Don't lose your money

For those of you who receive Federal Benefit checks or other pension checks, I'll bet you never thought of this one. Disasters affect every aspect of our lives.

For example:

Each year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank encourage people who receive federal benefit checks to sign up for direct deposit. For those who depend on the mail for their Social Security benefits, a difficult situation can become worse if they are evacuated or lose their mail service - as 85,000 check recipients learned after Hurricane Katrina. Switching to electronic payment is one simple, significant way people can protect themselves before disaster strikes. It also eliminates the risk of stolen checks. More information, including the Go Direct Disaster Preparedness Toolkit is available ta http://www.godirect.org