The New York Times has a piece up on Social Security’s overpayment problem and its brutal effects on claimants.
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Anonymous
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A large number of overpayments are due to SSA error but probably more due to errors made by claimants not reporting work, workers comp, kid leaving their care, etc. When it's SSA's fault, I compare it to a bank error. If a bank deposited $500 in your account, you'd be expected to pay it back even though you're not at fault. The trouble is SSA overpayments are usually identified much later. Kids overpaid as minors should be able to be waived as against equity and good conscience if the parents are dead.
Yep, just like @2:12 said, the largest portion of overpayment causes, that are also conveniently never talked about in the articles, are claimants failure to report changes. When they apply for benefits, their receipt has a page that says what changes need to be reported. The biggest non-report issue is wages not being reported at all, or even timely. Now, one can argue that if SSA got off its ass and implemented the long overdue payroll data program that's been in the works sine 2015, that possibly could cut down on non-reporting overpayments as SSA would just get that information monthly. However, that wouldn't work for self-employed individuals or any companies that don't opt into the covered payroll data providers, but it's at least a start. Secondly, getting information from payroll date providers could easy the burden of SSA being overwhelmed with work reviews as is, since every work review is done manually. Having automated information straight from payroll data providers could, theoretically, automate many work reviews where the claimant is obviously under SGA.
Also, the articles only scratch the surface and it's a pretty poor point of "journalism" if you ask me. They (the articles) always talk about claimants asking for reconsideration of the overpayment, and the reconsideration is denied. Well yeah, when you file a reconsideration, you are appealing the facts of the overpayment. The fact is, you were overpaid for X reason, it's not going to be overturned by reconsideration because the facts of the overpayment are true. A waiver is complete different, and is what many of these claimants should be filing instead. If someone was overpaid as a child, while their parent was payee, or they weren't living with NH--whose unreported event caused the overpayment, the overpayment can be transferred to the former payee's SSN, or the NH SSN.
For the millionth time, SSA gets alerts when wages are reported quarterly based on FICA. They have every opportunity to do their administrative job of verifying those wages, they have the permissions to do so, and they adjust payment amounts based on income changes. They have the data, they just refuse to use the resources required to actually do timely reviews or appropriate calculations, so overpayment.
3 comments:
A large number of overpayments are due to SSA error but probably more due to errors made by claimants not reporting work, workers comp, kid leaving their care, etc.
When it's SSA's fault, I compare it to a bank error. If a bank deposited $500 in your account, you'd be expected to pay it back even though you're not at fault. The trouble is SSA overpayments are usually identified much later.
Kids overpaid as minors should be able to be waived as against equity and good conscience if the parents are dead.
Yep, just like @2:12 said, the largest portion of overpayment causes, that are also conveniently never talked about in the articles, are claimants failure to report changes. When they apply for benefits, their receipt has a page that says what changes need to be reported. The biggest non-report issue is wages not being reported at all, or even timely. Now, one can argue that if SSA got off its ass and implemented the long overdue payroll data program that's been in the works sine 2015, that possibly could cut down on non-reporting overpayments as SSA would just get that information monthly. However, that wouldn't work for self-employed individuals or any companies that don't opt into the covered payroll data providers, but it's at least a start. Secondly, getting information from payroll date providers could easy the burden of SSA being overwhelmed with work reviews as is, since every work review is done manually. Having automated information straight from payroll data providers could, theoretically, automate many work reviews where the claimant is obviously under SGA.
Also, the articles only scratch the surface and it's a pretty poor point of "journalism" if you ask me. They (the articles) always talk about claimants asking for reconsideration of the overpayment, and the reconsideration is denied. Well yeah, when you file a reconsideration, you are appealing the facts of the overpayment. The fact is, you were overpaid for X reason, it's not going to be overturned by reconsideration because the facts of the overpayment are true. A waiver is complete different, and is what many of these claimants should be filing instead. If someone was overpaid as a child, while their parent was payee, or they weren't living with NH--whose unreported event caused the overpayment, the overpayment can be transferred to the former payee's SSN, or the NH SSN.
For the millionth time, SSA gets alerts when wages are reported quarterly based on FICA. They have every opportunity to do their administrative job of verifying those wages, they have the permissions to do so, and they adjust payment amounts based on income changes. They have the data, they just refuse to use the resources required to actually do timely reviews or appropriate calculations, so overpayment.
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