The legislation comes at a critical moment, as reports indicate the
Social Security Administration (SSA) may soon begin issuing letters
demanding beneficiaries repay hundreds or even thousands of dollars they
no longer have, in the middle of a pandemic. These beneficiaries did
not know they were being overpaid, could do nothing to prevent these
extra payments, and may have little ability to pay them back. ...
“Low income, disabled and seniors, many of whom are always at the
precipice of falling into immediate life crisis, now face a new
potentially disruptive conflict in their lives,” said Chairman Davis.
“Some of these individuals, through no fault of their own, received
automatic COVID-19 benefits in excess, in retrospect, of what the
regulations prescribe. Attempting to ‘claw back’ some of these payments
is not only impractical as the recipients are extremely unlikely to have
the resources to return the payments, but it is also cruel and
potentially dangerous as they could be forced into making impossible
choices as to what to give up in their meager resources in an attempt to
respond to any such demand. I believe the only just and humane approach
to this confusion is a ‘no-fault’ stance to this looming threat; that
is, hold these recipients harmless against any errors on the part of the
government. No one in government ever intended that the COVID-19
benefits should cause any harm or injustice to the recipients.” ...
I think we all knew this was coming when the agency issued instructions not to reduce or suspend benefits during the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI think we all saw this coming when the agency instructed not to take any adverse actions on benefits during the pandemic causing scores of overpayments.
ReplyDeleteSome beneficiaries were overpaid because they received both Title 2 and workers' compensation benefits, so their T2 should have been offset. Also I've seen attorneys who were paid double by mistake. Yet we have been told not to take adverse adjustment actions on these cases due to COVID.
ReplyDeleteSome of these overpayments should be recovered immediately, recovery never should have been delayed due to COVID-19. This will be quite a backlog when this is over and technicians have to work these cases.
It'll never pass the Senate. The Republicans there will never stand for letting the unwashed masses avoid repaying these overpayments.
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ReplyDeleteIt seems far easier to just apply any potentially overpaid attorney fees against any existing underpaid attorney fees. I suppose in theory some attorney could actually have a zero balance with the payment center, but that seems unlikely since we've have fees outstanding in some cases for literally years, despite regular contact with the payment center or authorizing entity.
In any event, obviously the required thing to do is to contact SSA when an overpaid attorney fee occurred, but it seems like a lot of these issues would cancel themselves out.
With all due respect, to say that they had no way of knowing that they were being overpaid is simply not true. I have been on SSDI for a while now, and it is always a "set" payment. It does not fluctuate. We get a cost of living increase, once a year, sometimes, but not always. These people had to have known that something was not right. They know how much their monthly allotment is. Period.
ReplyDeleteInevitable . Just issue special instructions to adjust the Administrative threshold for waiver approval for the Covid period. For SSI Without Fault is given as well as Deemed Defeat. Still going to require some documentation / claimant contact . There are tons of "Open Events" not closed in the database as they are Adverse Actions . Still a massive workload !
ReplyDeleteMy roommate was over paid by 500 dollars. They took it all back out of her next SAI payment. This affects me to. I'm also her landlord.
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