Overpayment Claims

Sometimes the SSA may pay you more than what you are entitled during a month for your social security benefit check. SSA can take the money out of your future checks to recover the overpayment.

Cases of overpayment claims are quite common. But generally, in cases of overpayment, the SSA may send you a notice of overpayment claim asking you to pay back the thousands of dollars that they have given you. You are then given only 60 days to file a Request for Reconsideration to contest the amount of overpayment. The recipient should act on that notice as soon as possible to make sure that his future checks are not affected by the overpayment, otherwise the SSA will then proceed with taking out the overpaid money from your benefits.

There are other ways to appeal an overpayment. You can ask SSA not to make you pay the overpaid money back by filing a Request for Waiver, the form of which can be obtained for your local SSA office. You can also request for both waiver and reconsideration if you think that they an overpayment did not occur or if SSA has overestimated the amount of actual overpayment (and even if an overpayment actually occurred, you can contest that the overpayment was not your fault at all). The beneficiary may not have enough resources to repay the overpaid benefits and it would be unfitting for SSA to recover the overpaid money from you.

However there are instances when your request for waiver of overpayment or request for reconsideration can be denied, despite your lack of resources to repay, and the evidence you yourself had presented. The decision by the overpayment claims representative at the local Social Security office may be taken further to an Administrative Law Judge, in which the benefits recipient have to present more evidence. Appeals can still be denied but you can take it further to the Appeals Council and finally to the District Court.

It would be very beneficial if you have a lawyer who can support your case against overpayment claims. Trying to win a case against overpayment is very long and complicated, especially to people who have no idea on how to establish the case. If you think that the overpayment is not your fault in causing it, and that you have substantial evidence to support your case, then seek legal help from an advocate by all means. Mesriani Law Group can help you avoid the long and complicated process of filing requests and/or appeals by giving you a very good lawyer to represent you in hearings at the SSA office.