[tanzam75]

> Even if you don't allow them to be sold off, nothing is stopping someone from entering an agreement where they have to pay the same amount monthly to a person X in exchange for a lump sum received now. So they still receive their checks but they have to pay that money to someone anyway.

Such an arrangement would be an unsecured personal loan, which would not survive a bankruptcy filing.

This is why you see commercials on late-night TV for structured settlement cash-outs, but you don't see commercials offering to pay you a lump sum in return for handing over your Social Security payments.

The Social Security system pays out $700 billion in benefits each year. The entire structured settlement market is only about $6 billion a year. However, Social Security payments cannot be assigned, and structured settlements can.

These companies don't want to give out unsecured loans to poor people with lead poisoning who don't have jobs. They want to pay pennies on the dollar for a guaranteed stream of payments.