| Congressman requests probe into Social Security overpayments |
By: AP
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Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 9:02 pm
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. John Tanner, chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate reports that the Social Security Administra-tion often makes payments to disability insurance beneficiaries long after these payments should have stopped.
Congressman Sam Johnson, ranking Republican for the Subcommittee, joined Tanner in his request.
“It is critical that this problem be addressed, both to protect the integrity of the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund and to avoid discouraging disability beneficiaries from attempting to reenter the workforce or inadvertently penalizing those who do,” Tanner and Johnson wrote in a letter Friday to acting comptroller general Gene Dodaro.
In an e-mailed press release, Tanner noted when Social Security disability beneficiaries return to work and earn beyond a certain threshold, SSA is supposed to stop their benefits. But reports from a range of sources — including advocates for disability beneficiaries and the SSA Inspector General — say that SSA often does not stop benefit payments in time. According to recent testimony before the subcommittee on Social Security, even beneficiaries who properly inform SSA that they are working can receive large overpayments; in one case cited, a beneficiary who had reported his earnings promptly was still overpaid by almost $64,000, according to Tanner.
He said SSA is able to recover the overpaid amounts sometimes. However, because the overpayments can be tens of thousands of dollars, former beneficiaries — who may still have disabling impairments that hamper their earning ability — may not earn enough to repay the full amount. This results in losses to the Social Security Trust Fund, and ultimately the taxpayers.
In addition, Tanner said advocates state that beneficiaries are often unaware that they are being paid in error until they receive a large bill from SSA for benefits they are then expected to repay. In recent years, Congress and the administration have pursued a number of initiatives to make it easier for beneficiaries with disabilities to return to work. But the fear of having to repay large overpayments may discourage beneficiaries from even attempting to work, undermining return-to-work policy efforts.
“Therefore, we request that you undertake a comprehensive study of SSA’s management of processes related to tracking earnings information for DI beneficiaries and conducting work (continuing disability reviews),” Tanner and Johnson wrote in their letter. “Specifically, we would like to know why SSA continues to have delays in processing work CDRs and generate excessive overpayments due to work, and what the agency must do to address this problem.”
Published in The Messenger 11.10.09 |
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