Monday, August 12, 2024

Improper Social Security Payments Reach $1.1 Billion, Agency Backlog Hits All-Time High (Connecting the Dots: The Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future, The Social Security Administration (SSA) & Soros Funding, All Networking)

Improper Social Security Payments Reach $1.1 Billion, Agency Backlog Hits All-Time High (Connecting the Dots: The Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future, The Social Security Administration (SSA) & Soros Funding, All Networking)

The agency placed the blame partly on a shortage of workers and funding.

The Epoch Times

By Naveen Athrappully

8/11/2024Updated:8/11/2024

A Social Security card sits alongside checks from the U.S. Treasury in Washington on Oct. 14, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/improper-social-security-payments-reach-1-1-billion-agency-backlog-hits-all-time-high-5703750

The backlog of payment actions at the Social Security Administration (SSA) is now at a “record-breaking” level, resulting in the agency making over a billion dollars in improper payments to beneficiaries, according to the SSA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The SSA’s backlog of pending actions hit an “all-time high” of 5.2 million as of February, the OIG said in an Aug. 8 press release, citing an analysis published in June. Pending actions at the agency’s claims processing centers that remain unresolved for a long period of time have resulted in “larger improper payments, including growing underpayments or increasing overpayments to beneficiaries.”

Overpayments put social security beneficiaries under a great burden since the agency will ask them to pay back the overpaid amount at any time. Some recipients may not be in a financial position to repay.

Meanwhile, underpayments mean beneficiaries do not receive their correct monthly payment, which is financially challenging for many recipients.

The delay in resolving pending actions led to the SSA making $1.1 billion worth of improper payments by February, the OIG stated.

“Customer satisfaction has been an ongoing concern for SSA,” said Michelle Anderson, acting Inspector General for SSA. “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.”

SSA blamed the “record-breaking” backlog on increased workload, staff reductions, and lower-than-expected funding for overtime. Overtime funding could be used to pay workers to resolve more pending actions, thus reducing the backlog, the agency said.

The SSA had reviewed the draft version of the OIG report and sent a response to the watchdog in June. The agency agreed on the need to cut down the processing centers’ pending actions backlog and processing delays. However, this would require “additional resources,” it said in its response.

The SSA pointed out that the agency has “over 650 fewer employees working on processing centers’ workloads now than we did eight years ago, while our beneficiary count has risen from roughly 64 million people to nearly 72 million in that same time period.”

Moreover, the SSA is experiencing staffing challenges with high separation rates in key roles. Without adequate funding, the agency is “left to prioritize growing workloads with our current resources in mind.”

Improper Payment Issue

The OIG pointed out in its report that the SSA failed to reduce its processing center pending actions over the past six years, resulting in the backlog rising from 3.2 million in fiscal year 2018 to 4.6 million last year.

As the backlog kept growing, pending actions remained unresolved for longer periods, the report stated. Of 139 processing centers’ (PC) actions analyzed by the OIG, almost three-fourths were pending for 300 days or more, with 43 percent unresolved for 500 days or longer.

“Once processed, PC pending actions can result in improper payments ... The longer it takes SSA to process PC pending actions, the longer beneficiaries wait for underpayments due or they receive larger overpayments to pay back.”

In one instance, the SSA initially identified an overpaid beneficiary back in June 2021 when the person had received $9,000 in excess money from the agency. However, the SSA only took action to collect overpayments around two years later, in May 2023. During this time, the overpayments continued, with the overpaid amount totaling $62,000.

Even though the beneficiary sought a waiver arguing that the agency was at fault and that the individual could not afford to pay back the money, the person had to agree to make partial payments to resolve the case, the report stated.

For improper payments, the SSA has taken certain actions. In March, the agency announced a new rule easing burdens on overpayment recipients.

Earlier, the SSA would have withheld 100 percent of a beneficiary’s monthly benefits until the overpaid amount was collected.

However, the new rule dismissed this practice. Instead, the agency now collects 10 percent or $10, whichever is greater, of the overpaid amount from the monthly benefits to recover overpayments.

“Social Security is taking a critically important step towards our goal of ensuring our overpayment policies are fair, equitable, and do not unduly harm anyone,” Martin O’Malley, commissioner of Social Security, said at the time.

In February, the SSA proposed a rule for using information from payroll data providers in its calculations. The proposed Payroll Information Exchange is expected to reduce manual reporting errors, which could then reduce improper payments as well, the agency stated.

Can noncitizens receive Social Security benefits or Supplemental Security (SSI)?

https://faq.ssa.gov/en-US/Topic/article/KA-02447

Lawfully present noncitizens of the United States who meet all eligibility requirements can qualify for Social Security benefits. This rule also applies to noncitizens authorized to work in the United States who got a Social Security number after December 2003. For more information visit our Immigration page.

Noncitizens of the United States must meet certain requirements to continue receiving benefits outside of the United States. We stop payments to noncitizens who do not meet these requirements after they are outside the United States for 6 calendar months in a row. If we stopped your payments, we will not start them again until you return to the United States and remain for a full calendar month. For more information visit our International Programs page.

Some noncitizens may qualify for SSI. However, the SSI eligibility requirements are different from those for Social Security benefits.

For information on SSI go visit our Supplemental Security Income (SSI) For Noncitizens or Spotlight On SSI Benefits For Aliens pages.

Connecting the Dots:

Lee H. Hamilton is a co-chair for the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank)

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George Soros was the Chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society and Jonathan Soros’s father.

Jonathan Soros is George Soros’s son, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and was the vice chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Roosevelt Institute.

James Roosevelt Jr. is a governor at the Roosevelt Institute and was an associate commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Gwendolyn S. King was a commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and is a founding partner at the Directors' Council.

Michele J. Hooper is a founding partner at the Directors' Council and a member of the Belizean Grove.

Henrietta Holsman Fore is a member of the Belizean Grove and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Belizean_Grove is the equivalent to the male-only social group, the Bohemian Club.   

Henry A. Kissinger was member of the Bohemian Club and a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).

George Soros was the Chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Jane Lakes Harman is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and the president & CEO for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (think tank).

Thelma Duggin is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and a trustee at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (think tank).

Lee H. Hamilton was the president & director for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (think tank), is a co-chair for the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George Soros was the Chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society and Jonathan Soros’s father.

Jonathan Soros is George Soros’s son, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and was the vice chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Roosevelt Institute.

James Roosevelt Jr. is a governor at the Roosevelt Institute and was an associate commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Resources: Past Research

Obama’s IRS Chief: We Don’t Alert Americans When Illegal Aliens Steal Social Security Numbers to Get U.S. Jobs (Past Research on the Social Security Administration)

Friday, April 15, 2016

https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/04/obamas-irs-chief-we-dont-alert.html

Social Security Update: Agency Backpedals as NRA and Pro-Gun Officials Press for Answers (Past Research on the Social Security Administration)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/search?q=Social+Security+Administration

Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future (Connecting the Dots: Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future, Mexico, Obama, ACORN, Lee Hamilton And His Nephew David F. Hamilton, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, & Soros Funding, All Networking) (Past Research on Immigration)

Sunday, January 1, 2023

https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2023/01/independent-task-force-on-immigration.html

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