Commissioner O’Malley Takes on The Social Security Administration’s Overpayment Crisis

 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.