SSA Amends the Overpayment Withholding Rate for non-SSI Payments
March 10, 2025
Thanks to ANCOR for the following!
“The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced it will increase the default overpayment withholding rate for Social Security beneficiaries to 100 percent of a person’s monthly benefit. An overpayment occurs when a beneficiary receives more funding than SSA determines appropriate for their circumstances (e.g. discrepancy in the person’s income, marital status, or work situation, or other circumstance in which the SSA miscalculates how much it should pay).
This announcement signals a reversal of a March 2024 policy decision to withhold only 10% of a recipient’s benefits in event of an overpayment to reduce “financial hardship on people with overpayments,” the agency said at the time.
Some additional points highlighted in the SSA’s recent announcement include:
- The withholding rate change applies to new overpayments related to (non-SSI) Social Security benefits; the withholding rate for current beneficiaries with an overpayment before March 27 will not change and no action will be required for those individuals.
- The withholding rate for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) overpayments will remain at 10 percent.
- People who are overpaid after 3/27/25 will automatically be placed in full recovery at a rate of 100 percent of the Social Security payment.
- If someone cannot afford full recovery of their overpayment, they can contact Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 or their local SSA office to request a lower rate of recovery.
- Affected beneficiaries have the right to appeal the overpayment decision or the amount. They can ask Social Security to waive collection of the overpayment, if they believe it was not their fault and can’t afford to pay it back. The agency does not pursue recoveries while an initial appeal or waiver is pending.
- The SSA will begin mailing notices on 3/27/25 to beneficiaries informing them of the new 100 percent withholding rate.