TN 11 (08-10)

NOTE: Effective 01/01/2011, no further Economic Recovery Payments (ERP) can be made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). For non-receipt or limited payability issues involving ERP certified before 12/31/10, see EM-11024 SEN dated 4/19/2011. After 9/30/11 we will no longer have authority to issue ERPs due to lack of stimulus funds, see AM-11117 SEN dated 9/13/11.

A. Introduction

This section explains which Social Security beneficiaries can receive the one-time $250 Economic Recovery Payment (ERP) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) GN 02820.001.

Social Security beneficiaries who are concurrently entitled to Title II and Title XVI benefits will receive a single $250 payment.

SSA will send notices in April 2009 to beneficiaries who can receive an ERP in May 2009. When there is a representative payee, SSA will send the notice to the representative payee and not the beneficiary. The Department of Treasury (DT) will issue the first $250 payments throughout May 2009.

B. Who is eligible to receive an ERP

Adult Social Security beneficiaries and Childhood Disability Beneficiaries (CDB) can receive an ERP. Minor children and students receiving auxiliary or survivor benefits are not eligible.

Any individual who

1. receives Social Security benefits or

2. was eligible to receive Social Security benefits for any month in the 3-month period prior to enactment of the ARRA (i.e., November 2008, December 2008, and January 2009)

may receive the ERP if the address of record is, at the time of payment, one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

Individuals receiving Statutory Benefit Continuation (SBC) per DI 12027.001 or Provisional Payments per DI 13050.025 made in the 3-month period are not considered eligible months for the ERP. Any month in the 3-month period that a young mother or father does not have a child “in care” (LAF S4, RFST NOCICS) will not be considered an eligible month for the ERP.

In concurrent Title II/Title XVI cases, the ERP will be paid based on SSI eligibility.

If a beneficiary, certified to receive an ERP, died prior to receiving the payment, the returned ERP will be reissued to an authorized representative of the deceased’s estate upon request. See GN 02820.010G in this section.

C. Who is eligible but not payable

All beneficiaries are eligible for an ERP if the limitations to payment in GN 02820.010D do not exist during the 3-month period.

However, there are certain suspension status conditions, which will not allow a payment pending resolution of the reason for suspense. The Benefit Paid Designation (BPD) code of “0,” indicates that a benefit was not paid, and the Reason for Suspension or Termination (RFST) is on the Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) in the HISTORY data field SM 00510.585.

The following suspense status codes indicate necessary development for better address, whereabouts unknown, representative payee, or death. The ERP will not be paid until all issues have been resolved and no other limitation applies.

An ERP will not be paid if, at the time of payment, the address of record is not one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

A foreign address is indicated on the MBR by a consular code in the ADDRESS data field SM 00510.110B or a Payment Status Code (PSC) code of “F” in the PAYMENT data field SM 00510.105B.7.

D. Who is not eligible to receive an ERP

Any termination month in the 3-month period (November 2008, December 2008, and January 2009) will not be considered in determining eligibility for an ERP. Therefore, beneficiaries who are in terminated status for all months of the 3-month period are not eligible for an ERP.

Beneficiaries who are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits in the most recent month of entitlement in the 3-month period (November 2008, December 2008, or January 2009) due to the following conditions, are not eligible for the ERP:

• Prisoner

• Fugitive felon status

• Violation of probation or parole

• No longer lawfully present in the United States

• Under administrative sanction for giving false or misleading representation about Title II eligibility or benefit amount

Example

The MBR shows payment status:

11/08, BPD-1 (Current pay),

12/08, BPD-0, RFST-PRISON (prisoner suspense), and

01/09, BPD-0, RFST-CHDAGE (CIC termination, last child attains age 16).

The beneficiary cannot receive an ERP because, in the most recent month of entitlement in the 3-month period (12/08), the beneficiary was ineligible for Title II payment due to prisoner suspense.

The Benefit Paid Designation (BPD) code of “0” (indicating that a benefit was not paid and the Reason for Suspension or Termination (RFST)) will be in the HISTORY data field on the MBR SM 00510.585.

E. Economic Recovery List Query (ERLQ)

The web-based Economic Recovery List Query (ERLQ) provides pre-payment and post-payment information for each individual selected to receive an ERP because of eligibility for SSI, Social Security, Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), or Veterans Administration (VA) benefits. Beneficiaries who are determined to be ineligible to receive an ERP at selection will not have information posted to the ERLQ. Only SSA employees may access the ERLQ at http://erl.ba.ssa.gov/.

Only SSA employees had access to the ERLQ link at http://erl.ba.ssa.gov/. (Please note that this link is no longer active.)

The ERLQ consists of six tabs:

1. Pre-Payment

This section of the query will be available upon the individual’s selection for the ERP.

• Social Security Number (SSN)

• Selection Date

• Agency Identity

• ERP Issue Date

• T2 Claim Account Number (CAN)

• T2 Beneficiary Identification Code (BIC)

• T16 Housed Under Number (HUN)

2. Payment

This section of the query will be available upon issuance of the ERP.

• T2 Ledger Account File (LAF)/T16 Payment Status Code (PSY)

• ERP Issue Date

• Last Address (ADDR) Change

• ERP Payment Method

• Last Direct Deposit (DIR DEP) Change

• Treasury Offset Amount (AMT)

• Reason For Suspension

• Reason ERP Not Paid

3. Post-Payment

This section of the query will display information about a returned ERP or a previous non-receipt report of the ERP, if involved.

• Returned Payment Information

• Non-receipt Information

4. Reclamation and Limited Payability

This section of the query will display Treasury status information on a previous non-receipt report or a limited payability issue regarding an ERP, if involved.

• Reclamation Information

• Treasury Report of Payment Over Cancellation (POC) of Original ERP After Reissuance as a Courtesy Payment

• Reclamation Information

• Limited Payability Credit Returned (Unnegotiated ERP Checks)

5. RRB and VA Referrals

This section of the query provides referral information that is useful when an ERP inquiry requires referral to either of these agencies:

• Railroad Retirement Board

• Dept. of Veterans Administration

6. All

This section of the query will display all of the information contained in the ERLQ except RRB and VA Referrals.

• Pre-Payment Status

• Payment Status

• Post-Payment Status

ERLQ Alerts and Indicators

When you attempt to access a beneficiary who was not selected for an ERP, you receive the following alerts:

• If the Beneficiary’s Own Account Number (BOAN) is entered and no response returned, “Individual not found for ERP. Check for alternate CAN and BIC, if applicable. If no alternate CAN and BIC, then individual not selected for ERP.”

• If CAN and BIC are entered and no response returned, “Individual not selected for ERP.”

When a beneficiary was selected as eligible to receive an ERP but an ineligible suspense event occurs prior to payment of the ERP, the event will be captured and identified on the ERLQ by the following indicators:

• Selection Date - the date of beneficiary selection for an ERP in MM/DD/CCYY format

• Reason for Suspension - the reason that Social Security benefits have been suspended

• Reason ERP Not Paid - the reason that an ERP could not be paid

F. Examples

1. Claimant receives a notice, but no ERP

A beneficiary reports on May 30, 2009, that he received a notice, but did not receive an ERP. A Claims Representative (CR) reviews the ERLQ. The ERP Issue Date field shows the date the ERP was issued and the ERP Pmt. Method field shows that payment was issued as a paper check. The CR will explain that the payment was mailed and, if the beneficiary does not receive the $250 payment by June 4, he should report a non-receipt of the ERP.

2. Claimant receives a notice, but no ERP

A beneficiary reports on June 8, 2009, that he received a notice, but did not receive an ERP. The CR reviews the ERLQ. The Selection Date field shows that the beneficiary was selected as eligible to receive an ERP. The ERP Issue Date field is blank but the Reason for Suspension field shows an RFST of DEVADD and the Reason ERP Not Paid field shows Dev for Address. The CR reviews the MBR and finds that, effective May 2009, the beneficiary is in suspense for “Development for Better Address” (BPD-0, RFD-6, RFST DEVADD). The CR explains the reason that payment was not made and obtains the current address information from the beneficiary. The CR takes action to correct the address and informs the beneficiary that he will receive payment in the next release of ERPs. The beneficiary will be advised to inform SSA in the event there are any future changes that may affect receipt of his ERP.

3. Claimant receives no notice and no ERP

A beneficiary reports in June 2009 that he did not receive an ERP. He does not remember if he received a notice. The CR enters the beneficiary’s SSN to review the ERLQ and receives an alert, “Individual not found on ERLQ check alternate CAN and BIC.” The CR enters the CAN and BIC for the beneficiary and receives the following alert from the ERLQ, “Individual not selected for ERP.” The CR reviews the MBR HISTORY field for November 2008, December 2008, and January 2009 and finds that the beneficiary is not eligible for an ERP because he was in terminated status for the entire period and explains this to the beneficiary.

G. ERP to Estates

For any beneficiary who died after certification for payment and the payment was returned to SSA because of death, the ERP can be repaid to the estate upon request from a valid representative. The representative must provide us with proof of his or her authority to represent the estate.

NOTE: Since no ERPs can be made after December 31, 2010,refer any public inquiries (written or telephone call) to the servicing field office for a face-to-face interview.

Field office responsibilities:

1. Review the ERLQ to determine if the deceased was certified for an ERP and if the ERP was returned.

   • If no ERP was certified or if no ERP was returned, the estate is not due an ERP. (This would also include situations when an ERP payment was cashed or direct-deposited to an active account.) Contact the requester by phone, explain that the ERP which had been issued to the deceased, must be returned to the FO before a payment can be reissued.

   • If an ERP was certified and the ERP was returned, the estate is eligible for the ERP. Follow the ERP to Estate procedures.

   NOTE: If the representative returns an ERP check while inquiring about payment to the estate, follow check return procedures in GN 02820.051B and proceed with the ERP to Estate process.

2. Give the representative a printed copy of the Privacy Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act statements provided below:

   

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3. Request that the representative provide valid documentation of his or her status as representative of the estate to expedite the payment process. (for guidance see GN 02301.035) Verify any proof that the representative may provide as authentic documentation. Fax any documentation that is submitted into NDRed.

   Request this documentation, which should demonstrate the individual’s authority to receive the ERP:

   • deceased individual’s name

   • estate’s taxpayer identification number, if available

   • deceased individual’s Social Security or Claim Number

   • identity of the individual or entity to whom the check should be made payable

   • a mailing address

4. Forward all contact information via email to ^DCO OPSOS ERP Estates.

   The email must contain
   Information about the Estate Representative:	Name Email address (if available) Phone number Mailing address
   Information about the Deceased Beneficiary:	Name SSN/Claim Number/Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Date of death State/Territory of death State/Territory of residence
   Information about evidence submitted	Give a brief description of any evidence provided and stored in NDRed. Mention any document with questionable authenticity in this description.

OPSOS responsibilities

1. Review the e-mail from the FO to ensure it is complete. If the e-mail is not complete, return it to the FO with a request for any missing information.

2. If the email is complete, forward the e-mail to OGC.

OGC responsibilities

1. Review the e-mail and any documents in NDRed.

2. Determine the document(s) required to qualify as a representative of an estate.

   • If documentation in NDRed is not sufficient or no documentation was provided, contact the representative and request document(s) that qualify him or her as a representative of the estate.

   • Advise the representative to take or mail any document(s) to the local FO.

3. Verify the submitted document(s).

   • If the estate is eligible to receive the ERP, forward the information to OFPO for payment. You must provide: (a) the deceased individual’s name; (b) the estate’s taxpayer identification number, if available; (c) the deceased individual’s Social Security or Claim Number; (d) the identity of the individual or entity to whom the check should be made payable; and (e) a mailing address.

   • If the estate is not eligible to receive the ERP, contact the representative and explain why no payment will be sent.

     NOTE: Make phone contact with the representative when possible.

OFPO responsibilities

1. Release the ERP to the estate representative.

2. File estate payment information in dedicated folder.

3. Provide OGC with payment information for its records.

4. Notify Systems to annotate the ERLQ that the estate payment has been made.

   NOTE: Process any allegation of non-receipt by the estate per GN 02820.052.

OS responsibilities

Update the ERLQ to indicate that an ERP was paid to the estate.

H. References

• GN 02820.001 , The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) – Introduction

• SM 00630.072 , Installments and Benefit Statements

• SM 00630.341 , Event 141 ERP - TOP

• SM 00630.409 , Event 209 ERP - PMT

• SM 00514.110 , Date of Death Data

• GN 02607.001 , Title II Prisoner And Other Inmate Suspension Provisions

• SM 03020.310 , Lawful Presence (CLLP)

• SM 00510.175 , Benefit (BENEFIT) Data Line

• SM 03020.020 , Administrative Sanctions (ASAN)

• DI 13050.025 , Provisional Benefits - Title II

• DI 12027.001 , Statutory Benefit Continuation (SBC)

• SM 00630.100, Overview of PHUS Events