Kree Flowers recently got married and decided to log into her account on the Social Security Administration website in February to check the status of her retirement benefits. He was shocked to see a big red number at the top of the page. According to the agency, he was overpaid by $17,121.21.
“At that point, my mind immediately goes to fraud,” he said. “Someone collected benefits under my name – that’s what I’m thinking.”
The next morning, when Ms. Flowers at the agency, a representative told her she was overpaid for benefits between 1995 and 2003 and was expected to pay the balance. This did not make sense to him: He was 10 years old when the disputed payment began. “My first instinct was to laugh and correct him,” he said.
But said Ms. Flowers said the deputy didn’t seem fazed by his age and ordered him to fill out a form to dispute the charges. A few days later, her sister realized that she had been overpaid by the same amount.
Each year for the past four years, the SSA has sent out between $6 billion and $10 billion in overpayments for various benefit programs, according to federal disclosures. The agency had an uncollected overpayment balance of $23 billion as of October. It’s a fraction of the more than $1.4 trillion the agency pays out to about 71 million people each year.
A recent one investigation report from KFF Health News and Cox Media found that while overpayments sometimes result from errors made by the agency or beneficiaries, “most errors are within the system.” Benefit policies are difficult to follow, SSA is understaffed, and there is often a long lag between changes in beneficiaries’ income and adjustments to their benefits. All of this can lead to overpayments that may go unnoticed for years.
Ms. Flowers, 38, called the agency dozens of times looking for answers. “Nobody can tell us what happened,” he said. The previous overpayment notices were sent to an old address, so Ms. Flowers to discover it alone. He suspects the issue stems from disability payments the agency made to his estranged father. (Social Security representatives told her they were not allowed to release her father’s private information.)
In the 1990s, when her parents were separated and living in different states but still married, Ms. Flowers applied for and received payments through the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which can cover recipients’ children. Her mother recalled receiving monthly payments of $100 or $120 for a year or so, but nothing of nearly $34,000 for eight years.
People receiving Social Security disability benefits are not allowed to earn more than $1,470 per month in supplemental income after a nine-month work probation period; beyond that threshold, their benefits are usually cut. But there’s often a lag between the time people become ineligible for benefits and the time their payments stop, either because they don’t realize they need to report a change in circumstances or because the administration is slow in processing their case.
In an interview, the father of Ms. Flowers said she believed she was eligible for benefits at the time of the overpayment and it was not clear to her what happened. He said it was “amazing” that the SSA would seek to recover money from those children when the payments were made.
The overpayment was not the Flowers brothers’ fault, and it may not have been their father’s either. But the sisters are on the hook for it.
“I would say work-related overpayments are the rule, not the exception,” said Denise Hoffman, principal researcher at Mathematica, a research and data analytics consultancy. His research found that while overpayments are rare in general disability insurance, people whose earnings exceed the threshold are overpaid about 80 percent of the time. Ms. found out Hoffman that the median overpayment lasted nine months and reached $9,282.
According to agency policies, dependents or spouses listed on the recipient’s records may be responsible for overpayments. People can also be liable if they manage payments on behalf of someone else, such as a minor child or an older relative with dementia.
It’s unclear how often the agency tries to recover overpayments from relatives of account holders. A spokesperson for the SSA said its system is not designed to easily identify this information, and efforts are being made to clarify the issue. According to a 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office, around 30 per cent of people whose overpayments were waived in the last financial year were under 18 when their parents received benefits.
Payments Stopped, Tax Returns Denied
In 2015, when Sarah Benavidez’s son was 2 months old, Ms. Benavidez and the child’s father visited their local SSA office to inquire about receiving benefits for the girl. They were told their daughter was eligible for payments because her father, a former police officer, was injured on the job and qualified for disability insurance. Eventually, Ms. Benavidez of about $300 per month.
“It helped a lot, especially when he was in diapers,” she recalled.
Not long after, the boy’s father left, said Ms. Benavidez, but he continued to receive checks for their daughter. In 2020, she received a letter from the SSA saying the father was receiving workers’ compensation payments while also receiving disability checks, resulting in an overpayment.
Parents reported workers’ compensation initially, but overpayments can still happen if “nobody at Social Security does proper budgeting,” said Anne Callagy, director of benefits practice at government at the Legal Aid Society in New York. “And after a few years, they get an overpayment notice.”
As a result, the 5-year-old daughter of Ms. Benavidez owes the Social Security Administration $12,768. “I was like, is this a scam?” Said Ms. Benavidez.
The letter states that she has 30 days to repay the money or her son’s Social Security payments will stop. Ms. asked Benavidez to reconsider the charge, but it was unsuccessful. It’s not enough to show the overpayment wasn’t his fault — to win the appeal, he also has to prove he can’t pay the money, said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Priorities in policy
“Almost nobody successfully completes the process,” he said of the overpayment waiver requests.
The daughter of Ms. Benavidez is still eligible to receive $120 per month, which SSA withholds and credits to the overpayment balance. If nothing changes, her daughter’s overpayments will be considered paid in 2030. More than 75 percent of recovered disability insurance overpayments are collected through unpaid payments, according to 2016 GAO report.
“I just feel that they will take the money until they feel that they have paid the thing,” said Ms. Benavidez. “I don’t even know if I want to return. I’m going to be paranoid.”
Sometimes recipients receive overpayment letters after they stop getting benefits, and the SSA tries to get the money back in other ways.
Temi Aina, a Queens resident, found out she was being billed for an overpayment when she didn’t receive an expected tax rebate. A few weeks later, a letter arrived from the SSA saying she had received overpayments on her father’s account totaling $11,681 over a four-year period beginning in 2005, when she was 13. Her brother also owed money. .
He fought the case, providing evidence showing that his father had not used the money for his benefit. The case dragged on for two years. He lost two tax returns totaling $1,000, and at one point, he received a letter stating that the SSA would begin garnishing his wages. But he had already moved jobs when the agency contacted his former employer, so the change was not immediately effective.
Fighting Debt
Ms. tried Benavidez, Ms. Flowers and Ms. Aina to fight their overpayment debt through the usual appeals process.
After submitting Ms. Flowers her appeal papers, she saw a TikTok video posted by someone in a similar situation. The person contacted the local representative in Congress about the issue. Ms. Flowers, who lives in Norcross, Ga., contacted Representative Lucy McBath, whose office contacted the SSA. Ms. Flowers appeared at a hearing this summer and was told that the financial information he submitted proved he could not repay the money. His $17,121 overpayment was removed from his account. His sister’s case continues.
Made by Ms a viral TikTok video about his experience and said he’s heard from hundreds of people with similar stories.
Ms. saw Benavidez, who lives in Louisiana, the video of Ms. Flowers and tried to contact his House representative, Clay Higgins. He hopes he can get help resolving the overpayment. The SSA continues to withhold her son’s $120 payment.
An agency representative said it worked with people to navigate the overpayment process. People have the right to appeal any overpayments or pursue a payment plan with options as low as $10 per month.
Contacted Ms. Aina to a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society who helped her. In July 2021, his remaining overpayment balance was waived.
said Ms. Aina cried with joy when she found out that the rest of the debt had been paid. “I’m just glad it went in my favor, because I feel like nobody should go through that without their fault,” he said. His brother’s overpayment remains unresolved.
