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$23 billion not yet recovered: Social Security overpayments that haven't come back
Social Security reported $23 billion in uncollected overpayments at the start of fiscal 2024. Its inspector general later found SSA booked about $904 million as recovered that wasn't.
Social Security Administration
- Uncollected overpayments, Oct 1, 2023$23B1
- A year earlier$21.6B1
- New overpayments, FY2022About $11.1B1
- Of those, caused by SSA, not the recipientAbout $1.9B1
- Retirement and disability overpayments, FY2022–23Almost $10B2
- Booked as recovered, but wasn'tAbout $904M2
- Miscalculated, mostly never to be recoveredAlmost $245M2
What happened
When Social Security pays someone more than they're owed, it's supposed to get the money back, usually by holding back future benefits. The unpaid balance reached $23 billion by October 1, 2023, up from $21.6 billion a year earlier.
In September 2025 SSA's inspector general reviewed the retirement and disability overpayments SSA recorded in fiscal 2022 and 2023 — almost $10 billion. It found about $904 million recorded as recovered through benefit withholding that hadn't been, and nearly 35,000 overpayments, worth almost $245 million, calculated wrong.
Why nobody caught it
- The inspector general said most of the miscalculated overpayments hadn't been spotted by SSA and won't be recovered.
- About $1.9 billion of fiscal 2022's new overpayments were caused by SSA, not the people who received them.
How sure are we?
Money the government is owed and hasn't collected, by its own count.
SSA's own financial report and its inspector general's audit. Overpayments are mostly errors, often SSA's; many people who were overpaid did nothing wrong.
Sources
- New Social Security report shows growing overpayment problem tops $23BGovernment Executive · Nov 2023
- Audit 072301: processing Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance overpaymentsSocial Security Administration Office of the Inspector General · Sep 30, 2025
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