Special Benefits for Certain World War II Veterans; Reporting Requirements, Suspension and Termination Events, Overpayments and Underpayments, Administrative Review Process, Claimant Representation, and Federal Administration of State Recognition Payments

We are adding six new subparts to part 408 of our regulations and reserve an additional subpart for future use. Part 408 sets forth our rules applicable to claims for special veterans benefits (SVB) under title VIII of the Social Security Act (the Act). The title VIII program was effective in May 2000 and provides monthly benefits to certain World War II (WWII) veterans who previously were eligible for supplemental security income (SSI) payments under title XVI of the Act and reside outside the United States. In these final rules, we are setting forth six new subparts that deal with the following topics: the events you must report to us after you apply for SVB, the circumstances that will affect your SVB entitlement, how we handle overpayments and underpayments under the SVB program, how the administrative review process works, your right to appoint someone to represent you in your dealings with us, and administration agreements we may enter into with a State under which we will pay supplemental recognition payments to you on the State's behalf. In addition, we are reserving for future use a subpart in part 408 that would explain when we will pay your SVB to someone else on your behalf. An NPRM that included that subpart was published in the Federal Register on September 25, 2003 (68 FR 55323). We plan to issue those final rules at a later date.