Recovering Title II Overpayments Made to Childhood
Beneficiaries
A-04-16-50110
July 2016 Office of Audit Report Summary
Background
This report provides information on the
Social Security Administration’s
(SSA) recovery of Title II
overpayments made to childhood
beneficiaries and the individuals
responsible for repaying the debt.
In July 2015, we reported on SSA’s
collection of Federal debt that was
delinquent 10 years or longer. We also
discussed that some of these debts
belonged to former childhood
beneficiaries who protested the
withholding of their Federal and State
income tax refund to recover a
delinquent SSA debt 10-years-old and
older. The former childhood
beneficiaries stated they did not
directly receive the overpaid benefits
because they were minors who
received auxiliary benefits on a
parent’s record. A childhood
beneficiary also questioned why SSA
selected only certain individuals for an
income tax withholding when there
were multiple auxiliaries on a benefit
record. Our prior review found that
SSA correctly selected and properly
referred the debts to the Department of
the Treasury, as allowed under laws
and regulations. We also found that
SSA selected only qualified debts.
For this review, we identified
76,984 Title II childhood beneficiaries
for whom SSA established
113,633 overpayment events when
they were minors—under age 18.
SSA established these overpayment
events between June 1993 and
September 2015.
Summary
SSA considers beneficiaries under age 18 as minor children and,
with exceptions, will appoint a representative payee to receive and
manage their benefits. SSA policy further prohibits children under
age 15 from directly receiving benefits. SSA must appoint a
representative payee for these children.
Although SSA issues minor children’s benefits to a representative
payee, generally, overpaid childhood beneficiaries are equally liable
for repaying an overpayment. The overpaid person, his/her
representative payee, and any other person receiving benefits on the
same Social Security record as the overpaid person may be liable
for repaying an overpayment. When SSA presumes childhood
beneficiaries are equally liable for repaying an overpayment, SSA
will use its authorized and available collection tools to recover the
debt. These tools include requesting a full, immediate refund;
adjusting current and future Social Security benefits; entering into
an installment agreement; or recovering delinquent debts through
the External Collection Operation process.
Some childhood beneficiaries may not be aware of a prior
overpayment until SSA attempts a future collection of the debt.
When SSA terminates its collection efforts, it has deemed the debt
temporarily unrecoverable, and the overpayment will remain on the
benefit record for collection when a future recovery method is
available. However, if an individual was a minor when SSA found
the overpayment, SSA would have addressed the original
overpayment notice to the representative payee. As such, a former
childhood beneficiary may not be aware of the debt until SSA
attempts to recover the overpayment in the future. SSA generally
resumes its collection efforts through its External Collection
Operation process, voluntary repayment of the debt, or adjustment
of future Social Security benefits.