Feds to Baby Boomers: Go Direct (Deposit that is)

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are introducing the Countdown to Retirement campaign (http://www.godirect.org) to encourage retiring baby boomers to start depositing paychecks via direct deposit. Why does the Feb care how baby boomers get their paychecks? Because they very much care about whether or not boomers elect to use direct deposit on their Social Security checks. According to the agencies:

For consumers, direct deposit reduces fraud, and for the government it reduces costs. Currently, 98% of all problems with Social Security payments happen with paper checks, according to Treasury officials. There were 1.5 million payment inquiries in 2005, while government-check fraud that year cost the nation about $54 million, the bulk of it tied to Social Security checks. Moreover, each paper check costs the government 80 cents more to process than does an electronic deposit.

In addition to the Go Direct website (link above) there is a toll-free number (800-333-1795) where consumers can sign up for free for direct deposit of their government checks.