TN 23 (07-14)
GN 02607.800 SSA's Title II and Title XVI Incentive Payment Programs
A. Background on making incentive payments
Social Security Administration (SSA) may make incentive payments to State and local correctional and mental health institutions that agree to report inmate confinement and identifying information to SSA. Section 203 of Public Law (P.L.) 104-193 amended section 1611(e)(1) of the Social Security Act to provide for incentive payments from SSI program funds beginning 03/01/1997. Section 402 of Public Law (P.L.) 106-170 amended section 202(x) of the Social Security Act to provide for incentive payments from title II program funds beginning 04/01/2000.
B. Incentive payment policies
1. Qualifying to participate in the incentive payment programs
To participate in the Title II and Title XVI incentive payment programs, an institution must:
Be (1) a State or local jail, prison, or other penal institution/correctional facility; or (2) a mental health facility, a purpose of which is to confine individuals pursuant to a court order at public expense in connection with a verdict or finding by a court as described in GN 02607.310 and GN 02607.330.
State or local correctional institutions may contract with privately owned facilities to confine their inmates. Generally, State or local correctional institutions retain control and jurisdiction over the inmates in contracted private facilities and are responsible for reporting all inmate data to SSA.
Contact your Regional Prisoner Coordinator (RPC) if you are aware of a privately owned facility that is reporting inmates to SSA independent of its State or local parent institution that is also reporting inmates to SSA. Also, notify the RPC if a privately owned facility receives incentive payments for providing SSA with inmate reports. For the list of the RPCs, see GN 02607.990.
The following institutions do not qualify to participate:
Federal correctional or mental health institutions/agencies;
Federal, State or local courts;
Private institutions filing for incentive payments on their own behalf (not as an agent of a State or local institution); and
Private contractors or companies that submit inmate data on behalf of institutions that do not submit their own inmate files to SSA.
Enter an Incentive Payment Memorandum of Understanding (IPMOU) with SSA to provide inmate confinement and identifying information. SSA will not pay incentives for inmate reports received prior to the date of the signed IPMOU.
2. Qualifying for incentive payments
The Prisoner Update Processing System (PUPS) will automatically determine if a participating institution qualifies for an incentive payment and calculate the payment when:
a confinement report results in the suspension of a recipient’s title XVI payments or a confinement and conviction report results in the suspension of a beneficiary’s title II payments;
the recipient or beneficiary received a payment in the month prior to the suspension month; and
we received the confinement report within 90 days after the date of confinement.
For more information on how PUPS processes incentive payments, see MSOM PRISON 003.001.
3. Incentive payment amount
If a participating institution qualifies for an incentive payment, PUPS calculates a payment amount of the following:
$400 for information received within 30 days after the individual's date of confinement; or
$200 for information received after 30 days but within 90 days after the individual's date of confinement.
We do not pay for information received on or after the 91st day following the individual's date of confinement. However, if you discover that we actually received the information within 90 days of confinement, enter the correct report receipt date as instructed in MSOM PRISON 003.001. PUPS will recalculate the incentive payment amount.
4. Incentive payments for concurrent cases
SSA will pay an incentive payment for each inmate report that leads to suspension of the record of either or both titles. If we suspend payments under only one title, we fund the incentive payment from that program’s trust fund. If we suspend payments under both titles at the same time, we pay the reporting institution only one full incentive payment. However, we fund 50% of the incentive payment from each program’s trust fund.
If we suspended payments under only one title, we will pay a second full incentive payment if we later suspend payments under the other title based on receipt of a subsequent report with a new confinement date and, if the second suspension is Title II, a conviction date.
EXAMPLE: We receive a report of an inmate who is awaiting trial. The inmate receives both Title II and Title XVI payments. We stop the Title XVI payments and PUPS calculates and posts a Title XVI incentive payment for later disbursement. Subsequently, we receive another report with new information about the convicted inmate. We stop the Title II benefit based on the subsequent report and PUPS calculates and posts a Title II incentive payment for later disbursement.
For more information on how PUPS processes incentive payments for concurrent cases, see MSOM PRISON 003.001.
C. Disbursement of incentive payments
1. Disbursement process
After a Title II or Title XVI prisoner suspension occurs, PUPS calculates an incentive payment (IP) if appropriate, and posts the IP money amount to the INCENTIVE DATA field on the Title II query screen, P2QY, or the Title XVI query screen P6QY. PUPS leaves the INCENTIVE DATE field blank until its sweep operation occurs.. On the first business day of each month, the Bounty Update Control System (BUCS) performs a sweep operation by searching the entire PUPS system for records where it posted an IP to the INCENTIVE DATA field and the date entry for the INCENTIVE DATE field is blank. Once BUCS locates all unpaid IP records, it passes the records to the Office of Finance for payment via electronic fund transfer (EFT) to the bank account indicated on the facility’s Incentive Payment Identification (IPID) Screen. We pay all IPs via EFT during the first business week of each month. The EFTs generally transferto the facility’s (i.e., reporter’s) bank account within four business days after BUCS performs the sweep For more information on the incentive payment process, see MSOM PRISON 003.001. For instructions on incentive payments paid erroneously to a correctional institution, see GN 02607.830B.
NOTE: We always pay IPs via EFT. We will not pay an IP using other alternative payment methods, e.g., paper checks, debit cards, etc.
2. Stopping incentive payments before release
If PUPS suspends payment and calculates an incentive payment before we discover that the institution released the inmate from confinement after serving less than a full calendar month or for less than 30 days, neither the suspension nor the incentive payment is applicable. To stop the release of the incentive payment, immediately update the RELEASED DATE on the PUPS record as instructed in MSOM PRISON 003.001. When BUCS performs its monthly selection, it examines each pending payment for the presence of a RELEASED DATE and compares it to the CONFINEMENT DATE to determine if the suspension should have occurred. If the incentive payment is not appropriate, BUCS removes the incentive payment from PUPS.
D. Incentive payment notification
After releasing the monthly incentive payment by EFT, BUCS sends the reporter a payment documentation letter. The letter states the amount of the EFT and the date of deposit.
An enclosed summary page(s) provides a detailed list of the reporter’s incentive payment activity for the month and displays the following information about each person for whom we made an incentive payment:
SSN (XXX-XX-3709) -- only the last 4-digits of the SSN are shown;
Name (XXXXXXXXXX) -- name not shown;
Birth date (XX/XX/XX) -- date of birth not shown;
Inmate identification number;
Incentive payment amount -- $200 or $400;
Report date -- date facility prepared the report;
Receipt date -- date SSA received the inmate data; and
Date confined – confinement date verified by FO.
You can view or re-issue an incentive payment notice by accessing the letter from the Online Retrieval System. Refer all questions regarding the incentive payment notice to your RPC.