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Social Security's inspector general estimates the agency paid about 333,800 SSI recipients approximately $1 billion they would not have been eligible for because employees left earnings alerts unresolved or cleared them incompletely, and that about $664 million of it cannot be recovered absent a finding of fraud or similar fault.

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An audit by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General, report 022310 dated September 15, 2026, sampled 100 of the 417,291 Supplemental Security Income recipients who had at least one pending earnings alert as of September 2024. An alert means IRS or state wage data exceeded the earnings a recipient reported. Employees had resolved the alerts for 20. For 63 they had not started or finished the review, and for 17 they cleared the alert without recording all earnings. Projecting from the sample, the inspector general estimates SSA paid about 333,800 recipients approximately $1 billion they would not have been eligible to receive, a figure that includes both over- and underpayments. Under SSA's administrative finality rules, about $664 million cannot be recovered absent a determination of fraud or similar fault; about $344 million remains correctable. SSA agreed to implement all three recommendations. SSA's rule for recipients: report a change in earnings no later than the 10th day of the month after the month of change.

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Supplemental Security Income pays monthly cash to people who are aged, blind or disabled and have little income, and the payment shrinks as income rises. When IRS or state wage data show more earnings than a recipient reported, SSA's system raises an earnings alert. An employee is supposed to contact the recipient, verify the wages, correct the record and pursue any overpayment.

An inspector general audit dated September 15 found that, in a random sample, most of those alerts were not properly resolved.

What the auditors found

Of 100 recipients drawn from 417,291 with a pending alert in September 2024, employees had resolved the alerts for 20. For 63, they had not started the review (37) or had not finished it (26); by April 2025 those alerts had been "pending for an average of 733 days". For the other 17, employees cleared the alert without recording all the earnings that affected the payment.

We could not determine why employees did not initiate or complete reviews of earnings alerts in accordance with Agency policies, and Agency subject-matter experts could not provide an explanation.

A 2012 audit found the same problem; this report says "the actions SSA took in response to our prior review were not sufficient".

The clock

The sharper finding is about time. Under administrative finality rules, SSA generally will not reopen an SSI determination more than 24 months old absent fraud or similar fault. If an employee does not finish an alert within six months, the 24 months count back from the day the review begins, not from the alert, so every month an alert waits, a month of payments passes out of reach. Those payments are treated as final; in one example, "SSA considers payments associated with this unrecoverable amount to be correct and will not establish an overpayment to seek recovery".

For the 42 sampled recipients whose payments the earnings affected:

Therefore, December 2026 represents the last month SSA could recover any of the payments we identified, unless there is a finding of fraud or similar fault.

The numbers

  • Recipients affected: 333,833 (90-percent range 301,622 to 360,260).
  • Payments not due: $1,008,012,194 (point-estimate range $675,672,505 to $1,340,039,108). The figure "includes both over- and underpayments".
  • Beyond recovery: $664,046,816 (point-estimate range $377,287,795 to $950,709,558).
  • Still correctable: $343,965,378.

SSA agreed to implement all three recommendations. Its September 8 comment memo added that for several cases counted as not started or incomplete, the required redetermination was not yet due when the alert was generated, and that some cited cases have since been corrected. The report's text does not respond.

A second audit the same month

Report 022515, dated September 23, covers Social Security benefits for 18- and 19-year-olds in elementary or secondary school, a separate program from SSI. From 100 of 521,393 beneficiaries, it estimates about $211 million paid improperly to about 89,000 people, underpayments included, and about $342 million in unsupported payments to about 63,000 whose school form SSA had not kept. Unsupported is not wrong: "Without evidence, we could not determine whether the individuals were entitled to the student benefits SSA paid them." SSA agreed.

If you get SSI and work

SSA's 2026 guidance: report earnings changes "no later than the 10th day of the month after the month of change", including a live-in spouse's earnings, or a parent's when a child gets SSI. Keep every pay stub; report by phone (1-800-772-1213; TTY 1-800-325-0778), by mail, or through the automated phone line, the mobile wage reporting app or my Social Security, where SSA says "we prefer you report your wages by the 6th day of each month". Each late or missed report can bring a $25 to $100 penalty. And: "You should report a change even if you're late."

If an overpayment letter arrives, SSA asks for repayment within 30 days, and "If you submit a request for waiver or appeal before 30 days has passed, we will not begin collecting until a decision is made on your case."

What the record does not say

  • It is not a fraud finding. The auditors presumed the IRS and state wages accurate, did not contact recipients, and note some earnings may have been wrong or excludable.
  • Every estimate is a projection from 100 cases.
  • It does not say whether SSA will review the other estimated recipients, how many will get overpayment notices, or when. The recommendations cover the 80 sampled cases and the causes.

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