H.R. 10243: Protecting Elders From Government Error Act

This bill would change how the Social Security Administration can recover overpayments of retirement benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act.

What the bill would do

• Block recovery in some older cases caused by agency error. If the Social Security Administration determines that a person was overpaid retirement benefits because of the agency’s own mistake, and the overpayment happened more than 6 months before the agency’s finding, the agency could not try to recover that money.

• Limit monthly benefit reductions. If an overpayment of retirement benefits was caused by the agency’s error, the agency could not reduce a person’s monthly Social Security benefit by more than 5% to collect it.

• Keep fraud cases exempt from these protections. These limits would not apply if the agency determines that the person has ever committed fraud or similar fault in connection with the Social Security program.

• Apply immediately to certain existing overpayments. The changes would take effect as soon as the bill becomes law and would apply to overpayments that are still outstanding on or after that date.

Plain-English effect

In practice, the bill would make it harder for Social Security to collect certain overpayments from retirement beneficiaries when the overpayment was the agency’s mistake and the issue is not recent. It would also cap how much Social Security can withhold from a monthly benefit in those cases, so people would not lose more than 5% of their monthly payment at a time. The bill would not protect people involved in fraud.

Relevant Companies

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