The Social Security Administration (SSA) allows SSDI recipients to request to waive repayment of a disability benefit amount that was more than it should have been. For your information, benefits are overpaid when SSA cannot calculate accurately your payment amount due to the fact that it has incomplete or wrong information.
That is why it is so important to report any changes in your personal situation that could affect your SSDI benefit amount. Thus, overpayment can happen when you don’t update the Social Security Administration on what is new in your life. For example, if you got married, divorced, any income changes, your ability to work or your living situation.
SSDI recipients who receive an overpayment letter
The Agency may send some SSDI recipients an overpayment letter when it believes they received more money than they were entitled to. This letter comes by mail, and it informs you of the fact that you were overpaid.
Since the Social Security believes you were overpaid, you will be asked to pay the SSA back. So, all the money you were not entitled to must be paid back before the deadline.
However, you may disagree with this overpayment letter, and you may want to request a waiver. There are several reasons why you may want to request a waiver.
SSDI overpayments and waivers
The Social Security Administration says that SSDI recipients could request that they waive repayment if they do not have enough money to pay it back. So, basically, you cannot afford it because of your difficult financial situation.
Also, you could ask for a waiver when you feel the error was not your fault. Besides, you may think that the overpayment is unfair for any other reason. Of course, you must provide the Administration with details to prove you are right and that you may qualify for a waiver.
Social Security will check your expenses and income, too. If you would like to request a waiver, you can either fax or mail your request to waive overpaid benefits. SSDI recipients can fill out the Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery online. For more details or support visit: https://www.ssa.gov/manage-benefits/repay-overpaid-benefits/waive-repayment-overpaid-benefits
