A notice of overpayment sent by the Social Security Administration can be one of the more deflating pieces of mail to receive. Basically, this notice indicates that you received too much money from Social Security and now they want the money back.
According to Social Security, “an overpayment occurs when Social Security pays you more than you should have been paid.”
Although this type of notice may see like the end of the world and unfair because Social Security may have made this error on their own, you do have options.
First of all, it is important to determine whether Social Security has it right and indeed you were overpaid. Remember, if Social Security made a mistake in paying you too much money, they can also make a mistake in determining they overpaid you.
If you disagree and feel that Social Security has not overpaid you, you have the right to appeal this decision, something that has to be done in writing within 60 days from the date on the overpayment notice. If you are requesting that Social Security waive the notice of overpayment you can call your local Social Security office or file a “Request For Waiver Of Overpayment Recovery Or Change In Repayment Rate (SSA 632). This form can be found at ssa.gov.
You can ask Social Security to waive the overpayment at any time, but you must show that the overpayment was not your fault in any way and show that paying it back would cause you financial hardship or be unfair for some other reason.
If you can prove that paying back the money would be a hardship Social Security is supposed to stop trying to recover the money.
For more information about how to appeal and ask Social Security to waive an overpayment click here.
