Congressional Attention to Overpayments

Congressional Attention to Overpayments

On November 28, Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) of the Senate Finance Committee penned a letter urging the Social Security Administration to act to prevent overpayments and reexamine the process for correcting them. The senators stated they are “deeply concerned by stories from constituents of extreme financial hardship placed upon beneficiaries asked to quickly repay in full or whose payments are halted, reduced, or reclaimed as the agency attempts to correct improper payments, many of which occurred due to agency error.”

The Senators’ letter comes after a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing where Senator Hassan raised the issue of Social Security overpayments with SSA Commissioner nominee Martin O’Malley. Read the full letter here.