voluntarily reported by SSI recipients by using existing
state and other databases.\22 We specifically recommended that, to
prevent overpayments or detect them sooner, SSA (1) identify
additional income sources for which SSA does not currently have
computer matches and (2) use on-line access to routinely check for
unreported sources of income in states when it is cost-effective to
do so.\23 SSA has taken some actions in response to our
recommendations, including expanding use of on-line data maintained
by state agencies to better verify recipients' financial information. 
In a recent report, we recommended that SSA accelerate efforts to
identify more timely and complete sources for verifying financial
eligibility information.\24 In this report, we identify another
opportunity for SSA to improve its administration of the SSI program. 

Although no single, nationwide source of computerized data on all
states' CSE collections exists, states are required by the Social
Security Act to have three statewide computerized data files
containing information on child support collections from which SSA
may obtain data for SSI recipients.  The first computerized data
files from which SSA may obtain CSE collections information are
states' CSE automated data processing and information retrieval
systems.  State CSE programs were required by the Family Support Act
of 1988 to have statewide automated systems that meet federal
specifications by October 1, 1997.  In addition, the 1996 welfare
reform legislation required that states enhance these systems to be
capable of electronically interfacing with other federal and state
agencies.  As of November 16, 1998, 37 states' CSE programs had
received federal certification for their data processing and
information retrieval systems.\25

Two other computerized statewide data systems were required by the
1996 welfare reform legislation to be in operation by October 1,
1998:  (1) states' centralized child support payment collection and
disbursement units, required for the identification, receipt, and
distribution of support payments on both CSE and non-CSE child
support cases,\26 and (2) states' CSE case registries, required to
comprise information on all CSE and non-CSE cases.\27 For CSE cases,
the registries must also include information on any amounts owed that
have been collected.  Information contained in the state case
registries must be capable of being extracted from the state's CSE
system and shared and compared with information contained in other
databases. 

SSA officials expressed concern that CSE data files do not contain
sufficient detail for them to determine accurately the amounts of
child support income received by SSI children that should be
considered as income for the purposes of ascertaining eligibility and
payment amounts for SSI benefits.  In addition, they said that in the
past they encountered problems in accessing various kinds of state
data because of the differing capacities of state data systems and
state policies on and willingness to share data considered
confidential.  SSA officials noted, for example, that after several
years of effort, exchanges of data on quarterly wages have not been
achieved with all states.  They suggested that it would be more
efficient if CSE was responsible for reporting to SSA collections for
SSI children, rather than requiring SSA to access state data systems. 

We agree with SSA that some states' CSE data files may not contain
sufficient information upon which to base adjustments to SSI benefit
calculations.  But states' CSE data could, at a minimum, indicate to
SSA those cases for which child support may be a potential source of
income that should be further investigated.  In addition, we
acknowledge that the ease and costs of obtaining CSE collections data
will vary from state to state because different degrees of automation
exist in the data files of state CSE agencies.  However, as more
state CSE systems become federally certified and the state case
registries and centralized collection and distribution units become
operational, we expect the ease of access to increase and costs to
decrease.  It is also possible that the most efficient and
cost-effective option is for CSE to report collections to SSA. 

We did not estimate the potential costs of the various approaches for
SSA and CSE agencies to exchange data on child support collections. 
The decision on whether state CSE programs should report data to SSA
or SSA should access state data files should be based on an
assessment of the relative costs and efficiencies of various possible
approaches. 


--------------------
\22 Supplemental Security Income:  Timely Data Could Prevent Millions
in Overpayments to Nursing Home Residents (GAO/HEHS-97-62, June 3,
1997); Supplemental Security Income:  SSA Efforts Fall Short in
Correcting Erroneous Payments to Prisoners (GAO/HEHS-96-152, Aug. 
30, 1996); Supplemental Security Income:  Opportunities Exist for
Improving Payment Accuracy (GAO/HEHS-98-75, Mar.  27, 1998). 

\23 Supplemental Security Income:  Administrative and Program Savings
Possible by Directly Accessing State Data (GAO/HEHS-96-163, Aug.  29,
1996). 

\24 Supplemental Security Income:  Action Needed on Long-Standing
Problems Affecting Program Integrity (GAO/HEHS-98-158, Sept.  14,
1998). 

\25 The 37 include Guam and Puerto Rico. 

\26 If in August 1996 local courts were being used to process
payments, the state has an additional year before it must have a
central payment disbursement unit.  State disbursement units must
process non-CSE cases issued on or after January 1, 1994, which are
subject to income withholding. 

\27 State case registries must contain information on non-CSE cases
established or modified after October 1, 1998. 


   CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5

The Congress established the CSE program and expanded it over the
years to minimize public expenditures for low-income families and
enhance families' self-sufficiency by helping to obtain child support
income for them.  Even though SSI is an important source of cash
support for many children, single-parent families applying for or
receiving SSI are not required to cooperate with CSE.  Yet, we found
that many SSI children who could benefit from CSE services are not
receiving them.  If more SSI children received CSE services and
ultimately received child support, SSI benefits would be reduced, and
families receiving support would be less dependent on public
assistance and closer to achieving self-sufficiency.  The Congress
could ensure that families receiving SSI receive CSE program services
by amending the Social Security Act to require cooperation with CSE
as a condition of eligibility for SSI benefits.  This would be in
keeping with the principle that parents, not the federal government,
have primary responsibility for supporting their children and should
seek child support, if appropriate, when applying for or receiving
federal public assistance. 

In addition, many single parents of SSI children who are already
receiving child support through the CSE program are not reporting the
child support to SSA, resulting in millions of dollars of SSI
overpayments.  SSA could prevent or detect these overpayments by
identifying child support collected by CSE for SSI recipients. 
Several computerized sources of such data are available to facilitate
such an effort. 


   RECOMMENDATION TO THE CONGRESS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :6

We recommend that the Congress amend the Social Security Act to
require that all single parents applying for or receiving SSI
benefits on behalf of children under age 18 be required to cooperate
with CSE services, unless they have good cause not to do so.  The
Congress also will need to consider how best to enforce such a
requirement. 


   RECOMMENDATION TO THE
   COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY
   AND THE SECRETARY OF HHS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :7

We recommend that the Commissioner of Social Security and the
Secretary of HHS take steps to implement a cost-effective method for
ensuring that data on CSE collections for children receiving SSI are
made available to SSA and used in making eligibility determinations. 
This may include seeking legislative changes to allow SSA access to
states' data on child support collections. 


   AGENCY COMMENTS AND OUR
   RESPONSE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :8

In commenting on a draft of this report, SSA agreed with our
recommendation that parents applying for and receiving SSI for
children under age 18 be required to cooperate with CSE agencies. 
SSA said it is considering various options for effecting such changes
through legislation.  SSA also agreed with our recommendation that
SSA and CSE explore ways to implement a cost-effective method for
ensuring that data on CSE collections for children receiving SSI are
made available to SSA and used in making eligibility determinations. 
SSA commented that it had already begun discussions with HHS' Office
of Child Support Enforcement about alternative ways to obtain child
support payment data to improve the SSI eligibility determination
process.  It also noted that legislation may be needed to require all
states to report CSE payment data to SSA.  At the same time, SSA said
it continues to negotiate on-line access to state data on an
individual state basis, addressing privacy issues as needed.  It also
noted that to address privacy issues more generally and thus
facilitate its access to a wide range of state data, including child
support data, it has developed a legislative proposal that would deem
that SSA's privacy standard would meet all states' privacy standards
for sharing data.  SSA's comments appear in appendix III. 

In commenting on a draft of this report, HHS also agreed with our
recommendation that parents applying for and receiving SSI for
children generally should be required to cooperate with CSE agencies. 
HHS said it is prepared to work with SSA and the Congress to address
the numerous issues related to such a change and to develop
legislation that achieves our recommendation.  Regarding the
recommendation about working with SSA to ensure that CSE data are
available to SSA, HHS said that discussions are already under way
with SSA about ways to provide payment data and noted along with SSA
that legislation may be needed to require all states to report CSE
payment data to SSA.  In the meantime, it is supporting SSA's efforts
to negotiate on-line access to state data on an individual state
basis.  HHS also noted that the report appears to equate child
support enforcement services with the IV-D caseload, stating that
some SSI children may also receive services as part of the non-IV-D
caseload.  We have clarified this point in the report.  HHS' comments
appear in appendix IV. 

We also provided copies of a draft of this report to the Florida, New
York, and Texas CSE agencies.  Florida and Texas officials expressed
concerns about the costs to the states of providing CSE services to
SSI clients.  In addition, officials from all three states raised a
range of implementation issues, including how strongly the
cooperation requirement will be enforced for parents and their
children; what the specific responsibilities would be for SSA and the
child support agencies, such as for collecting relevant information
from custodial parents and determining good cause exemptions; and the
potential burden to their information systems of sharing information
at a time of great demands on their systems as a result of welfare
reform and federal requirements for updating their CSE automated
systems. 

We noted in the report that states would bear some of the costs due
to additional CSE caseloads and would not share in the potential
savings in SSI benefits to children, which are federally funded. 
However, the federal government also pays incentives to states for
their CSE program performance in specified ways, giving greater
weight to TANF cases than non-TANF cases in the calculation of these
performance incentives, and we have added this information to the
report.  In developing legislation to implement a cooperation
requirement for parents of SSI children, the Congress could do the
same for SSI cases, which could mitigate the cost impact on states to
some extent. 

We also acknowledge that many implementation details will need to be
addressed by the Congress, SSA, and states' CSE agencies and that
some changes to how states are currently operating may be needed. 
However, we believe that implementing a cooperation requirement and
exchanging key program data are important goals in keeping with
promoting personal responsibility among individuals receiving
government aid and managing government programs efficiently and
effectively. 


---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :8.1

We are sending copies of this report to the Commissioner of Social
Security, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and other
interested parties. 

If you have any questions about this report, please contact Mark V. 
Nadel, Associate Director, on (202) 512-7215 or Gale C.  Harris,
Assistant Director, on (202) 512-7235.  Other major contributors were
Catherine V.  Pardee, Evaluator-in-Charge, and Vanessa R.  Taylor,
Computer Systems Specialist. 

Richard L.  Hembra
Assistant Comptroller General


SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
=========================================================== Appendix I

We examined the extent to which opportunities exist for reducing SSI
payments by increased receipt of services from and reporting of child
support income received through the CSE programs in three
states--Florida, New York, and Texas.  We used SSA computerized
records to identify SSI children under age 18 in single-parent
families nationwide.  We matched this information with data from the
computerized CSE records of Florida, New York, and Texas to determine
which of these children received CSE services and child support
income and reported support received to SSA.  We then estimated
potential reductions in SSI benefits that could occur if CSE services
were provided and support collected for additional SSI children and
if unreported child support was reported to SSA. 

The period of review varied among the states because of the
availability of state CSE data.  It covered the 12 months ending July
1998 in Florida, the 8 months ending August 1997 in New York, and the
12 months ending July 1997 in Texas.  While we did not independently
verify the accuracy of the data, the SSI and the state CSE
information systems are subject to periodic quality assurance
reviews, and the CSE records serve as the official state records for
purposes of administering the CSE programs.  We did our work between
May 1997 and December 1998 in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards. 


   IDENTIFYING CHILDREN RECEIVING
   SSI IN SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES
--------------------------------------------------------- Appendix I:1

To identify children receiving SSI in single-parent families, we
obtained from SSA extracts of the Supplemental Security Record--SSA's
main administrative files and payment record for the SSI program--of
all SSI recipients with birth dates on or after July 1, 1979, who
were receiving benefits in September 1997.  These records also
indicated living arrangements of the recipients and whether child
support income was being reported to SSA.  Using these records, we
identified children receiving SSI who were living with only one
natural or adoptive parent.  More specifically, we selected cases SSA
coded as a child living with only a mother or a father, or as living
with both parents if the person to whom benefits were paid was coded
as being a stepparent.  Also, we selected these cases only if the
payee of the benefits was also specified by SSA as a natural or
adoptive mother or father, or a stepparent.  About 1,600 SSI children
lived in families with two parents, one of whom was a stepparent.  We
did not include children in foster care, who constitute less than 3
percent of SSI children under 18, or children in institutions or
other living arrangements.  Also, we excluded from our study children
who had reached age 18 in September 1998. 


   DETERMINING EXTENT OF RECEIPT
   AND REPORTING OF CSE SERVICES
   AND SUPPORT COLLECTIONS
--------------------------------------------------------- Appendix I:2

To determine the extent to which children receiving SSI in
single-parent families received CSE services and had support
collected for them and reported to SSA, we obtained extracts of CSE
records from the states of Florida, New York, and Texas and matched
these records with the SSA records using the children's names, months
and years of birth, and Social Security numbers.  Since we obtained
CSE records only from Florida, New York, and Texas, we cannot
generalize the results of our analysis to SSI children nationwide.\28

The state CSE records we obtained included all CSE cases active at
any time during January through August 31, 1997, in New York; August
1996 through July 31, 1997, in Texas; and July 1997 through mid-July
1998 in Florida.\29 These records indicated all child support
collections made on the cases during those time periods.  In our
calculations, we multiplied New York's CSE child support collections
during the 8-month period by 1.516 to estimate a full year's child
support collections.  We matched the CSE records of New York and
Texas against September 1997 SSA records of SSI recipients under age
18 receiving benefits at that time.  We matched the Florida CSE
records against July 1998 SSA records of children who had been
receiving SSI in September 1997.\30

We considered as support that should have been reported for SSI
benefit determinations any support collections made by CSE for
children receiving SSI whose SSA record did not show child support
income as having been reported to SSA.  We limited our work to
nonreporting of child support--we did not attempt to identify
underreporting by comparing amounts of support collected by CSE with
amounts reported to SSA. 

When there was more than one child on a CSE case, we calculated the
amount of support collected for the SSI child by dividing the total
amount of support collected by the number of children involved in the
CSE case.  This was necessary because CSE collection amounts on the
records we obtained were not separately identified by child.\31 In
addition, it is possible that in a case where other children in a
family received TANF, support collected for an SSI child may have
been inappropriately retained by the government along with support
collected for the children receiving TANF, or that, in a case where
an SSI child formerly received TANF, support collected may have been
retained by the government as recoupment for prior TANF payments.  In
these situations, the support we attributed to an SSI child would not
have been reportable to SSA because it was not received by the
family.  From the computerized files we reviewed, we could not
determine precisely how much collected support was distributed to
families. 


--------------------
\28 SSI children living outside these three states--and receiving CSE
services--would not have a record in the Florida, New York, or Texas
CSE program unless the children's state of residence requested
services from these three states. 

\29 Some families may receive state child support services other than
those provided by the CSE agencies, including assistance with the
collection and disbursement of child support payments subject to
income withholding.  Such services were not within the scope of this
study. 

\30 About 12 percent of the children under age 18 in single-parent
families in Florida receiving SSI as of September 1997 were no longer
receiving benefits as of July 1998 and were not included in the
analysis.  We did not identify children who began receiving SSI
between September 1997 and July 1998. 

\31 The amount of child support ordered to be paid can vary for
children in the same family by the ages of the children, when the
orders were issued, and other individual family circumstances. 


   ESTIMATING POTENTIAL SSI
   BENEFIT REDUCTIONS FROM
   INCREASED RECEIPT OF CHILD
   SUPPORT SERVICES AND
   COLLECTIONS
--------------------------------------------------------- Appendix I:3

We based our estimates of the potential annual SSI benefit reductions
that could occur if more SSI children received CSE services on the
number of SSI children we identified as not receiving services.  We
identified as not receiving CSE services SSI children who did not
have a CSE record and did not have child support income reported on
their SSA record.\32

To estimate potential annual SSI benefit reductions, we assumed that
the states' CSE programs would collect support for only the same
proportion of SSI recipients not receiving CSE services as the
program was collecting for those receiving services.  We further
assumed that (1) the CSE system could collect for each SSI recipient
not receiving CSE services an amount of support equal to the median
amount collected for SSI recipients receiving services and (2) each
SSI recipient not receiving CSE services was receiving the median SSI
benefit received by all SSI potential child support recipients who
were not receiving CSE services. 

As shown in table I.1, we calculated the total amount of potential
annual support collections by multiplying the total estimated number
of cases to be collected on by the median annual support amount
collected.  We multiplied this by 66 percent to derive the total
amount of annual support collections countable as income for SSI,
which in this case represented the amount of potential annual SSI
benefit reductions.\33



                                    Table I.1
                     
                       Calculation of Estimated Annual SSI
                      Benefit Reductions From Providing CSE
                       Services to Additional SSI Children

                                                  Florid     New
Factor and computation                                 a    York   Texas   Total
------------------------------------------------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Additional SSI children in the state to receive   12,726  20,817  14,296  47,839
 CSE services (CSE record not found and no child
 support income reported on SSA record)
Multiplied by collection rate for other SSI        32.4%   20.9%   39.4%     Not
 children in the state for whom CSE collects                              applic
 child support                                                              able
Yields additional SSI recipients in the state      4,128   4,355   5,636  14,119
 for whom CSE will collect child support
Multiplied by median annual collections per         $487    $350    $501     Not
 other SSI children in the state for whom CSE                             applic
 makes collections                                                          able
Yields estimated annual support collections       $2,010  $1,524  $2,825  $6,360
                                                    ,247    ,931    ,468    ,646
Multiplied by percentage of child support            66%     66%     66%     Not
 counted as income for SSI                                                applic
                                                                            able
Yields estimated SSI benefit reductions\a         $1,326  $1,006  $1,864  $4,198
                                                    ,763    ,454    ,809    ,026
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Intermediate calculations appear inexact because intermediary
numbers are shown in rounded numbers, whereas actual calculations use
nonrounded numbers. 

\a Had 66 percent of the median child support collection been greater
than the median SSI benefit, estimated benefit reductions would be
limited to the amount of SSI benefits.  Median SSI benefits received
by SSI children not receiving CSE services were $5,928 in Florida,
$5,870 in New York, and $5,808 in Texas. 

We did not directly assess the potential for child support
collections among the SSI children not currently receiving services,
and thus our estimate of SSI reductions may be understated or
overstated.  Some research indicates that a significant portion of
noncustodial parents may have limited ability to pay child support,
and it is possible that many of those custodial parents that have not
pursued child support through the CSE program are associated with the
noncustodial parents least able to pay.  If that were so, our
estimate would overstate the potential for child support collections
among those not currently receiving child support services.  However,
we did not have information on the socioeconomic characteristics of
the SSI children and their noncustodial parents needed to assess
their ability to pay.  In addition, the potential SSI benefit
reductions we estimated may be overstated if some of the SSI
recipients for whom we did not find a CSE record were already
receiving child support income but not reporting it to SSA or had
earlier received CSE services but had their cases closed, for
example, because the identity of the noncustodial parent was not
known, the noncustodial parent could not be located,\34 or the
noncustodial parent died.\35 Also, some SSI children may have
received CSE services, but we did not find a CSE record because the
Social Security number and/or name and month and year of birth of the
SSI child was in error on either the SSA or CSE record. 


--------------------
\32 There may have been SSI children who first received CSE services
in the month of September 1997 through the New York CSE program or in
the months of August and/or September through the Texas program that
we counted as not receiving CSE services because the CSE records we
obtained did not include those months. 

\33 The Social Security Act specifically provides that one-third of
child support income be excluded from determining income for
eligibility of children for SSI benefits. 

\34 Federal regulations allow case closure after repeated attempts to
locate noncustodial parents using multiple sources over 3 years. 

\35 However, our work does consider such cases to some extent.  The
CSE cases against which we matched did include some closed
cases--those either closed or identified for closure during the
periods of our review. 


   ESTIMATING POTENTIAL REDUCTIONS
   IN SSI OVERPAYMENTS BY IMPROVED
   SUPPORT REPORTING
--------------------------------------------------------- Appendix I:4

We estimated the annual reduction in SSI overpayments that would
occur if all unreported child support collected for SSI recipients by
the Florida, New York, and Texas CSE programs were reported to SSA
for SSI benefit determinations.  The estimated overpayment reduction
that could occur for SSI children if unreported CSE collected support
were reported to SSA is equivalent, for each child, to 66 percent of
the annual amount of child support collected by CSE or the annual SSI
benefit, whichever is less.  We performed this comparison for each
SSI child recipient whose CSE record indicated that support
collections were made but their companion SSI record did not indicate
child support income had been reported.  The summation of these
amounts for all cases represents the total estimated overpayment
reductions. 


RECEIPT AND REPORTING OF CHILD
SUPPORT SERVICES AND INCOME
THROUGH THREE STATES' CSE PROGRAMS
FOR SSI CHILDREN IN SINGLE-PARENT
FAMILIES
========================================================== Appendix II



                                    Table II.1
                     
                      Receipt and Reporting of Child Support
                       Services and Income, SSI Children in
                      Single-Parent Families in Florida, New
                                 York, and Texas

                   Residing in     Residing in     Residing in     Total, three
                     Florida         New York         Texas           states
----------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------
                          Percen          Percen          Percen          Percen
                  Number       t  Number       t  Number       t  Number       t
----------------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Not receiving CSE services\r
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No child support  12,726      42  20,817      50  14,296      58  47,839      49
 income reported
 to SSA\b
Child support      1,498       5   1,384       3   1,618       7   4,500       5
 income reported
 to SSA
Subtotal, not     14,224      47  22,201      53  15,914      65  52,339      54
 receiving
 services

Receiving CSE services\c
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Child support being collected\d
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No child support  3,707\      12  2,741\       7  2,050\       8   8,498       9
 income reported       e               f               g
 to SSA
Child support      1,559       5   1,406       3   1,378       6   4,343       4
 income reported
 to SSA
Subtotal,          5,266      17   4,147      10   3,428      14  12,841      13
 support being
 collected

Child support not being collected
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No child support  10,388      34  15,197      36   5,065      21  30,650      32
 income reported
 to SSA
Child support        581       2     481       1     203       1   1,265       1
 income reported
 to SSA
Subtotal, child   10,966      36  15,678      37   5,268      21  31,915      33
 support not
 being collected
Subtotal,         16,235      53  19,825      47   8,696      35  44,756      46
 receiving
 services
================================================================================
Total\h           30,459     100  42,026     100  24,610     100  97,095     100
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Data are for children under age 18 as of July 1997 and who had
not reached age 18 by September 1998, residing with only one natural
or adoptive parent, and receiving SSI in Florida as of July 1998 and
in New York or Texas as of September 1997. 

\a For whom we did not find a state CSE record for the 12 months
ending mid-July 1998 in Florida; the 8 months ending August 31, 1997,
in New York; and the 12 months ending July 31, 1997, in Texas. 

\b SSA records did not indicate child support had been reported. 

\c Children receiving SSI in single-parent families for whom we found
CSE computerized records. 

\d CSE records indicated child support had been collected for the SSI
child. 

\e We also found 366 SSI recipients from other states for whom the
Florida CSE program collected child support, but this income was not
reported to SSA. 

\f We also found 1,275 SSI recipients from other states for whom the
New York CSE program collected child support, but this income was not
reported to SSA. 

\g We also found 293 SSI recipients from other states for whom the
Texas CSE program collected child support, but this income was not
reported to SSA. 

\h Numbers do not add because of rounding. 



                                    Table II.2
                     
                     Recipient and Reporting of Child Support
                     Services and Income Provided Through the
                         Florida, New York, and Texas CSE
                      Programs for Children Receiving SSI in
                      Single-Parent Families in Other States

                    Served by     Served by New     Served by
                   Florida CSE       York CSE       Texas CSE      Total, three
                     program         program         program          states
----------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------
                          Percen          Percen          Percen          Percen
                  Number       t  Number       t  Number       t  Number       t
----------------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Child support being collected\a
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No child support     366      17   1,275      18     293      17   1,934      17
 income reported
 to SSA\b
Child support        196       9     298       4     158       9     652       6
 income reported
 to SSA
Subtotal,            562      26   1,573      22     451      26   2,586      23
 support being
 collected

Child support not being collected
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No child support   1,464      69   5,129      70   1,204      70   7,797      70
 income reported
 to SSA
Child support        106       5     583       8      56       3     745       7
 income reported
 to SSA
Subtotal,          1,570      74   5,712      78   1,260      74   8,542      77
 support not
 being collected
================================================================================
Total              2,132     100   7,285     100   1,711     100  11,128     100
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Data are for children under age 18 as of July 1997 and who had
not reached 18 by September 1998, residing with only one natural or
adoptive parent, and receiving SSI in July 1998 for children served
by the Florida CSE program and in September 1997 for children served
by New York and Texas CSE programs. 

\a CSE records indicated child support had been collected for the SSI
recipient. 

\b SSA records did not indicate child support had been reported. 


COMMENTS FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY
ADMINISTRATION
========================================================= Appendix III


COMMENTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
========================================================== Appendix IV


RELATED GAO PRODUCTS
=========================================================== Appendix 0

Supplemental Security Income:  Action Needed on Long-Standing
Problems Affecting Program Integrity (GAO/HEHS-98-158, Sept.  14,
1998). 

Welfare Reform:  Child Support an Uncertain Income Supplement for
Families Leaving Welfare (GAO/HEHS-98-168, Aug.  3, 1998). 

Child Support Enforcement:  Certification Process for State
Information Systems (GAO/AIMD-98-134, June 15, 1998). 

Supplemental Security Income:  Opportunities Exist for Improving
Payment Accuracy (GAO/HEHS-98-75, Mar.  27, 1998). 

Child Support Enforcement:  Strong Leadership Required to Maximize
Benefits of Automated Systems (GAO/AIMD-97-72, June 30, 1997). 

Supplemental Security Income:  Timely Data Could Prevent Millions in
Overpayments to Nursing Home Residents (GAO/HEHS-97-62, June 3,
1997). 

Supplemental Security Income:  Administrative and Program Savings
Possible by Directly Accessing State Data (GAO/HEHS-96-163, Aug, 29,
1996). 

Supplemental Security Income:  SSA Efforts Fall Short in Correcting
Erroneous Payments to Prisoners (GAO/HEHS-96-152, Aug.  30, 1996). 


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