The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that it is creating a new team to counter claims that the agency overpays individuals through SSA programs, including the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.
Currently, the agency is in charge of sending out $1.4 trillion in benefits to over 70 million Americans each year.
“Despite our high accuracy rates, I am putting together a team to review our overpayment policies and procedures to improve further how we serve our customers,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of SSA. “I have designated a senior official to work out of the Office of the Commissioner to lead the team and report directly to me.”
According to the agency, “only around 0.5 percent of Social Security payments are overpayments,” while about 8 percent represent overpayments in the SSI program.
The agency is countering the claim that it is attempting to collect $21 billion, which is an estimate of all payments throughout the agency’s history of its 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,” said the agency.
“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,” it added.
The SSA claims that it has improved its programs to streamline much of the agency’s work to prevent any possible overpayments, and it is “developing a new electronic payroll data exchange program that will automatically use wage information to adjust payment amounts.”
“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,” stated the agency.
