A study released by the inspector general exposed an unparalleled surge in erroneous disbursements amidst a record backlog at the Social Security Administration. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the agency released a news release stating that as of February 2024, a record 5.2 million Social Security “pending actions” backlog led to $1.1 billion in incorrect payments.
When will Social Security payments be made?
The prevalence of incorrect, overpayment, and underpayment payments rises as the backlog grows. Inaccurate benefit calculations can cause a person to receive less or more than they are entitled to.
Acting Inspector General for the Social Security Administration stated, “This report continues to highlight the urgency for SSA to reach its pending actions performance goal and to ensure beneficiaries receive their proper payments as promptly as possible.” The record-breaking backlog was explained by the SSA as the result of “unexpected staff reductions, increased workloads, and less than expected overtime funding.”
The SSA claims that greater overtime funding would have been utilized to pay staff members to handle a higher volume of pending proceedings at each processing facility. In these US states, Social Security benefits are subject to taxes. “This report keeps emphasizing how urgent it is for SSA to meet its performance goal for pending actions and make sure beneficiaries get their rightful payments as soon as possible,” Anderson stated. Between the fiscal years of 2018 and 2023, there was a 44% increase in the SSA backlog.
The OIG discovered that even though the SSA achieved its performance targets in four of the years, the backlog of unfinished business at processing facilities increased instead of decreased from 3.2 million in 2018 to 4.6 million in 2023. The amount of unsettled payments increased as a result of the growing backlog and the length of time it required to handle outstanding cases.
528,000 beneficiaries would have received approximately $534 million in incorrect payments if the SSA had cleared the backlog of pending cases at the “earliest possible instance,” according to estimates from the OIG.
According to the OIG investigation, the improper payment total grew to an estimated $1.1 billion after those payments were left uncorrected for months, and in some cases for more than a year. According to the OIG report, “the longer it takes SSA to process pending actions, the longer beneficiaries wait for underpayments due or they receive larger overpayments to repay.”
A payment backlog can significantly alter the anticipated amount of benefits received. As of February 2024, the average Social Security retirement payout was around $1,862 per month, or $22,344 year. In one case that was mentioned in the report, the OIG discovered that an approximate $62,000 overpayment was made by the SSA to a beneficiary.
What’s the ideal age to start receiving Social Security?
The OIG discovered that although the SSA discovered the error in June 2021—after the beneficiary had already been paid an additional $9,000 over the course of four months—the administration did not initiate steps to recoup the overpayment until May 2023. The recipient had already gotten an extra $53,000 by that point. Resolving the backlog is crucial to providing recipients with the anticipated funds since nearly all older persons receive Social Security payments and almost all workers contribute to the program through payroll taxes.
How can I obtain a new Social Security card?
According to Anderson, the SSA has accepted the OIG’s following suggestions to clear the backlog: Create a personnel and workload schedule that will enable the SSA to consistently lower the backlog. Establish performance metrics with the aim of lowering the number of unfinished business at processing centers. Set deadlines for processing centers to prevent the growth of erroneous payments and to ease the load on beneficiaries.
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