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In this photo illustration, a Social Security card sits alongside checks
from the U.S. Treasury on October 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it was putting a plan back in place to recover 100% of overpayments to beneficiaries. In a statement, the SSA said Friday evening that it will increase the default overpayment withholding rate for Social Security recipients to 100% of a person’s monthly benefit, the same exact level that it had in place before last year’s reform. By law, the agency has to peel back on the overpaid benefits. This comes after the agency abandoned the policy last year after calls over cases in which the plan led Americans to receive shocking bills amounting to thousands of dollars. Due to the backlash over the policy, the agency had set a pause with the withholding rate for someone who had been overpaid at 10% of the person’s monthly benefit. On Friday, the SSA said it will start claiming 100% of benefit checks to cover new cases of overpayments, but the withholding rate for people with overpayments before March 27th will remain at 10% as well as the rate for overpayments for Supplemental Security Income, which is a program for low-income seniors and disabled Americans.
The 100% clawback policy had sparked an outcry after several instances happened in which beneficiaries were hit with surprise bills that demanded repayment within 30 days. In some cases, the bills were for tens of thousands of dollars. If beneficiaries were unable to immediately pay the bill, the agency could dock their entire monthly Social Security payment, leaving some people financially setback. In most cases, the overpayments were blamed on the SSA.
According to the SSA, the changed back rate of 100% from its current 10% will increase the amount of recovered funds by $7 billion over the next decade. Each year the agency pays close to $1.6 trillion in benefits each year. Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts |
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