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Receiving an overpayment notice from Social Security is one of the worst things that can
happen to a disabled person. You likely fought for years for Social Security to acknowledge that
you are disabled, probably losing things like a vehicle or a home (definitely your dignity) in the
process, and then you receive a notice from SSA telling you that they have overpaid you and that
you need to pay the money back. Oftentimes, the overpayment is not your fault but is because of
a mistake on the government’s part, but you are still expected to repay it and repay it promptly.
While there are measures you can take to contest an overpayment, they are not always
successful. Until 2024, it was SSA’s policy to withhold 100% of a person’s benefit to repay the
overpayment, which was devastating to many disability recipients; however, Social Security
finally changed the policy last year to default to withholding only 10% of a person’s benefit to
recoup overpayments. To say that disability advocates across the country rejoiced is an
understatement. This was one of the biggest, best policy changes to have happened in my
sixteen-year career. If one of my disabled clients received an overpayment notice, at least they
would still receive 90% of their benefit while working toward repaying the overpayment.
That policy was good while it lasted. With the new year came a new administration, and
in March 2025 Social Security announced that they would revert to the previous policy of a
default 100% withholding. To put it plainly, this was not a popular decision, and there was
significant pushback from advocacy groups. Thankfully, in April Social Security announced that
the withholding rate for overpayments would be 50% rather than 100%.
A loss of 50% of your disability benefits is devastating, but it is still far better than losing
100% of your benefits. Last week, the United States Senate confirmed Frank Bisignano as the
Commissioner of Social Security; perhaps he can be persuaded to see things as advocates see
them and restore the default withholding to 10%. Only time will tell.