# Social Security Overpayment Relief Act

Sometimes Social Security makes mistakes and pays people more money than they're actually supposed to receive. When this happens, the government typically tries to get that extra money back, and it can do so going back many years—sometimes decades. This bill would change that by putting a ten-year time limit on how far back the government can go to recover overpayments.

Right now, if Social Security discovers you were overpaid in 1990, they can still try to collect that money from you in 2025. This can be devastating for people who received the overpayment years ago, spent it, and have since moved on with their lives. The bill would prevent the government from chasing down overpayments that happened more than ten years before they actually discover the mistake. So if Social Security finds an overpayment today, they could only recover money that was overpaid within the last decade.

This applies to two main Social Security programs: regular retirement and disability benefits (Title II) and Supplemental Security Income for low-income seniors and disabled people (Title XVI). The change would protect vulnerable people—many of whom are elderly or disabled—from suddenly being told they owe thousands of dollars for mistakes made long ago that they may have had no way of knowing about. However, it also means the government would write off older overpayments rather than recovering taxpayer money, which could increase costs to the Social Security system.

Social Security Overpayment Relief Act

McDonald Rivet, Kristen

Social Security Overpayment Relief ActThis bill prohibits the Social Security Administration from collecting overpayments made in error to Social Security or Supplemental Security Income recipients 10 or more years prior to the discovery of the error by the administration. This prohibition extends to the collection of funds directly from overpaid recipients and to the adjustment of future payments to those recipients.&nbsp;