Stimulus Checks Are Being Counted Against People's Social Security Payments

Some Social Security recipients reported being asked to pay money back on their benefits because they had allegedly already received COVID-19 stimulus checks.

Dave Greune, a Washington-based Social Security recipient, told Seattle-based television station Kiro 7 that the Social Security Administration (SSA) asked his disabled daughter Julia to repay more than $7,000 in benefits.

Greune called this request a government mistake that he thinks is linked to the COVID-19 stimulus payments his daughter received during the pandemic.

According to Greune, his daughter normally gets between $500 and $600 a month in Supplemental Security income payments. During the health emergency, she received about $3,200 in COVID-19 stimulus payments—benefits that brought up her asset limit, as the SSI limit for a person with cerebral palsy, like Julia Greune, is $2,000.

The SSA is now asking back for more than double the money the woman has received in COVID-19 stimulus checks, on top of the fact that she's not received SSI benefits for the past six months, according to her dad.

Requesting money back from Julia Greune could have been an error, as Dave Greune suggested. By the SSA's own rules, decided in 2021, the COVID-19 stimulus payments shouldn't count as income against an SSI recipient's asset limit to avoid overpayments.

In a statement to Newsweek, the SSA wrote: "We are not aware that COVID stimulus payments created issues with overpayments, and reviewed any cases where our records showed someone's benefits were suspended for resources between the beginning of the pandemic and the end of FY (financial year) 2022."

It added: "Our agency has a long-standing policy to treat stimulus payments as advance tax credits, which are excluded from resources for up to 12 months. This policy was reflected in initial emergency guidance about EIPs (Economic Impact Payments) received under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). In July 2021, we updated our guidance to no longer consider EIPs as advance tax credits, but as disaster assistance, making any retention of the payments an indefinite resource exclusion."

For every initial claim, the SSA explained, "redetermination contact, and certain post-eligibility contacts, we required SSA staff to ask specific questions about the receipt of disaster assistance and document the person's response. Part of this documentation was recording the person's allegation about whether the money was saved and if so, how much and where.

"When assistance was retained in financial accounts, we instructed employees to deduct the saved amounts from the financial account balance until the person alleged having spent the EIP completely.

"The agency used multiple vehicles to message about the EIPs including our coronavirus and EIP-specific webpages, blogs, social media, emails to Social Security account holders who receive SSI, dear colleague letters to advocates, and mailed notices to people who were eligible for or received SSI in calendar year 2020 or 2021.

"We included information that EIPs are not counted as income when received and will not be counted against SSI applicants or recipients' resource limits no matter how long they keep those funds."

The SSA has recently come under fire after a report revealed it had asked for $20 billion back in overpayments from beneficiaries, including some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

The SSA regained $4.7 billion of overpayments during the 2022 fiscal year, but ended the year with $21.6 billion still outstanding, according to a report by the agency's inspector general.

SSA benefits are paid based on one's earnings record and are available for individuals who have retired, people with a disability, and the survivors of workers who have died. For many people who are unable to work or are retired, payments form the bulk of their income.

Many of the beneficiaries who were told they were not entitled to receive the money they had already been sent are on low incomes, on disability, or retired, and are reportedly being asked to repay thousands of dollars. Many told Newsweek they're unable to repay the SSA.

Following the controversy sparked by reports of the SSA's overpayment requests, the federal agency has launched a review of the way it handles overpayments. A spokesperson for the agency previously told Newsweek that "the review was just announced and is beginning. We don't have further updates at this time."

Have you been affected by Social Security payback demands? Email g.carbonaro@newsweek.com

Update, 10/24/2023 5:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from the SSA.