Social Security Disability Overpayment Statute Of Limitations

What Can Happen After A Final Unfavorable Decision

Social Security Disability Overpayments

For SSI recipients, SSA will recover the overpayment by taking up to 10% of your SSI each month. For SSD recipients, SSA will take your entire check each month. If either creates a financial hardship on you, ask Social Security to take out less
The Social Security Administration can make claims against you in civil court
Your IRS tax refunds can be seized
Private debt collection agencies may be used to collect the debt from you

Whats The Difference Between Fraud And Non

The EDD classifies overpayments as either fraud or non-fraud.

Fraud: If we determine that you intentionally gave false information or withheld information, the overpayment is considered fraud. You will have to pay a 30 percent penalty in addition to the overpayment amount. You may also be disqualified for future benefits for up to 23 weeks.

Non-Fraud: If the overpayment was not your fault, its considered non-fraud. You will receive a notice telling you if you have to repay the overpayment or if we need more information to determine if you were overpaid.

The most common reasons for an overpayment are:

You incorrectly reported your wages and were overpaid.
You collected benefits for a week, and we later determined you were not eligible that week.

To help prevent an overpayment, you must notify us if you:

Returned to part-time or full-time work.
Received wages from your employer.
Need to report the death of someone receiving benefits.
Recovered from a disability.
Stopped PFL benefits before using the full eight weeks.

If youre receiving disability or PFL, have your employer return the Notice to Employer of Disability Insurance Claim Filed or Notice to Employer of Paid Family Leave Claim Filed . If you recover from an illness or injury or return to work, return the Notice of Automatic Payment or Notice of Automatic Payment PFL to the EDD.

Note: If you are receiving unemployment and return to work full time, stop certifying for benefits.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay Back A Social Security Overpayment

If you appeal and lose, or file a waiver request and are denied, Social Security will expect to get its money back. If you’re still receiving disability benefits, the SSA will simply withhold part or all of your monthly check until the overpayment is fully repaid. But if you’re no longer eligible for disability benefits , the SSA can collect from you for the rest of your life, if necessary, to recover the entire overpayment.

Social Security can also collect the overpayment from any future federal tax refund you’re supposed to receive. Social Security can also try to collect the overpayment by garnishing your wages and the agency will report your failure to pay to the credit bureaus.

The SSA can also withhold money from your future Social Security benefitsincluding retirement and/or disability benefits .

If your waiver request or appeal is denied, and you can’t make the payments, consider contacting a Social Security attorney.

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When Waiver May Be Applied And How To Process The Request

Section 204 of the Act provides that there shall be no adjustment or recovery in any case where an overpayment under title II has been made to an individual who is without fault if adjustment or recovery would either defeat the purpose of title II of the Act, or be against equity and good conscience.

We will apply the procedures in this paragraph when an individual requests waiver of all or part of a qualifying overpayment.

For purposes of this paragraph , a qualifying overpayment is one that accrued during the pandemic period ) because of the actions that we took in response to the COVID-19 national public health emergency, including the suspension of certain of our manual workloads that would have processed actions identifying and stopping certain overpayments.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this subpart, we will presume that an individual who requests waiver of a qualifying overpayment is without fault in causing the overpayment unless we determine that the qualifying overpayment made to a beneficiary or a representative payee was the result of fraud or similar fault or involved misuse of benefits by a representative payee .

The provisions of this paragraph will apply to a qualifying overpayment identified by December 31, 2020.

At the personal conference, the individual is given the opportunity to:

Appear personally, testify, cross-examine any witnesses, and make arguments

Submit documents for consideration by the decisionmaker.

How Do I Have To Repay An Ssdi Overpayment

If the SSA overpaid you Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and youre currently receiving SSDI benefits, the SSA will withhold the full amount of your benefit check each month until the overpayment is paid off. The withholding will start 30 days after you receive the notice of overpayment. You can contact the SSA to request that less than the full amount be withheld such requests have to be approved by the SSA.

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Impact On Current Benefits

State law requires that you repay your overpayment before we can pay further unemployment benefits. TWC cannot dismiss or forgive an overpayment, and there is no exception in the law for hardship cases. If you are requesting unemployment benefits, we recommend that you continue to submit biweekly payment requests so we can apply each eligible payment toward the overpayment until it is repaid.

Request A Social Security Payment Plan

If you agree that you were overpaid, but you can’t afford to repay Social Security at the rate described in your overpayment notice, you can ask the SSA to accept a smaller amount each month until the overpayment is paid back. You’ll need to file a Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate with Social Security.

Once Social Security sets a new payment amount, if you’re still receiving SSI or SSDI benefits, the SSA will withhold the payment amounts from your disability checks. If you’re no longer receiving benefits, you can arrange to make monthly payments to Social Security.

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Are There Consequences For Not Repaying A Social Security Overpayment

If you dont repay the overpayment that you owe to the SSA, the agency can take several steps to get the money that is owed. Some of the actions the SSA can take include:

taking your federal tax refund check
taking a percentage from your work paycheck before you get it
taking future SSI or SSDI benefits, or
reporting your nonpayment to a credit bureau.

Defendants Cola Adjustments Were Not Erroneous

SSDI Overpayments

Plaintiff argues that defendants benefits calculations are not consistent with the plans terms for two reasons. First, she asserts that the COLA should be based upon the total amount of plaintiffs benefits including the SSD benefits that she received. This argument is inconsistent with the terms of the plan which provides in relevant part that the COLA adjustment applies to core and optional LTD benefits each year after the first year of LTD . Prudential has interpreted this to mean the amount of benefits that are actually received, not SSD benefits. Defendants also note that SSD benefits are subject to a separate COLA so that if plaintiffs interpretation were adopted, it would amount to double dipping of the COLA increases. Prudentials interpretation of the plans language is the more reasonable one, and at the very least is not an abuse of its discretion.

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Brown V Bowen 660 F Supp 582

US District Court for the Northern District of California- 660 F. Supp. 582

660 F. Supp. 582 Ardean BROWN, Plaintiff,Otis R. BOWEN, M.D., Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.

United States District Court, N.D. California.

*583 Susan J. Balliet, East Palo Alto Community Law Project, East Palo Alto, Cal., for plaintiff.

Stephen L. Schirle, Asst. U.S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal., for defendant.

FACTS

Plaintiff Ardean Brown is the widow of Joseph L. Brown. In 1971 plaintiff, as the *584 mother of the deceaseds son, became entitled to and applied for Retirement Survivors Insurance Benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. section 402. In the application, plaintiff agreed to comply with Social Security Administration regulations requiring annual income earnings reports which could affect the amount of her benefits. Plaintiff received benefits until 1981, when her son turned 18. Plaintiff has a 6th grade education and is a full-time school bus driver.

During the years at issue, defendant allegedly overpaid plaintiff a total of $4,691.20 because plaintiff repeatedly failed to comply with the Social Security Administrations annual report of earnings requirement. A review of plaintiffs tax returns for the years at issue alerted the SSA to discrepencies between plaintiffs reported estimated earnings and her actual earnings. The SSA then instituted proceedings to recover the excess benefits paid.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Court Transcript, 15-16.

B Erisa Subrogation Law Post

We have observed repeatedly that ERISA is a comprehensive and reticulated statute, the product of a decade of congressional study of the Nations private employee benefit system. Mertens v. Hewitt Associates, 508 U.S. 248, 251 ). We have therefore been especially reluctant to tamper with enforcement scheme embodied in the statute by extending remedies not specifically authorized by its text. Massachusetts Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Russell, 473 U.S. 134, 147 . Indeed, we have noted that ERISAs carefully crafted and detailed enforcement scheme provides `strong evidence that Congress did not intend to authorize other remedies that it simply forgot to incorporate expressly. Mertens, supra, at 254 .

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What Is Social Security

Social Security is the most successful anti-poverty program in our countrys history, according to the SSA. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935 as a retirement program for workers. It was part of the historic New Deal, and the first lump-sum payments were made in 1937.

Payments for workers survivors were added by Congress in 1939 and regular monthly checks started in 1940. Disability benefits were added in 1956.

Todays workers pay Social Security taxes into the program, and the money is disbursed as monthly income to beneficiaries in a pay-as-you-go system, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.

One in five Americans receives benefits, including more than 47 million retired workers and dependents, 10 million disabled workers and dependents, and 6 million survivors of deceased workers.

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Request For Reconsiderationappealing The Overpayment

If you believe you weren’t overpaid and that you shouldn’t have to repay any money to Social Security, you can request a “reconsideration.” This is the first level of appeal. You’ll need to explain to Social Security why you believe you weren’t overpaid or why the amount of the overpayment is incorrect.

You have 60 days to file an appeal online or file Form SSA-561, Request for Reconsideration at your local Social Security office. If you make the request within 10 days of the date on the overpayment notice, Social Security can’t stop or reduce your monthly benefits until the agency makes a decision on your appeal.

Unum Sues To Recover Overpayment

When Daniel reached the maximum benefits period under the policy, Unum could no longer deduct monthly benefits to recover the overpayment, the balance of which was then $65, 848.40, and Unum sued Daniel in the Georgia Federal Court to recover the amount in addition to attorney fees and the costs of litigation. The court entered a judgment in favor of Unum requiring Daniel to pay the nearly $66,000 plus the costs of the litigation.

A Health Insurance Subrogation Clauses:

When your client suffers a personal injury caused by a third party, your clients health insurance will normally pay the medical expenses related to your clients injuries. Most of our clients who have medical insurance are covered by an insurance policy through work, or through an employers self-funded plan.

When you and your client later recover from the third-party tortfeasor, the insurance company will claim that person should have paid your clients medical bills. The insurance company will claim that it can recover all of the money paid for medical expenses. If you and your client do not pay the insurance company back, the insurance company will usually sue both of you.

Why Social Security Overpayments Happen

2 On Your Side: Social Security Overpayments

The most common reason for overpayments is that your situation changed . And you might not have notified Social Security of the change quickly enough, or they didn’t act on it quickly enough. Here are examples of when this can happen:

You got married.
You were convicted of a crime or went to prison.

In some cases, you might have reported the change, but the SSA delayed decreasing your monthly check. Note that you need to report any change within 10 days of the month in which it happened.

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D Examples Of Case Law After Sereboff

1. Popowski v. Parrott

Probably the most influential case addressing what language allows an insurance company or ERISA administrator to recover under ERISA and Sereboff is the case of Popowski v. Parrott, 461 F.3d 1367, 1369 4.

Popowski is a very instructive case, in that the Court was able to compare two plans that both had claims for reimbursement under ERISA § 503. The Court of Appeals found that one plans language allowed it to state a claim under ERISA, but the other one did not.

The first plan claimed a lien on any amount recovered by the Covered Person whether or not designated as payment for medical expenses, and clarified that he Covered Person must repay to the Plan the benefits paid on his or her behalf out of the recovery made from the third party or insurer.Id. at 1373. The court found that this first plan contained language allowing it to recover because the plan language both the funds out of which a recovery can be made and the portion due the plan . Id. The plan did not seek to impose personal liability on the defendant, but to restore to the plan particular funds or property in the defendants possession. Id.

2. Administrative Committee for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Associates Health and Welfare Plan v. Horton

The key language from the Horton decision explains:

3. Longaberger Co. v. Kolt

Additional comments on this case:

What If I Lose My Request For Waiver Or Reconsideration

If you disagree with the waiver decision, the next step of appealing is to file a Request for Reconsideration either online or by telephone as described above.

If the request for reconsideration of the waiver decision is denied, you can request a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge . You must do this within 60 days of the date of the denial notice. You can do this online or by telephone at 1 800- 772-1213.

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I Introduction: Types Of Claims Subject To Erisa Subrogation Or Overpayment Recovery Clauses

Employers often provide health insurance, life insurance, long term disability insurance and other benefits to their employees. Most of the time, disputes over these benefits fall under the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 , 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et. seq.. Many of these plans contain terms that allow an insurance company or plan administrator to recover benefits that have been overpaid or that were paid for medical expenses that eventually are recovered from someone else. This paper discusses how such claims are handled under ERISA.

What Social Security Will Do When An Overpayment Is Found

If the SSA determines that you’ve been overpaid, the agency will send you a notice telling you how much you were overpaid and why you weren’t entitled to the amount of money you received. Social Security will ask for a full refund within 30 days of the notice.

If you’re currently getting SSI and you don’t pay back the overpayment in full, the overpayment notice will propose deducting money from your SSI monthly benefit until you’ve repaid the entire overpayment. The notice you receive from Social Security will include the date when the withholding will start .

If you’re currently receiving SSDI and you don’t back the overpayment in full, Social Security will stop paying your benefits until the overpayment is paid off. The SSA will begin holding back your benefits 30 days after the date of the overpayment notice.

The overpayment notice you receive will also explain how you can appeal the overpaymentthat is, ask Social Security to review and reconsider whether there was in fact an overpayment. The letter will also tell you how to ask for a waiver so that you might not have to pay all or some of the money back.