September 25, 2025
The agency made close to $72 billion thanks to improper payments in 2024 alone.
In addition to the rising costs of life’s necessities, more families are starting to feel the heat of being forced to repay Social Security payments to the agency, some of whom are no longer with us, Atlanta News First reports.
David Morgan of Georgia thought that he would be able to start the process of moving forward after his brother, Dennis, who struggled with addiction and mental illness, passed away in 2024. But while in the grieving process, Morgan received a letter that his brother had been overpaid by over $20,000 in benefits.
And is was David’s responsibility to pay it all back. The retired MARTA bus driver recalled receiving the letter as “devastating,” as this is an additional and unexpected expense. “Like anybody, if you stopped somebody’s source of income, what can you do? My wife and I would be devastated because we still got bills,” he said.
But this is a reality that more and more Americans are starting to face, as Atlanta Legal Aid attorney Mills Culver notes that the agency’s collection efforts extend into other federal programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps. One of Culver’s clients, Semainesh Weldemicael, a refugee from Eritrea, was told by Social Securi authorities that she owes close to $4,000.
Weldemicael feels it shouldn’t be their responsibility since it was the agency that permitted this to happen.
“I didn’t steal anything. It was the government that allowed us this. So, it was like a punishment I’m getting for nothing I do,” Weldemicael, whose family relies on benefits while caring for two mentally disabled adult children, said.
“If we don’t have it, we’re almost homeless.”
The agency generated nearly $72 billion in improper payments in 2024 alone. In April 2025, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced plans to no longer withhold 100% of a person’s monthly check to recover debts. In the interim, the agency caps 50% of benefits for new overpayments unless the recipient appeals or receives a waiver. For an appeal, beneficiaries have a 90-day window after receiving a notice of overpayment to debate the debt or request a lower recovery rate before the withholding period begins.
The issue has caught the attention of former SSA workers, such as former Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who testified about the severity of the problem before the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging in 2024. “Through no fault of their own, we overpay them and then claw back in a rather brutal and summary way 100 percent of their check,” he said.
Check sizes have begun to shrink amid the September 2025 schedule, given the new Social Security repayment rules, according to The Economic Times. Beneficiaries who notice smaller checks are instructed to check if they are subject to repayment withholding.
In the meantime, Congress has introduced the Social Security Overpayment Relief Act in an effort to place new limits on the collection powers of the agency, adding potential restrictions on dialing back back payments to 10 years, helping people like Morgan out. After reaching out to Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, Morgan said the agency admitted to its mistake, and the lawmaker informed the senior citizen that he was not responsible for the overpayment. While his story ended on a good note, he hopes speaking out will prompt a change in a system he calls broken. “It’s already hard enough to try to make a living on a fixed income,” Morgan said.
“And when you have no income, you lose everything.”
RELATED CONTENT: Grass Grievance: Homeowner Jailed In Weird Battle With HOA
