Following Push from Senator Hassan, Social Security Administration Reduces Overpayment Burden

WASHINGTON – The Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced that it will significantly decrease how quickly it recovers overpayments. This comes after Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) raised the issue directly with Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, and she and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) urged action as well.

Senator Hassan had heard from Granite Staters about the need to prevent undue harm to the most vulnerable Social Security recipients when the Social Security Administration mistakenly overpays a recipient. Recipients are often unaware that they were overpaid – until the agency requires them to quickly pay back hundreds or thousands of dollars.

“I heard directly from constituents that the recovery of Social Security overpayments – overpayments made because of the Agency’s errors – was causing extreme financial stress. That’s why I pushed the Social Security Administration to reduce its error rate, but also to prevent undue harm when recovering overpayments. I am glad to see the SSA is drastically reducing the overpayment recovery rate, and I encourage them to take additional steps to reduce overpayments in the first place,” said Senator Hassan.

The rate at which Social Security recovers overpayments will go from 100 percent to ten percent or $10, whichever is greater, from each check. The new overpayment recovery rate will be applied automatically following a brief transition period. Granite Staters that continue to be faulted for an overpayment at 100 percent can call the Social Security National Number at 1-800-772-1213. Granite Staters can also call this number if they already have a previous overpayment that they are being faulted for; the Social Security Administration will grant a request to lower the recoupment to 10% if recovery can be completed within 60 months. Granite Staters can learn more here.

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