The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) uses the Notice of Reclamation, (FS-133), to notify the Social Security Administration (SSA) of beneficiary payments returned to Treasury as a result of a reclamation request. Treasury uses the Request for Debit of the Financial Institution's Account, (FS-135), to notify SSA when Treasury debits a FI's Federal Reserve Account. Treasury uses the FS-133 and FS-135 to document recovery of funds from the FI that require action by SSA to post the funds to the payment records. The FS-133 also provides SSA with the information necessary to contact the last withdrawer when funds paid after death are unrecoverable by the FI (see GN 02408.630).

Treasury imposes a three (3) year time limit for Federal agencies to submit final debits requests (i.e., ACH reclaims) of a FI's Federal Reserve account via the FS-135, Request for Debit. An ACH reclamation represents a debit against an FI for certain liability on payments disbursed after the death of a beneficiary. Agencies have three years from the date of the FS-133, Notice of Reclamation, to submit ACH reclaims via the FS-135 to Treasury's Philadelphia and Kansas City Regional Financial Centers. Items will reject and will not process if they are older than three years.

Treasury may send the FS-133 or the FS-135 to the Paperless System for action. Cases involving title II reclamations should be controlled for technicians to retrieve the documents from the Treasury Check Information System's (TCIS) Dashboard if the document is not available in Paperless.

The second page of the FS-133 form has three sections. The top section provides information on the amount of funds returned from the FI either by check or request for electronic debit. The middle section provides information from the FI regarding the reclamation, including last withdrawer information if provided by the FI, and the bottom section provides the FI's certification information regarding the reclamation request.

Technicians should obtain a copy of the FS-135 from the TCIS Dashboard 730 Debit Cancellation Summary Report whenever the Claims Details tab in Dashboard shows the reclamation status as "FI Debited." For more information on when Treasury debits the FI's Federal Reserve account, see GN 02408.645.

Treasury allows for FIs to submit a debit request against their Federal Reserve account as a response to the FS-133. The Payment History tab within TCIS will reflect "FI INITIATED DEBIT REQUEST." The FS-133 will reflect the FI initiated debit in the Disbursing Office block on the back of the FS-133 and the information can also be found in the TCIS Dashboard 740 Debit Cancellation Summary. Technicians should obtain a copy of the FS-135 from the TCIS Dashboard 740 Debit Cancellation Summary Report and treat these debits requests like an FI remittance.

Code the SSA-4208 with the amount reclaimed on the FS-135 to reduce the SPA and clear ARS.

See How to Complete Form SSA-4208 for Electronic Fund Transfer Reclamations SM 00609.865C. The SSA-4208 can be input via the MAMPSC Data Input Page see SM 00609.850.

If we do not recover any portion of the outstanding credit, input a second SSA-4208 action to write-off the ARS control on the remaining outstanding payments.

REMINDER: Technicians should use the SSA-4208 to process a credit from the FS-133 and FS-135. Only use MADCAP/ROAR to reduce or clear the SPA/BOUD if the prior SSA-4208 input was coded incorrectly or there were missing E-stops.

For international reclamations, technicians can use the SSA-4208 to process a credit from the FS-133 and FS-135 for cases that Alien Taxation does not apply. The SSA-4208 can also be used for international reclamations to process a write-off or to clear ARS. If the initial SSA-4208 input was coded incorrectly, or if there was a missing E-stop, the use of the OR sic maybe warranted. For partial recovery or no recovery of International Reclamations, see GN 02408.945.

NOTE: All international reclamations should be forwarded to PC8.

When a reclamation request contains at least seven payments with an outstanding dollar amount over $15,000.00, Treasury forwards a copy of the reclamation request to the USSS for review and forwards the FS-133 into the PC paperless system.

SSA receives the FS-133 with language stating:

“Forward to USSS (date) - Agency should not attempt collection until response received from USSS”

The USSS attempts to contact the last withdrawer and make a refund agreement.

When the USSS and SSA both secure refund agreements, accept and process the better one. Take no action on the FS-133 when the terms of the agreement are honored.

When the terms of the agreement are not honored or no agreement is made, the FS-133 is stamped “RECLAIM” and returned to the appropriate Fiscal Financial Center for final debit.

OIG generally investigates fraud cases that meet the prosecutive acceptance guidelines for federal judicial district where the fraud occurred.

When more than $5,000 in incorrect payments exists because they are unavailable to reclaim after SSA has applied any credits received on an FS-133 or SSA has completed the subsequent reclamations process found in GN 02408.410:

1. 1. 

   The technician refers the case to OIG via the Allegation Referral Intake System (ARIS) process prior to contacting the last withdrawer, after applying any credits from the FS-133 and a balance of more than $5,000 remains.

2. 2. 

   Diary control the case for 30 days. The technician recontacts OIG directly when no response is received after 30 days.

3. 3. 

   Process the FS-133 per GN 02408.626B.2. when OIG does not open a case.