Social Security Suspends Program that Seized Tax Refunds to Recoup Decade-Old Overpayments – Star Tribune
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — People with old Social Security
debts are getting a reprieve — for now.
The Social Security Administration had been participating in a program in which thousands of people were having their tax refunds seized to recoup overpayments that happened more than a decade ago.
On Monday, Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin said she was suspending the program while the agency conducts a review.
Social Security recipients and members of Congress complained that people were being forced to repay overpayments that were sometimes paid to their parents or guardians when they were children.
The Social Security Administration says it has identified about 400,000 people with old debts. They owe a total of $714 million.
So far, the agency says it has collected $55 million, mainly by having the Treasury Department seize tax refunds.
Colvin said she was suspending the program “pending a thorough review of our responsibility and discretion under the current law to refer debt to the Treasury Department.”
“If any Social Security or Supplemental Security Income beneficiary believes they have been incorrectly assessed with an overpayment under this program, I encourage them to request an explanation or seek options to resolve the overpayment,” Colvin said.
The program was authorized by a 2008 change in the law that allows Social Security and other federal agencies, through the Treasury, to seize federal payments to recoup debts that are more than 10 years old. Previously, there was a 10-year limit on using the program.
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