The
Social Security Administration’s (“SSA’s”) Commissioner, Martin O’ Malley, has
announced a plan to attack the overpayment crisis. Commissioner O’Malley is leading
SSA by taking 4 key steps to prevent the severe injustices that beneficiaries
have faced for decades when SSA makes accounting errors.
Starting
Monday, March 25, 2024, SSA will drastically change the overpayment recovery
process with these four major changes:
1. SSA will no longer take 100 percent
of a claimant’s monthly Social Security benefit by default if a beneficiary
fails to respond to an overpayment reimbursement request. Instead, SSA will
only withhold 10 percent of the monthly benefit to satisfy the debt, making the
repayment process like the repayment process used when it comes to the Supplemental
Security Income program.
2.
SSA no longer will put the burden
on the beneficiary to prove the beneficiary was not at fault when it comes to the
overpayment. I am assuming this means SSA will have to prove fault.
3.
SSA will allow a beneficiary 60
months, opposed to 36 months, to repay an overpayment, if the beneficiary provides
a verbal summary of their income, resources and expenses. Means-tested SSI
recipients do not need to even provide a verbal summary to get the additional two
years to repay benefits.
If you have ever dealt with SSA before, you know
that this third step will NEVER work. SSA will simply claim that the beneficiary
never verbally notified them of the desire to have a 60-month repayment plan. I
highly recommend that you send in your request for 60 months by BOTH certified
mail and by fax, so you have two receipts. Otherwise, SSA may (and by may…I mean
will) claim you never contacted them. SSA always says they hate duplicates…..well
I hate my weekly calls with them when they claim they never received paperwork
that we submitted to them on multiple occasions. Protect yourself and make sure
you have written proof that you requested a 60 month repayment plan and that
your local office received said request.
4.
Commissioner O’Malley also promised
that SSA will make it easier for beneficiaries to request a waiver if they
believe they were not at fault for the overpayment. No additional details were offered
of how SSA plans to do this, but given Commissioner O’Malley fondness for technology,
I assume that beneficiaries will be able to complete a waiver form online. If
SSA is truly trying to make waiver forms accessible, online waiver submissions
would be a must.
The
press release is certainly promising, but I am a strong believer that actions speak
louder than press releases. Let’s see where we are in a year and if there has
been progress in the overpayment situation.
Now
Commissioner O’Malley, what are you going to do to fix the atrocious consultative
examiner (“CE”) process? That is by far the biggest issue that SSA must fix for
the disability process to have any legitimacy. I wish fixing the corrupted CE
system was his first order of business, but tackling overpayments is a good start.
Got a
question that you need answered? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We
try to provide you with valuable information on our website that may help you
navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to shoot me an
email at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call us at
(800) 459-3017 x 101.