(NewsNation) — An inspector general-issued report revealed an unprecedented rise in improper payments amid a record Social Security Administration backlog.
According to a news release from the agency’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), as of February 2024, a record 5.2 million Social Security “pending actions” backlog resulted in $1.1 billion in improper payments.
As the backlog continues, the proliferation of underpayments, overpayments and improper payments increases. When a recipient’s benefits are calculated incorrectly, it results in them receiving less or more money than they are owed.
“This report continues to highlight the urgency for SSA to reach its pending actions performance goal and to ensure beneficiaries receive their proper payments as promptly as possible,” acting Inspector General for the Social Security Administration (SSA) Michelle Anderson said.
Social Security backlog: Reasons given
The SSA cited “unexpected staff reductions, increased workloads, and less than expected overtime funding” as an explanation for the record-breaking backlog.
According to the SSA, additional overtime funding would have been used to pay employees to process more pending actions per processing center.
“This report continues to highlight the urgency for SSA to reach its pending actions performance goal and to ensure beneficiaries receive their proper payments as promptly as possible,” Anderson said.
Social Security backlog: How long has it been going on?
The SSA backlog rose by 44% between the financial years of 2018 and 2023.
The OIG found that although the SSA met its performance goals in four of the years, the backlog of pending actions at processing centers didn’t diminish; rather, it grew from 3.2 million in 2018 to 4.6 million in 2023.
As the backlog grew, so did the time it took to resolve pending cases, driving up the total value of unresolved payments.
The OIG estimates that if the SSA had resolved the backlog of pending actions at the “earliest possible instance,” there would have been approximately $534 million in improper payments to 528,000 beneficiaries.
After failing to correct those payments for months, many for over a year, the improper payment total ballooned to an estimated $1.1 billion, the OIG report states
“The longer it takes SSA to process pending actions, the longer beneficiaries wait for underpayments due or they receive larger overpayments to pay back,” according to the OIG report.
Social Security improper payments: Worst case?
The average Social Security retirement benefit in February 2024 was about $1,862 per month or about $22,344 per year, but a payment backlog can go a long way to changing the benefit amount one expects to receive.
In one instance cited in the report, the OIG found that the SSA overpaid a disability beneficiary by about $62,000.
The SSA learned of the mistake in June 2021, after the beneficiary had already received an extra $9,000 over four months, but the administration didn’t take action to collect the overpayment until May 2023, the OIG found.
By then, the beneficiary had received an additional $53,000.
Social Security backlog: How to fix it
Almost all workers participate in Social Security by making payroll tax contributions, and almost all older adults receive Social Security benefits, so fixing the backlog is an important step in getting recipients the money they are expecting.
Anderson said that the SSA has agreed to the following recommendations made by the OIG to remedy the backlog:
- Develop a workload and staffing plan that will allow the SSA to reduce the backlog from year to year
- Create performance measures with goals to reduce the pending actions at processing centers
- Establish timeframe targets for processing centers to keep improper payments from growing and to reduce the burden on beneficiaries
“Customer satisfaction has been an ongoing concern for SSA,” Anderson said.
Social Security backlog: What to do
A Social Security payment can be incorrect if it’s either an underpayment or an overpayment.
If you believe you’ve been underpaid, you can call the SSA at (800) 772-1213, visit a Social Security office or report discrepancies online.
In March of 2024, according to The Hill, the SSA announced that it was changing the recovery process for overpayments to ease the financial hardship on beneficiaries by reducing the default monthly withholding rate to 10% (or $10, whichever is greater) from 100%.
Beneficiaries who were overpaid can appeal to have the collection process waived entirely if they think it was not their fault and they aren’t able to pay it back.
The Hill contributed to this report.