The Social Security Administration has provided people with income security for over 80 years. The agency takes seriously its responsibilities to ensure eligible individuals receive the benefits to which they are entitled and to safeguard the integrity of benefit programs to better serve its customers. Agency employees work hard to pay the right person the right amount at the right time, and payment accuracy rates remain high.Social Security pays $1.4 trillion in benefits to more than 71 million people each year. While payment accuracy rates are high, overpayments do happen given the number of people the agency serves, the number of changes in their circumstances, and the complexity of the programs.
Only around 0.5 percent of Social Security payments are overpayments. For the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, overpayments also represent a small percentage of payments—about 8 percent—but are higher due to the complexity in administering statutory income and resource limits and asset evaluations.
“Despite our high accuracy rates, I am putting together a team to review our overpayment policies and procedures to further improve how we serve our customers,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “I have designated a senior official to work out of the Office of the Commissioner to lead the team and report directly to me.”
There is misinformation in the media claiming that the Social Security Administration is attempting to collect $21 billion. This figure was derived from the total amount of overpayments that have occurred over the history of the programs. Each person’s situation is unique, and the agency handles overpayments on a case-by-case basis. In particular, if a person doesn’t agree that they’ve been overpaid, or believes the amount is incorrect, they can appeal. If they believe they shouldn’t have to pay the money back, they can request that the agency waive collection of the overpayment. There’s no time limit for filing a waiver.
The agency is continually improving how it serves the millions of people who depend on its programs, including by preventing overpayments and making it easier to navigate the recovery and waiver processes.
For instance, the agency just released its streamlined waiver request form that is easier to understand and less burdensome for people to request a debt recovery waiver. It is also developing a new electronic payroll data exchange program that will automatically use wage information to adjust payment amounts when appropriate to prevent overpayments. Additionally, the agency intends to publish a proposed rule to streamline processes and reduce burden so eligible individuals can more easily seek debt relief.
When overpayments do happen, the agency is required by law to adjust benefits or recover debts. The law allows Social Security to waive recovery in some cases, which must be balanced with the agency’s stewardship responsibility to safeguard the integrity of benefit programs and the trust funds.
Social Security is committed to working with people if they seek to appeal or to explore potential repayment options and waivers when allowed by law.
For more information about the overpayment process, please see Overpayments Fact Sheet
Oct 5, 2023
Press Release On Overpayments
A press release from the Acting Commissioner of Social Security:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Literally every CDR cessation contains a substantial overpayment due to processing time. If it’s due to work activity, they had that info reported to them by the employer quarterly.
The information reported quarterly is to the state, not SSA. SSA has access to that information later. I found it somewhat common for that information to be wrong, people working with the SSN but a completely different name.
So, are you implying it’s the agency’s fault when a claimant is working (or simply no longer disabled) but elects to exercise his due process rights (in bad faith) to continue collecting benefits pending a hearing?
SSI claimants work and do not report that they are working and they are overpaid
It’s wrong occasionally but I have t found it to be common for it to be incorrect.
It lets you know when the name and SSN are not a match for the wages reported.
There are all different kinds of overpayments, and they shouldn't all be treated the same way (and they aren't now, although it's probably harder than it should be for recipients to request waivers/recons and for SSA staff to adjudicate them). If the SSI earned and unearned income disregards and resource limits had increased with inflation, if Congress got rid of ISM and dedicated accounts, and if Title II benefits were payable for the month in which someone dies, we would all have a LOT fewer overpayments to deal with. Add in fixes to the DI cliff after TWP and the retirement earnings test, and things could be even simpler, though these probably wouldn't reduce the number of OPs (maybe the size of some of them though).
When the rep payee got off scott free, even after receiving Social Security on her own account and the recipient was a minor when the rep payee failed to report the change in custody, I just scratched my head. Who made these rules? A waiver was granted.
If we are talking DIB/DI traditional overpayments from CDRs, the NDNH gives that info quarterly, unless it's self-employment, SSA is alerted to this, and it's in the MBR, when income is reported by SSN automatically. The controls and processes are provided in great detail in POMS. If employment is taxed, there is literally no way to conceal it, cause it gets reported.
It would be easier, more efficient, and likely provide more accurate results to just auto-generate notices requesting additional info when income is electronically reported to SSA.
Post a Comment