…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…
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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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