For Title II, a payment for the month of death or later is not due and must be reclaimed. For Title XVI, a payment for any month later than the month of death is not due and must be reclaimed.

For a description of the exception of early payment delivery dates for Title II and Title XVI, see GN 02408.600 and GN 02408.301. For further information on automatic and manual reclamations (E-stops), see GN 02408.010 and GN 02408.012.

A payment going to a beneficiary with a representative payee after the beneficiary's death is a legally defined overpayment (LDO). Social Security Administration (SSA) must give the representative payee due process in order to collect the overpayment. Accordingly, do not place a manual reclamation request (E-stop) on a payment that SSA paid to a representative payee following a beneficiary's death. See GN 02201.001D, GN 02408.007, SI 02220.053, and GN 02201.001 regarding Title II and Title XVI overpayment policy.

NOTE: SSA will not reclaim funds when the beneficiary had a representative payee, even following the conclusion of due process. For information on exclusions, see GN02408.615D.1.

Treasury is responsible for reclaiming erroneous Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments that were sent by the SSA and other federal agencies to U.S. financial institutions (FI) after the death of the beneficiary or recipient.

SSA sends a request for reclamation to Treasury, referred to as an E-stop, either automatically or by manual input, after SSA sends Title II or Title XVI EFT payments to the FI following the beneficiary recipient’s death. SSA does not send manual reclamation requests (E-stops) on payments issued to representative payees, as such payments are LDOs, requiring due process.

The request must be received by the FI no more than 120 days after SSA has constructive knowledge of death and stops certifying recurring payments. An example of constructive knowledge of death would be a return of a payment for reasons of death by the FI. The FI can protest to Treasury if the reclamation was sent by SSA more than 120 days after SSA has constructive knowledge of death and stops certifying recurring payments.

For the process of automated reclamation requests to Treasury, see GN 02408.615.

For manual requests, see GN 02408.620.

Treasury imposes a three (3) year time limit for federal agencies to submit final debits (i.e., ACH reclaims) of a FIs Federal Reserve account via the FMS-135, Request for Debit. An ACH reclaim 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 FMS-133, Notice of Reclamation, to submit ACH reclaims via the FMS-135 to Treasury's Regional Financial Center in Philadelphia. Items older than three years are rejected and not processed.

The Green Book is a comprehensive guide for FIs that receive ACH payments from, and send payments to, the Federal Government. The Green Book states that the FI is not liable to return any post-death payments the FI received more than six years prior to the date of the notice of reclamation, except under the following circumstance:

“If the account balance at the time the FI receives the notice of reclamation exceeds the total amount of all post-death payments made by the agency during such six-year period, this limitation shall not apply and the FI shall be liable for the total amount of all payments made, up to the amount in the account at the time the FI receives the notice of reclamation and has had a reasonable opportunity (not to exceed one business day) to act on the notice.”

 

The FI returns any funds that are available. The FI completes the FI portions of the FMS-133 and sends the form to Treasury. For information about the FI's possible responses, see GN 02408.625.

If only part of the funds remain in the FI, the FI returns the partial funds AND provides the name and address of the last withdrawer of the funds on the FMS-133 for contact by SSA.

When the FI returns the funds, Treasury returns them to SSA. A Title II return can be shown as “009 EVENT RET CHECK” on PHUS, it may also be returned as a remittance. A Title XVI return is shown as a slash (/), S, T, or U in Payflag 1 on the SSR and may also be posted on the Overpayment Refund Data (OPRR) segment of the SSR. For more information on erroneous EFT payment returns from FIs and individuals, see GN 02408.665 and GN 02408.670.

NOTE: For situations where Title II benefits have been deposited into an account shared with a spouse or parent, see exclusions in GN 02408.615D.2. Also see, GN 02201.001F and GN 02205.003C.3.

When the account does not contain any funds at all, the FI must return the FMS-133 to Treasury. The FI must provide the name and address of the last withdrawer on the FMS-133 for a Title II and Title XVI reclamations, see GN 02408.630. If the FI does not return a completed FMS-133 timely, Treasury debits the account of the FI or its correspondent bank at the Federal Reserve Bank, and returns the funds to SSA. For the amount of the FI's liability, see GN 02408.625.

The FI protests to Treasury if it believes that SSA sent the reclamation request more than 120 days after learning of the death. The 120-day period is usually counted from the date the death notification entry (DNE) was sent to the FI. However, in some cases the FI protests because it believes we had the death information before that time.

If the FI submits a protest of reclamation involving the 120-day rule, SSA will have 30 days to send a response to Treasury with documentation reflecting that SSA submitted the reclamation timely.

Analysts who respond to 120-Protests should provide Treasury with:

• •

  Proof of when our agency received constructive knowledge of death; and a

• •

  Short narrative explaining why our agency had no knowledge of death prior to sending the Notice of Reclamation.

The proof provided to Treasury could be a screenshot of an Modernized Development Worksheet (MDW), Numident, Report of Contact, the archived Master Beneficiary Records (MBR) section reflecting the suspension for address development, etc…. If SSA does not provide proof to Treasury, our agency is presumed to have knowledge of death at the time we stop certifying recurring payments.

NOTE: If a technician receives documentation reflecting that an FI is submitting protest of reclamation involving the 120-day rule, please forward the documentation to your Lead PSC Analyst for a Title II Reclamation. If the 120-day protest involves a reclamation for a Title XVI benefit, please forward the documentation to OBASA.TOB@ssa.gov.

For Title II, if the Lead PSC Analyst receives a 120-day protest forwarded from a technician or the mailroom, forward the document to Treasury and request Treasury to determine if the 120-day protest has been addressed.

When the FI protests a reclamation to Treasury because the reclamation arrived more than 120 days after the FI believes we learned of the death, Treasury notifies us of the protest. SSA will have 30 days to send a response to Treasury with documentation reflecting that SSA submitted the reclamation timely. After examining our response to the protest, Treasury determines whether we sent the request more than 120 days after learning of the death. If Treasury determines more information from SSA is needed to make their determination, they will contact the SSA Analyst who provided the original response. The SSA Analyst will need to respond immediately to this second request within 3 business days.

When Treasury determines that we sent the request too late and the FI's Federal Reserve account has been debited, the funds due back to the FI will be reversed. If Treasury determines that we sent the request within 120 days, the reclamation process continues.