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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2014)
street roots Dec. 19, 2014 ' 11=4v P 7 State records show problems with payee services, oversight BY JAKE THOMAS ST A FF W R ITE R he complaint describes a desperate ■ situation: The institution charged with managing almost all of your financial decisions won’t give you enough of your own money to pay ren t “My rent, is $380. So I know I had more monies available,” reads a handwritten consumer complaint filed with the Oregon Attorney General’s Office against Integrity Plus, a nonprofit that manages the federal disability benefits for disabled individuals. The complaint continues with key words underlined for emphasis: “All the payee clients are truly disabled and monies never work out to what they should! “Social Security insists they supervise these people,” the complaint angrily concludes. “They do not!” “These people” are representative payees, individuals or organizations tasked many with serious physical and mental by the Social Security Administration with impairments, into financial turmoil. The being the financial gatekeepers for affidavit in support of the search warrant individuals who receive federal disability describes very disorganized finances at the benefits, but have been deemed to be nonprofit. incapable of managing their own finances. Reviews by the administration of Integrity They make sure that the beneficiaries rent, Plus conducted in 2010 and 2011 found that medications and other necessities are paid some of the nonprofit’s clients had accrued for, while conforming to the Social Security balances that put them in jeopardy of losing Administration’s array of rules and their benefit checks and their medical regulations. And some of these people have insurance. problems that the administration is aware, “That could be a really big deal if they of, don’t manage their resource limit,” says Street Roots, using the Freedom of Wenk. “I Blink that should never happen Information Act, acquired the reviews the with a payee service.” Social Security Administration periodically The Social Security Administration conducts on organizational payees in the doesn’t allow someone receiving disability Portland area. Some of them had minor benefits to accumulate more than $2,000 in problems. Central City Concern, a large savings. If a recipient goes over this amount, social services nonprofit, passed with flying the Social Security Administration may cut colors. But a few payees had serious issues off their disability benefits and the health m managing, their gfigalSt insurance that usually goes along with it. reveal,, Wenk says that “it’s not an automatic “I would argue, where there is smoke thing,” but if the Social Security there’s fire,” says Curtis Decker, the Administration finds out that someone is executive director of the National Disability over their resource limit, they can and will Rights Network, a national organization that suspend benefits, Wenk recalls a client who monitors payee services. He says that a had to go to her dentist for a needed common problem with payee services is bud procedure. When she got there, she found bookkeeping, which may be an indicator that out that her payee (who he wouldn’t name) the organization is not taking good care of had let her go over her resource limit and its clients. she didn’t have medical insurance. Ted Wenk, a staff attorney with Disability Wenk says that this can easily be avoided Rights Oregon who specializes in payee if a payee monitors a client’s account and programs, says that some payee services spends it down when it gets high. He also might be great with clients but bad with says that a payee can purchase a life bookkeeping. But that can be a major insurance policy or burial plan for a client to problem, he says. prevent them from going over their resource “Some organizations might think, ‘but I limit. He also says that a payee could know where everything is,’”'says Wenk, purchase a trip for their client from an “But if someone is committing fraud, you organization that takes disabled people on might not find out until six months later.” excursions' to the- Coast or to Las Vegas to For about a decade, government oversight see an Elvis impersonator. agencies have released a stream of reports Wenk also says that Disability Rights documenting how the payee system is ripe Oregon has received complaints from for abuse and mismanagement. Portland saw Integrity Plus clients who were worried they the effects of this mismanagement earlier would go over their resource limit and Ipse this year when the state’s largest payee, benefits. Safety Net of Oregon, was raided by federal A 2009 review of Integrity Plus faulted agents after it couldn’t account for hundreds the, nonprofit for paying for a client’s rent-to- of thousands of dollars in missing client own items as well as an “exorbitant” cable funds. The nonprofit was ordered to close bill. These expenses, according to the itsdoors, throwing-hundreds of its clients, review, did “not meet the definition of basic needs.” A letter from the Social Security Administration to Integrity Plus, also sent in 2009, states, “During the review, we found several clients had large expenditures with no supporting documentation. Rent receipts or copies of lease agreements are not routinely kept m the financial files.” Wenk says that it can be a big problem if a payee is not keeping receipts for rents on file. If there is a dispute with a landlord over whether rent was paid, a client could face eviction. “If they show up on Judge Judy, they can appeal it,” says Wenk, jokingly, of the need to keep rent receipts. “Maybe the landlord doesn’t keep good books,” . In 2012, the Social Security Administration wrote to Integrity Plus sta tin g th a t it could n o lo n g e r co llect fees frbm^effefifpbynrteftts. Payees are allowed to collect a fee from their client’s disability checks (often around $40), which isoften their primary or only source of revenue. The administration made, this decision, according to the letter, because Integrity Plus had inadequate insurance for its / deposits, which were over $1 million at the time. A 2009 review from the Social Security Administration warned Integrity Plus that it did not have adequate insurance that would protect client funds against unexpected loss of fraud. “It seems pretty problematic that it’s reoccuring,” says Wenk of Integrity Plus’ inadequate insurance. He also calls it a “major step” for the Spcial Security Administration to bar a payee from taking fees. Integrity Plus could not be reached for comment. When Street Roots called the , listed number for Integrity Plus, it went to a message saying that the voicemail for that number was full. Integrity Plus did not respond to a written request for comment. The nonprofit’s 2012 tax return, filled out by hand, states that it was running a small deficit of $873. Italso states that it received $240,845 in revenue from disability benefits . and that Karen Quinlan, the nonprofit’s , J president, received over $72,000 in compensation. Other payee services have had trouble as well. A 2014 review of Providence ElderPlace “found 34 accounts that have had negative balances, one has continuously run a negative balance since February 2013.” According to Wenk, if a payee allows an account to run into the red it could mean that they are using other client’s money to cover the negative balance. “You’re dipping into other people’s collective money, so that’s a big no-no,” says Wenk. * Providence ElderPlace, a program offered by Providence Health Services for older individuals that includes a payee service, did not respond to a request for comment. Safe Option was another payee service that also had problems according to Social Security Administration reviews. Reviews conducted in 2012 and 2013 found that Safe Option wasn’t performing bank account reconciliations nor was it keeping proper documentation for payments made on behalf of their clients. It also ran negative balances on clients’ funds. Judith Dehen is the CEO of Safe Option, a payee service for about 190 people that has one other staff member. She says that reviews by the Social Security Administration don’t tell the whole story. “A big part of it, is we do not get the support from Social Security that we should get,” she says. “I have felt for a long time that (the Social Security Administration is) very inconsistent in the way that they apply rules, and they contradict each other. Their rules are so arcane that they don’t know them all.” Dehen says that some clients did have negative account b alances. S h e says it w as alyyays- harmless and never on the hook for overdraft fees. Dehen disputes the reviews assertion that they don’t keep proper ledgers. As for hot keeping proper documentation for payments made on behalf of clients, Dehen says those were small, isolated infractions. She also says that Social Security’s rules are not clear and not consistent for what documentation needs to be kept. For instance, she says a guidebook states that a cancelled check counts as a receipt However, the review faulted Safe Option for using a cancelled check as a receipt. Deheri also poihts out that her organization was reviewed between March 2012 and February 2013, but she didn’t get the results back until October 2013. “If you wait six months to inform me that you want me to change something, then how urgent do you feel it is?” shesays. Decker, of the National Disability Rights Network, says that this dealing with Social Security is a common issue for many payees. “That is a very real problem,” says Decker. One of the things we’ve uncovered, even the people doing it correctly say they got no training, no technical assistance.”
