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Dear Colleague,

We strive to provide you with valuable information to help your clients avoid unnecessary financial burden, such as overpayments. Overpayments occur when your clients receive more money than they are due. By law, we are required to adjust benefits or recover debts when that happens. Your clients can avoid overpayments by reporting changes in income, resources, work, earnings, and living arrangements that could affect their benefits, as soon as possible.

If your client receives an overpayment notice, they can:

• Repay the Overpayment - If they agree with the overpayment and are currently receiving benefits, they can make a payment in full, through monthly benefit withholding, or through a repayment plan by check, money order, or credit card. If they are not currently receiving benefits, they can make a full or partial repayment using Pay.gov or their bank's online bill pay option. We offer flexible repayment plans, including payments as low as $10 per month.
• Request an Appeal - If they disagree with the overpayment or believe the overpayment amount is incorrect, they can request a review of the decision by completing form SSA-561-U2, Request for Reconsideration. The appeal must be filed within 60 days of receiving the overpayment notice.

• Request a Waiver - If they believe they did not cause the overpayment, the overpayment is unfair, or cannot afford to repay the overpayment, they can request to relieve some or all the amount due by completing form SSA-632-BK, Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery.

  We simplified our waiver request form to make it easier to understand and less burdensome for people to request a waiver.

  If they believe they are not at fault and the overpayment is $1,000 or less, they may request a waiver by calling 1-800-772-1213 or their local Social Security office. We may be able to process their request quickly by phone without having to submit a paper form.

• Request a Different Repayment Amount - We offer flexible repayment plans, including payments as low as $10 per month. If they are unable to meet their necessary living expenses due to the current repayment amount, or are unable to repay the debt within 60 months*, they can request a change in the recovery rate by completing form SSA-634, Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate. *This is a recent policy change. Previous policy required the completion of the SSA-634 if the overpayment could not be repaid within 36 months.

For more information, please read the Overpayments Fact Sheet.

Please share this important information with your members, colleagues, affiliates, and other interested parties. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Dawn Bystry
Associate Commissioner
Office of Strategic and Digital Communications
oea.net.post@ssa.gov