The audit reviewed a sample of cases from June 2017 – May 2022.
If you were not receiving Social Security benefits during this time, this information is unlikely to apply to you.
Quick Recap of the Audit (in Plain Terms)
A federal audit of the Social Security Administration looked at how SSA handles overpayment bills and payment stoppages tied to unreported income, an unreported marriage, or similar issues. The review found a significant pattern of errors — things like not collecting overpayments the right way, sending confusing or incomplete notices, and stopping payments for the wrong months. Those errors added up to a substantial amount in improper payments nationwide.
Bottom line: if you or someone you know has ever received a letter saying they owed Social Security money, or had their payments stopped for a while, there’s a good chance SSA didn’t handle it correctly — and you may owe less than the letter said, be owed money, or need their record corrected.
Did SSA Get This Right?
A federal audit of Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General found something important: when SSA reviewed cases involving overpayment bills and payment stoppages tied to unreported income, an unreported marriage, or similar issues, they found a recurring pattern of mistakes across a large share of the cases checked.
These mistakes included things like:
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- Not collecting overpayments the way policy requires
- Sending confusing, incomplete, or incorrect overpayment notices
- Stopping payments for the wrong months, or for too long
- Missing or incomplete paperwork on the decision
Why this matters to you: if you’ve ever gotten a letter from Social Security saying you were overpaid — especially one tied to income, work, or a marriage you didn’t report — there’s a real chance your case was affected by one of these errors. That could mean you owe less than the letter said, or your case needs a second look. The same goes if your payments were ever stopped for a while.
What to do next: You don’t have to sort this out alone. Reach out to your Career Coach to set up time with a Benefits Counselor. They can look at your case, walk you through what the audit found, and help make sure everything on your record — including any amount you owe — is accurate.
Protect What You’re Owed
Here’s something worth knowing: a recent federal audit reviewed how Social Security calculates and collects overpayment bills — the letters saying someone was paid too much, often because of unreported income, an unreported marriage, or something similar.
This audit found errors in a significant share of the cases reviewed, adding up to a substantial amount in incorrect payments nationwide.
This doesn’t mean anyone did anything wrong. It means the system itself made mistakes — wrong amounts, wrong dates, missing paperwork, unclear notices, and overpayments that weren’t collected the right way.
The good news: as an ERS ticketholder, you already have support built in. Your Career Coach can connect you with a Benefits Counselor — at no cost to you — to review your overpayment history and make sure everything lines up with what it should be.
This is a great moment to ask questions like:
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- Did I ever get an overpayment notice?
- Am I sure the amount and dates were correct?
- Were my payments ever stopped for a while, and was that handled right?
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General
