From a new issuance to Social Security's POMS manual:
Household income at or below 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and limited resources
We will also waive the overpayment under the deemed to defeat the purpose provision, if the overpaid individual's and their household family member's income is at or below 150 percent of the FPL [Federal Poverty Level]; and their resources are within the limit for defeats the purpose, refer to GN 02250.100E. We assume that an individual who meets the resource limit and has a household income of 150 percent of the FPL needs substantially all of their income to meet all of their current ordinary necessary living expenses, so there is no need to review their expenses.
And from another new POMS issuance referenced above:
To determine recovery of an overpayment defeats the purpose (meaning the individual doesn't have the ability to repay), we must find that:
9 comments:
Wonder how this is going to change our telework
Will be citing this in the waiver filings
There were a ton of changes in these updates on 11/22/24 and 11/25/24, including increasing the administrative tolerance on overpayments to $2000. They also finally addressed the issue of fault for overpayments made to minor children and incompetent adults as well in one of the sections updated.
Lots of changes to digest.
They need to change regulations so that attorneys can receive compensation for representing in overpayment situations.
Perhaps fee agreements could be approved for direct payment, of 25 percent of the amount waived, often this goes out in a big lump sum. Or 25 percent of the amounts determined not to be an overpayment.
These developments are significant and reflect SSA Commissioner O'Malley and his senior staff's pro active response to concerns that legal a id advocates have been raising for years, but until recently did not get traction. This is a big deal in the legal aid world.
Preach John!!!! We do several hundred waivers a year and eliminating $8000 OP for someone getting less than $1000 in benefits and losing 10% is huge.
@7:44 We've done I think 2 overpayment cases. Fees are available, it's just the fee petition process, and there isn't any withheld amount. Which is irritating. I'm sure allowing for fee agreements would at least encourage more representation, which can be helpful when it is something beyond waiver, like challenging the existence (or at least part of the existence) of the overpayment itself. It's not common but SSA does sometimes screw up the math on weird issues (WEP, GPO, family maximum benefit calculation, etc.)
One final gift to claimants from Commr O'Malley. Thank you!
POMS giveth and POMS taketh. This is not going to last nor is the 5 year PRW rule or possibly the 10% hold for overpayments. There are a lot of claimants that voted for Trump. They are going to be deeply disappointed. Anyone who thought a grand elitist was going to protect the interests of the disabled is delusional. Same goes for Feds who voted for him. Sure you will be paying less taxes (maybe) but you probably won't have a job and the price of everything is going to triple.
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