Social Security Administration Underpaid SSI Claimants

After an investigation by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General (SSA/OIG), it was found that since May 2011 SSA had underpaid SSI claimants approximately $95 million. In 28% of the cases where there was an underpayment, there was an existing over-payment that SSA was incorrectly recouping. OIG recommended that SSA set goals to pay out these underpayments in a timely manner because of the undue financial burden placed on vulnerable SSI recipients. SSA rejected that recommendation on the basis that it was “not feasible to establish timeliness goals for this workload” because SSA had to focus on other tasks.