The Honorable Dwight Evans
1105 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Evans,
On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to endorse your legislation limiting the level of overpayments that can be automatically withheld from Social Security benefits to ten percent of the monthly benefit in cases where the beneficiary was not at fault. Members of the National Committee come from all walks of life and every political persuasion. What unites them is their passion for protecting and strengthening Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the other programs that are so vitally important to older Americans.
During hearings held last year by the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and Work and Welfare (3-21-24), the House Appropriations Committee (11-20-24) and this year by the House Oversight Committee (1-15-25), the House of Representatives explored the problem of overpayments by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Representatives on these Committees expressed concern that at the time, the default policy of SSA was to reclaim up to 100 percent of a recipient’s benefit when an overpayment was identified, even in cases where the overpayments were not the fault of the beneficiary.
Historically low staffing levels, which made it impossible for SSA to identify overpayments or to adjust benefit levels in a timely manner, were responsible for the vast majority of overpayments, a situation guaranteed to become worse as staffing levels are cut and field offices shuttered. Many Social Security beneficiaries live payment-to-payment, with few if any additional resources to draw on. For them, losing their entire Social Security benefit is an extreme hardship – and one only exacerbated by the fact that they followed all the rules and did everything required of them to notify SSA of changes in their financial situation.
In 2024, former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley responded to the Senate’s concerns by revising the agency’s policy and establishing a default withholding rate for overpayments of ten percent of monthly benefits to ease the financial burden on beneficiaries.
Under President Trump’s administration, SSA recently reversed this policy. The agency has announced that, effective March 27, 2025, it would revert to an automatic withholding of 100 percent of the monthly payment of beneficiaries who have been overpaid. We must point out that these are not cases of fraud or deceit on the part of beneficiaries, but the result of Congress’s chronic underfunding of this critical agency.
Enactment of your legislation would help prevent the financial crisis that will affect the many Americans who may be facing an overpayment recoupment if SSA is allowed to confiscate the entire benefit of innocent Americans who may be caught in this financial nightmare. We congratulate you for your willingness to take on this important issue and look forward to working with you to advance your legislation.
Sincerely,
Max Richtman
President and CEO