New legislation limits clawbacks of Social Security overpayments to 10% of a beneficiary's monthly benefit.
The bill, the Claws Off Social Security Act, H.R. 2999, restores the policy of former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley, "which enabled SSA to claw back the overpayment — usually when the beneficiary is not at fault — while enabling the beneficiary to receive a sufficient Social Security payment for basic living needs," said Dan Adcock, director of government relations for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, on Monday in an email.
The bill was introduced by Reps. Dwight Evans, D-Pa.; John Larson, D-Conn.; Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; and Lois Frankel, D-Fla.
“Under a new Trump administration policy, seniors who received an overpayment because of someone else’s mistake are seeing up to their entire checks withheld," Evans said in a statement. "Our bill would cap these ‘clawbacks’ at a reasonable 10 percent of monthly benefits, restoring a policy the Biden administration put in place last year."
O'Malley reduced the withholding rate for overpayments to 10% from 100% in 2024, after a news report about the clawbacks led to public outcry.
SSA announced in March that it would reverse that change for overpayments starting March 27. The withholding rate for Supplemental Security Income overpayments remains 10%.
Legislation introduced in March, H.R. 2142, the Social Security Overpayment Relief Act, limits the time in which the Social Security Administration can recoup an overpayment to 10 years.
H.R. 2999 would also give beneficiaries the option to repay overpayments in larger amounts and allows for an exception in cases of fraud.
The National Committee supports both bills.
"Our Claws Off Social Security Act is a common-sense bill to restore the Social Security Administration’s policy protecting beneficiaries from being excessively penalized for accidental overpayments," Larson said in the statement. "Congress must act to defend our seniors’ hard-earned benefits from this cruel policy.”
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