Letter to Andrew Saul, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration - Ways and Means Committee Leaders Call on Social Security Administration to Extend Relief to Overpaid Seniors and People with Disabilities

Letter

Dear Commissioner Saul,
Last March, in response to the COVID-19 crisis the Social Security Administration
(SSA) prioritized work that fulfills the agency's core mission of providing benefits to
children, adults, and seniors who are eligible for Social Security and Supplemental
Security Income (SSI). At the same time, SSA also suspended processing and collecting
overpayments of benefits, where possible.
We have fully supported these necessary responses by SSA to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SSA's decision to suspend overpayment processing and collection has prevented
substantial stress and confusion among Social Security and SSI beneficiaries who, like all
Americans, have had their lives thrown into crisis by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also
allowed SSA to focus on its highest-priority workloads, including ensuring benefit
payments were delivered on time, processing new applications, and working with
Congress and the Department of the Treasury to ensure that SSA beneficiaries received
timely Economic Impact Payments. Through this action, SSA has rightly ensured that
high-risk seniors, survivors, and people with disabilities continue to receive monthly
benefits they need to cover basic necessities during the pandemic.
At the same time, SSA's suspension of overpayment collection has meant that, by no
fault of their own, some of our most vulnerable constituents have unknowingly received
extra benefit payments. We are deeply concerned that attempts to recover these COVID19 overpayments would frighten and harm people of color, seniors, people with severe
disabilities, and other beneficiaries who live in or near poverty and rely on Social
Security or SSI to survive. SSA has not notified beneficiaries that they are being
overpaid, and most will have spent their checks immediately. SSI recipients, in particular,
will have thought that they had to spend their benefits to avoid reaching the $2,000 asset
limit and losing SSI eligibility.
These and other vulnerable beneficiaries will not be able to afford repayments, and past
experience suggests most will be unable to navigate SSA's case-by-case process for
appeals or relief, even after the pandemic ends. Administering individual overpayment
appeals and waiver requests is also very costly for SSA, using time and resources that
could be better devoted to fulfilling the agency's core mission in support of the American
public during the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 crisis.
We hope you will agree that the only just and humane approach is for SSA to continue to
hold Social Security and SSI beneficiaries harmless for these COVID-19 overpayments.
We have introduced the Fairness for Seniors and People with Disabilities During
COVID-19 Act to provide a clear legislative directive for this commonsense solution.
We urge SSA to continue to temporarily suspend overpayment processing and collection
while we work toward agreement on a bipartisan coronavirus relief package which
includes the Fairness for Seniors and People with Disabilities During COVID-19 Act.
We also urge SSA to use all existing authority to provide beneficiaries with immediate
relief from these COVID-19 overpayments.
We stand ready to work with you to ensure that actions that SSA has taken during the
pandemic to assist seniors, survivors, and people with severe disabilities do not have the
unintended consequence of creating new and unfair financial distress.

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