Overpaid by Social Security? You Might Stop Getting Checks for a While

Getting extra money from Social Security might sound great to you, but a lot depends on the circumstances. If the extra money comes from a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) or a law change, like the Social Security Fairness Act, there isn't much to worry about.

But if the extra money is from a mistake the Social Security Administration made, it could come back to bite you. This is especially true now after a rule change under the Trump administration. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with a Social Security overpayment that can minimize the pain.

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The overpayment recovery rate is back at 100%

When the Social Security Administration (SSA) overpays beneficiaries, it's allowed to try to collect the overpaid amount from future benefit checks. For many years, the SSA could withhold up to 100% of your checks until it had reclaimed the overpayment. For example, if you received $2,000 Social Security checks normally and one month you got a $4,000 check, you simply wouldn't get a benefit the next month. But the following month, you'd get your $2,000 check as usual.

This changed in 2024 when the Biden administration put a cap on the overpayment recovery rate. This restricted the SSA to recovering the greater of $10 or 10% of your checks each month until it had recouped the overpayment. So in our previous example, the most the SSA could withhold in a single month would be $200. This was intended to ease the pain for beneficiaries, some of whom may not have even realized an error had occurred until they'd spent the extra money.

The Trump administration has reinstated the old 100% overpayment recovery rate for all overpayments that occur on or after March 27, 2025. Overpayments that took place before this date will continue to have a 10% recovery rate cap, as will Supplemental Security Income (SSI) overpayments.

What to do if you can't afford to lose your checks due to an overpayment

You don't have to wait until the SSA starts garnishing your checks to pay back an overpayment. If you realize an error has occurred or you receive a notice from the SSA stating that it paid you too much, you can make a payment to the SSA within 30 days from the date of the notice. If you do this, you'll continue to receive your Social Security benefits as usual.

If you don't believe you were overpaid or you think the overpayment amount is incorrect, file an appeal. You'll likely need to provide supporting documents showing your regular benefit amount and the amount you received at the time of the alleged overpayment.

If you agree there was an overpayment but you can't afford to pay it, you can ask the SSA to waive collection of the debt. It may let you keep the extra funds if the overpayment wasn't your fault and you can't afford to pay it back. However, this isn't a guarantee. You'll have to provide details about your income and expenses so the SSA can verify your inability to pay.

While an appeal or a waiver request is pending, the SSA won't garnish any of your checks. But once those procedures are through, if it decides you still owe something, it could take up to 100% of your checks.

You can try one more time to avoid this by contacting your local Social Security office to request a lower repayment rate. Such an arrangement would enable you to continue receiving some benefits each month while you return the overpayment. Once you'd done that, you'd receive your regular Social Security checks again.

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