Letter to Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security Administration - Don't Penalize Taxpayers for Decades-Old Social Security Overpayments

Letter

The Honorable Carolyn W. Colvin
Acting Commissioner
Social Security Administration
6401 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, MD 21235-0001

Dear Acting Commissioner Colvin:

We are attaching an article from the Washington Post about Ms. Mary Grice of Takoma Park, Maryland, who had her tax refund garnished because the Social Security Administration had erroneously made an overpayment to an unknown person in her family in 1977 almost four decades ago.

According to the Washington Post, this and similar garnishments are possible because of language in the 2008 Farm Bill that lifted the ten-year statute of limitations on seizing tax returns and other federal payments to offset claims owed to the U.S. Government.

While this policy of seizing tax refunds to repay decades-old Social Security overpayments might be allowed under the law, it is entirely unjust. Ms. Grice and other families like hers are unfairly being held responsible for decades-old errors at the Social Security Administration -- even though many of these taxpayers were children at the time the error was made. Too many of these families are now finding themselves trapped in a mess of paperwork and red tape that is both costly and time-consuming.

Current law allows for the recovery of overpayments to be waived for any person who is "without fault" if the Social Security Administration Commissioner determines that the recovery would be "against equity and good conscience." Garnishing taxpayers' refunds to pay for debts that are more than a decade old -- and incurred through no fault of their own -- is a policy that cannot be continued in good conscience. In particular, we believe that this "good conscience" clause prohibits recovering overpayments from beneficiaries who were minor children at the time of the error.

Therefore, we ask you to immediately use the discretion granted to the Social Security Administration under the law to waive recovery of overpayments more than ten years old if the beneficiary is not at fault. We also ask you to give us a summary of the efforts to recover overpayments that the Social Security Administration is currently pursuing or has pursued because the statute of limitations was lifted. In that summary, please tell us how many of the affected individuals were minor children at the time that the mistake was made.