Three U. S. senators on a committee that oversees Social Security have called on Social Security’s leadership to respond to a news report claiming that, in violation of a firm policy, people were cut or suspended because they won COVID-19 aid.
Lawmakers, in addition to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore. ), sent a letter Wednesday to acting SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi saying they were “deeply concerned” and asked for answers to a list of questions within 30 days.
In 2020 and 2021, to counter the economic fallout from the Covid pandemic, the government distributed grants totaling up to $3200 per user to eligible Americans. Payments were automatically sent to mailboxes or bank accounts.
But, as KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reported this week, some recipients say the bills had an unintended consequence: They prompted the Social Security administration to recover other federal benefits, adding monthly spousal bills for the handicapped and disabled. 65 years of age.
Covid relief, called stimulus or economic effect on payments, has left some beneficiaries with more cash in the bank than the $2,000 asset limit for others who receive benefits through a Social Security program called the Income Security Supplement. The Social Security Administration sent notices to others claiming they had been overpaid and that it was not easy to pay the government, according to the other people involved.
In some cases, it has suspended SSI payments.
This was not intended to happen. Under the agency’s rules, covid payments, also known as EIPs, do count toward the asset limit.
“[We] are involved through recent reports that SSI recipients have obtained notices of overpayment due to EIPs, even though the SSA has decided that EIPs will never be considered for SSI eligibility,” the senators wrote to Kijakazi. .
The letter cited the report via CMG and KFF Health News.
Along with Wyden, Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a member of that subcommittee and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Aging, signed on with Wyden.
“We sent it because. . . it’s not fair that Social Security made a mistake, and the beneficiary shouldn’t have to pay for that mistake,” Brown said Thursday in an interview with CMG’s WHIO-TV in Dayton.
“We’re going to surrender until they back down,” Brown said, referring to the agency.
The senators grilled Kijakazi on the magnitude of the problem, adding the number of other people whose benefits have been reduced or suspended due to covid payments, the number of others whose benefits have been reinstated with or without appeal, and the effects of appeals. He also asked what the company was doing about it.
“As you know, SSI benefits, while modest, have a very broad effect on the lives of those who count on them,” the senators wrote. “Benefit suspensions and overpayment notices, regardless of the cause, can have profound negative effects on their lives. “
“In addition,” they wrote, “the loss of eligibility for SSI jeopardizes a lengthy and bureaucratic procedure to repair eligibility and also jeopardizes beneficiaries’ Medicaid coverage. “
Nicole Tiggemann, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration, responded to a request for comment.
Covid-related social security recoveries are part of a larger context. As KFF Health News and CMG reported last month, many Americans have struggled with claims for benefits that the Social Security Administration says they’ve never received. Collection efforts can span years of bills and reach tens of thousands of dollars or more.
In some cases, alleged overpayments are the result of recipients failing to comply with the requirements. In others, they are the result of mistakes.
On the same day the senators sent their letter to Kijakazi, the company’s director questioned the overpayments at a hearing convened by a House panel.
Kijakazi revealed that about one million people have received overpayment notices from the company in the past two fiscal years.
He told the panel that Social Security workers “work diligently to pay the right user the right amount at the right time” and that the company is conducting a “top-down” review of its handling of overpayments.
“If we know that a beneficiary has earned more than he or she deserves to have earned, we are required by law to seek recovery of overpayments,” Kijakazi testified at the hearing.
Solving the bigger challenge would likely require legislation, Brown said, adding that he would seek to replace the law this year “if that’s what it takes for Social Security to get it right. “
John Bedell of CMG’s WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Do you have any experiences with Social Security overpayments that you’d like to share?Click here to contact our reporting team.
This article was produced through KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on fitness issues and is one of KFF’s primary operating systems – the independent source for fitness policies, surveys, and journalistic investigations. .
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Three U. S. senators on a committee that oversees Social Security have called on Social Security’s leadership to respond to a news report claiming that, in violation of a firm policy, people were cut or suspended because they won COVID-19 aid.
Lawmakers, in addition to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore. ), sent a letter Wednesday to acting SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi saying they were “deeply concerned” and asked for answers to a list of questions within 30 days.
In 2020 and 2021, to counter the economic fallout from the Covid pandemic, the government distributed grants totaling up to $3200 per user to eligible Americans. Payments were automatically sent to mailboxes or bank accounts.
But, as KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reported this week, some recipients say the bills had an unintended consequence: They prompted the Social Security administration to recover other federal benefits, adding monthly spousal bills for the handicapped and disabled. 65 years of age.
Covid relief, called stimulus or economic effect on payments, has left some beneficiaries with more cash in the bank than the $2,000 asset limit for others who receive benefits through a Social Security program called the Income Security Supplement. The Social Security Administration sent notices to others claiming they had been overpaid and that it was not easy to pay the government, according to the other people involved.
In some cases, it has suspended SSI payments.
This was not intended to happen. Under the agency’s rules, covid payments, also known as EIPs, do count toward the asset limit.
“[We] are involved through recent reports that SSI recipients have obtained notices of overpayment due to EIPs, even though the SSA has decided that EIPs will never be considered for SSI eligibility,” the senators wrote to Kijakazi. .
The letter cited the report via CMG and KFF Health News.
Along with Wyden, Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a member of that subcommittee and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Aging, signed on with Wyden.
“We sent it because. . . it’s not fair that Social Security made a mistake, and the beneficiary shouldn’t have to pay for that mistake,” Brown said Thursday in an interview with CMG’s WHIO-TV in Dayton.
“We’re going to surrender until they back down,” Brown said, referring to the agency.
The senators grilled Kijakazi on the magnitude of the problem, adding the number of other people whose benefits have been reduced or suspended due to covid payments, the number of others whose benefits have been reinstated with or without appeal, and the effects of appeals. He also asked what the company was doing about it.
“As you know, SSI benefits, while modest, have a very broad effect on the lives of those who count on them,” the senators wrote. “Benefit suspensions and overpayment notices, regardless of the cause, can have profound negative effects on their lives. “
“In addition,” they wrote, “the loss of eligibility for SSI jeopardizes a lengthy and bureaucratic procedure to repair eligibility and also jeopardizes beneficiaries’ Medicaid coverage. “
Nicole Tiggemann, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration, responded to a request for comment.
Covid-related social security recoveries are part of a larger context. As KFF Health News and CMG reported last month, many Americans have struggled with claims for benefits that the Social Security Administration says they’ve never received. Collection efforts can span years of bills and reach tens of thousands of dollars or more.
In some cases, alleged overpayments are the result of recipients failing to comply with the requirements. In others, they are the result of mistakes.
On the same day the senators sent their letter to Kijakazi, the company’s director questioned the overpayments at a hearing convened by a House panel.
Kijakazi revealed that about one million people have received overpayment notices from the company in the past two fiscal years.
She told the panel that Social Security workers “work diligently to pay the right user the right amount at the right time” and that the company is conducting a “top-down” review of its handling of overpayments.
“If we know that a beneficiary has earned more than he or she deserves to have earned, we are required by law to seek recovery of overpayments,” Kijakazi testified at the hearing.
Solving the bigger challenge would likely require legislation, Brown said, adding that he would seek to replace the law this year “if that’s what it takes for Social Security to get it right. “
John Bedell of CMG’s WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Do you have any experiences with Social Security overpayments that you would like to share?Click here to contact our reporting team.
This article was produced through KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on fitness issues and is one of KFF’s primary operating systems – the independent source for fitness policies, surveys, and journalistic investigations. .
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on fitness issues and is one of the main operating systems of KFF, an independent journalism of research, polling and fitness policies. Learn more about KFF.
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