TN 12 (01-14)

RS 01602.525 Representative Payee Issues with Railroad Involvement

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) accepts the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) determination of a representative payee. If the RRB has a representative payee for its annuitant, but we certify payment to the RRB without a representative payee, RRB will certify Retirement, Survivor, Disability Insurance (RSDI) payment to the representative payee selected by the RRB to avoid delaying the benefit payment.

When RRB notifies us of their payee selection, the claims authorizer (CA) follows instructions GN 00501.010 through GN 00501.015 and GN 00502.001 through GN 00502.300 to determine a proper SSA representative payee.

The CA initiates payee development and provides the field office (FO) with all pertinent information available from the file concerning the payee RRB has selected.

After the SSA FO develops for a payee for SSA benefits, the CA notifies the RRB of our payee determination if we determine that the beneficiary does not need a representative payee and RRB has a representative payee. For all other situations, RRB notification will be through the SSA/RRB Automatic Data Exchange.

When we select a representative payee and the RRB has selected a different payee, the RRB immediately contacts the RRB field office that services the address of the SSA representative payee, to process a change in the RRB payee to the same payee selected by SSA.