4 hours Ago By Moneywise
Social Security is a massive program: It’s estimated that benefits were paid to an average of almost 68 million people per month in 2024, totalling about $1.5 trillion. It’s also a complicated program and, naturally, mistakes happen — either by applicants or by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Sometimes, these mistakes result in benefit overpayments. The SSA estimates that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, it made approximately $71.8 billion in improper payments , most of which were overpayments.
That being said, improper payments accounted for only 0.84% of the almost $8.6 trillion in benefits SSA paid out over that period.
Don't miss A December 2023 poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found that one in four Social Security recipients had been accidentally overpaid, many of whom have been asked to repay it. The SSA demands money back from about 2 million people a year, according to documents that KFF Health News and Cox Media Group obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. For some, these repayments have created severe financial hardship.
In one case reported by Newsweek In 2023, a Texas woman had been collecting Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) on and off for years, with periods of work in between, not knowing she had been overpaid. “Social Security waited almost two-and-a-half years and said she now owed over $40,000 within 30 days and stopped paying her entirely by the end of 2019,” her mother told the news magazine. In another case, a Missouri man who owed $67,000 in back pay to the SSA lost his car and ended up homeless.
“I am so sad losing everything at 68 years old,” he told Newsweek . “Thank God for food stamps.” New policies aim to reduce overpayments In 2024, the SSA changed its policies on overpayments and moved away from withholding 100% of a recipient’s monthly benefits.
Instead, they now collect the greater of 10% or $10. However, in September of that year, the SSA was still withholding 100% of benefits from about 7,000 people — and there’s no statute of limitations on how far back the SSA can go to recover an overpayment. Other policy changes included extending the maximum repayment plan term to 60 months from 36 months, making it easier to request a waiver if you believe you’re not at fault or don’t have the ability to pay.
They also plan to shift the burden of proof so that claimants don’t have to prove they weren’t overpaid..
