WASHINGTON – Social Security overpaid
nearly half the people receiving disability benefits over the past
decade, according to a government watchdog, raising questions about the
management of the cash-strapped program.
In all, Social Security overpaid beneficiaries by nearly $17 billion,
according to a 10-year study by the agency's inspector general.
Many payments went to people who earned too much money to qualify for
benefits, or to those no longer disabled. Payments also went to people
who had died or were in prison.
Social Security was able to recoup about $8.1 billion, but it often took years to get the money back, the study said.
"Every dollar that goes to overpayments doesn't help someone in
need," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "Given the present financial
situation of the Social Security Disability Insurance trust fund, the
program cannot sustain billions of dollars lost to waste."
The trust fund that supports Social Security's disability program is
projected to run out of money late next year, triggering automatic
benefit cuts, unless Congress acts. The looming deadline has lawmakers
feuding over a solution that may have to come in the heat of a
presidential election.
The program's financial problems go beyond the issue of overpayments
-- Social Security disability has paid out more in benefits than it has
collected in payroll taxes every year for the past decade. But concerns
about waste, fraud and abuse are complicating the debate in Congress
over how to address the program's larger financial problems.
"Overpayments are bad for everyone -- they are bad for the
beneficiary and they are bad for the taxpayer," said Rep. Sam Johnson,
R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social
Security. "With the disability program going broke next year, it is
especially troubling that Social Security is failing to protect precious
taxpayer dollars."
A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said the agency
has a high accuracy rate for its payments and a comprehensive debt
collection program for overpayments.
"Social Security provides services to over 48 million retirement and
survivors beneficiaries and about 15 million disability beneficiaries,"
Social Security spokesman Mark Hinkle said in an email. "The agency will
issue nearly $1 trillion in payments this year. For fiscal year 2013 --
the last year for which we have complete data -- approximately 99.8
percent of all Social Security payments were free of overpayment, and
nearly 99.9 percent were free of underpayment."
"That same year, we also achieved high levels of payment accuracy in
the (Supplemental Security Income) program despite the inherent
complexities in calculating monthly payments due to beneficiaries'
income and resource fluctuations and changes in living arrangements," he
said.
The inspector general's office examined a randomly selected sample of
1,532 people who were receiving either Social Security disability or
Supplemental Security Income in October 2003. SSI is a separately funded
disability program for the poor.
Auditors followed the group for 10 years, until February 2014. They
determined that 45 percent of the beneficiaries were overpaid at some
point during that period. The overpayments totaled $2.9 million, the
study said.
They used the results to estimate that Social Security made a total of $16.8 billion in overpayments during the 10-year period.
The study concluded that "the agency could do more to prevent the most common overpayments."
Social Security paid out $142 billion in disability benefits last
year. Unless Congress acts, the trust fund that supports the disability
program will run dry sometime during the final three months of 2016,
according to projections by the trustees who oversee Social Security. At
that point, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay
81 percent of benefits.
That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefit payments.
The average monthly payment for a disabled worker is $1,165, or about
$14,000 a year.
An easy fix is available. Congress could redirect payroll tax revenue
from Social Security's much larger retirement program, as lawmakers
have done before. But Republicans in Congress are balking, saying they
want to address the program's long-term finances.
About 11 million disabled workers, children and spouses currently
receive Social Security disability benefits. About 8.3 million people
receive Supplemental Security Income, which is funded separately,
through the government's general revenues.
SSI paid out about $54 billion in benefits last year.