Sometimes SSA is unable to reclaim on EFT payments issued to a deceased beneficiary's
bank account because of the Department of the Treasury's (DT) reclamation processing
requirements.
For instance, DT could not process reclamations on EFT payments issued prior to October
1, 1997 due to a limitation in DT’s PACER system. PACER began retaining EFT data in
October 1, 1997; therefore, Treasury has no record of EFT payments issued prior to
October 1, 1997 and cannot process reclamations without the payment being stored in
PACER.
In addition, DT cannot reclaim on EFT payments when they have previously processed
a reclamation against the beneficiary's account. For example, if DT reclaims Jane
Doe's payments from January 2009 through March 2009 due to death and we find out Jane
died in October 2008, Treasury cannot process a subsequent reclamation on the payments
made after death in November and December 2008.