The US Senate has introduced a new bill that would make it more difficult for Social Security Disability checks to be cashed by a person other than the payee. The move comes after a Pennsylvania woman was found holding several mentally disabled government benefit recipients captive and cashing their checks.

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) is sponsoring legislation that would allow Social Security Administration officials access to existing government databases to identify violent criminals who are seeking representative payee status for another person’s benefits, according to the Washington Post. In effect, this would force all potential representative payees to undergo a criminal background check through the SSA.

It’s already illegal for convicted felons to be representative payees under a 2004 law aimed at cracking down Social Security fraud, but recent events show that the existing legislation did not go far enough to prevent this form of abuse.

Linda Ann Weston has been charged with kidnapping and other offenses after four malnourished mentally disabled adults were found in a basement boiler room in her Philadelphia home on Oct 15. Weston and three other defendants allegedly had been seizing control of the captives’ disability checks.

“The horrors that took place … are deeply troubling, and we must do everything we can to ensure this never, ever happens again,” Sen. Casey said at a news conference with Philadelphia police. “This legislation will ensure that the Social Security Administration has the resources and the tools it needs to stop another situation like this in its tracks.”

Weston was convicted and served prison time for allegedly allowing a man to starve to death three decades ago, which should have barred her from cashing disability checks under the 2004 law that requires payees to disclose if they’ve ever serve a year or more in prison. However, due to lack of fraud-prevention resources in the Social Security Administration, Weston’s criminal past went unnoticed.

Casey’s new bill, set to be introduced in the Senate by the end of the year, would give the SSA more access to existing government databases, such as the FBI’s National Crime Information Center system. It would also increase the number of fraud cases initiated, as the increased policing power would allow the SSA to investigate a wider range of potential offenses.

For many people claiming Disability through the Social Security Administration, the waiting is the hardest part.

Due to massive backlogs and the complex appeals process, many disabled Americans find they must wait months or years before finding themselves eligible to receive SSDI.

Thankfully, the wait may be shorter for those suffering from what the SSA calls “Compassionate Allowance Conditions,” which allow a Social Security applicant to have his or her claim fast-tracked. In October, the SSA announced 13 new conditions that qualify for Compassionate Allowance.

All of the new conditions eligible for the Compassionate Allowance program are related to immune system and neurological disorders, including:

• Malignant Multiple Sclerosis
• The ALS/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex
• Pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma
• Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma
• Primary Effusion Lymphoma
• Angelman Syndrome
• Lewy Body Dementia
• Lowe Syndrome

“Social Security handles more than three million disability applications each year and we need to keep innovating and making our work more efficient,” Commissioner of Social Security Michael J. Astrue said. “With our Compassionate Allowances program, we quickly approved disability benefits for more than 60,000 people with severe disabilities in the past fiscal year. We have made significant improvements, but we can always do more.”

The new additions to the program bring the total Compassionate Allowance Conditions recognized by the SSA to 113.

Conditions already on the Compassionate Allowance list include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.