Social Security Administration's Procedures for Allocating Administrative Costs to the Supplemental Security Income Program

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has highly integrated units with common management and support duties which administer programs such as the Supplemental Security Income for the aged, blind, and disabled. Since the administrative costs of the various programs are paid from different sources, SSA distributes these costs through a cost allocation system. The SSA method of allocating administrative costs to the Supplemental Security Income program is reasonable, but could be improved.