This investigation exposed, for the first time, how millions of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable people have been hit with demands to repay billions of dollars in Social Security benefits – money the federal government sent them, then later said they should never have received.It’s information the Social Security Administration sought to hide by dodging direct questions, denying a Freedom of Information Act request, and presenting misleading testimony to Congress, which we later revealed – prompting an apology from the head of the agency.To recover the alleged debts, the Social Security Administration abruptly reduced or halted beneficiaries’ monthly checks – driving already struggling people into even more dire circumstances, and forcing some into homelessness.
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“Social Security’s Secret” pulls back the curtain on the investigative reporting to show how a dozen reporters worked together, from Cox Media Group’s eight local television stations and the online non-profit KFF Health News.We featured personal stories of more than three dozen people to expose the real-world impacts of Social Security Administration clawbacks and exposed, for the first time, just how many Americans are hit with overpayments each year.
Our reporting prompted swift reaction from lawmakers around the country demanding accountability.Within weeks of our initial report, the Social Security Administration announced it would conduct an internal review of its overpayment policies and procedures.The House Social Security subcommittee held a hearing about overpayments in October 2023, and cited our initial reporting.At least a dozen members of Congress drafted letters to the agency requesting information and calling for policy changes. Several have since introduced legislation to address overpayments.
In December 2023, we filed a creative and highly specific Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the internal briefing document, then-Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi read from during the congressional hearing.When asked how many Americans were getting overpayment notices each year, she read numbers indicating the answer was about one million people each year for FY2022 and FY2023.But when we obtained the document, it showed she only read half of the numbers. In fact, roughly two million people each year were really being hit with overpayments – information the agency had not previously revealed.
In March 2024, the Social Security Administration's new Commissioner, Martin O'Malley, announced sweeping policy changes to stop what he called the “clawback cruelty” of withholding 100% of someone's benefits to recoup an overpayment.He limited the default amount of initial withholding to 10%, vowed to shift the burden of proof from the beneficiary to the agency, and said the agency would make its notices easier for recipients to understand.He said he supported limiting how far back in time the agency can reach to recover overpayments, but suggested Congress might need to make that change.
“Sometimes it takes a crisis, sometimes it takes an organization like yours lifting up a shortcoming for us to look at our data differently,” said Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley during a March 2024 interview. “We couldn’t allow this injustice to continue.”
"Social Security should be to help people, not to destroy them."
- Addie Arnold
Addie Arnold cares for her adult niece, Justina Worrell, and relies on their Social Security checks to live. The family was facing a $60,000 overpayment notice, which the SSA later reversed after the news coverage.
A dozen reporters from around the country worked together for more than a year to chronicle the impact overpayments and clawbacks have on the lives of Americans, many of whom depend on their monthly Social Security checks to survive."Social Security's Secret" chronicles the year of investigative reporting first revealed in the series, "Overpayment Outrage."Click below to read comprehensive coverage from KFF Health News and Cox Media Group.
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