{"id":2158,"date":"2023-12-18T22:21:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2023-12-18T22:22:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:22:11","slug":"social-security-chief-apologizes-to-congress-for-misleading-testimony-on-overpayments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2158","title":{"rendered":"Social Security Chief Apologizes to Congress for Misleading Testimony on Overpayments"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The head of the Social Security Administration has sent a letter of apology to members of Congress about testimony in which she understated the extent of the agency\u2019s overpayments to beneficiaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding during the October hearing,\u201d acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi wrote in a letter dated Dec. 11.<\/p>\n<p>Kijakazi sent the letter days after KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reported that the agency has been demanding money back from more than 2 million people a year \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/social-security-overpayments-underestimate-kijakazi\/\">more than twice as many<\/a> as Kijakazi <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/social-security-administration-house-hearing-commisioner\/\">disclosed to a House panel<\/a> at an Oct. 18 hearing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-documentcloud wp-block-embed-documentcloud\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Overpayments Letter From Kijakazi, Dec. 11, 2023 (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.documentcloud.org\/documents\/24224983-acoss-to-chair-ferguson-overpayments-hearing-20231211\/?embed=1\" width=\"570\" height=\"750\" style=\"border: 1px solid #aaa;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The report was based on a Social Security document the news organizations obtained through a records request under the Freedom of Information Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my effort to be responsive to Committee questions on overpayment numbers, I provided a preliminary, unvetted and partial answer,\u201d Kijakazi said in her apology letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal \u2014 and SSA\u2019s goal \u2014 is always to provide Congress with the most complete, accurate, and responsive information possible,\u201d Kijakazi said. \u201cWe did not do that in this case and will use this experience to improve our communications with Congress going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview before she sent the apology, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) said Kijakazi \u201cwasn\u2019t being completely upfront\u201d at the hearing, and he wondered whether the agency had \u201cintentionally deflated the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in a Dec. 12 interview, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said the agency had <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/senator-ron-wyden-social-security-administration-monthly-meetings\/\">damaged its credibility<\/a> by \u201cnot telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Social Security focused on the <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/social-security-overpayments-investigation\/\">agency\u2019s record<\/a> of sending out billions of dollars of benefit payments that it later concludes it never should have paid \u2014 and then, sometimes years later, demanding the recipients pay the money back.<\/p>\n<p>The unexpected bills, which can total tens of thousands of dollars or more, can be devastating for the recipients. Many are disabled and struggling to get by on minimal incomes.<\/p>\n<p>Until the hearing, the agency had not disclosed the number of people affected, making it harder for policymakers to assess the seriousness of the problem and what to do about it.<\/p>\n<p>At the hearing, Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio) asked how many people a year are receiving overpayment notices.<\/p>\n<p>Reading from a piece of paper, Kijakazi gave two precise numbers: 1,028,389 for the 2022 fiscal year and 986,912 for the 2023 fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>Under further questioning, she repeated the numbers.<\/p>\n<p>She also said they were \u201cunder Social Security\u201d and \u201cfor Social Security.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block block--newsletter  \" data-type=\"kaiser-health-news\/newsletter\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"\">\n<h4 class=\"newsletter__title\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/email\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tEmail Sign-Up\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/h4>\n<p class=\"newsletter__description\">\n\t\tSubscribe to KFF Health News&#8217; free Morning Briefing.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>After the hearing, KFF Health News and Cox Media Group sent the Social Security press office several emails over a period of weeks asking for clarification: Did the numbers Kijakazi gave at the hearing represent all programs administered by the Social Security Administration, or just a subset?<\/p>\n<p>SSA spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann did not give a direct answer.<\/p>\n<p>The news organizations filed the FOIA request for a copy of the document from which Kijakazi read the numbers at the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>The document showed that Kijakazi did not tell House members the whole story.<\/p>\n<p>She read numbers that included two benefit programs, but she repeatedly omitted numbers for a third program her agency administers under the Social Security Act. The numbers she omitted were bigger than the numbers she disclosed, and, on the piece of paper, they appeared directly below the numbers she disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>She left out more than a million people a year.<\/p>\n<p>More than seven weeks passed before she sent Congress the apology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should have followed up with additional context following the hearing,\u201d she said in her letter. \u201cI take seriously the commitment that all Federal officials make to provide the Congress with accurate information and I very much regret not contacting you with more information right away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KFF Health News and Cox Media Group obtained a copy of the letter addressed to Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), chair of the Ways and Means\u2019 Subcommittee on Social Security, and a copy sent to a Democratic member of the committee.<\/p>\n<p>Asked which members of Congress were sent the letter, Tiggemann said in an email, \u201cThe correspondence was between Acting Commissioner Kijakazi and members of the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tiggemann did not respond to a request for an interview with Kijakazi.<\/p>\n<p>In her letter, Kijakazi essentially disavowed the numbers she gave the committee. She said the agency is trying to make sure it has \u201cthe right data to make meaningful improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are committed to sharing this data with the Committee and the public,\u201d she wrote, \u201cas soon as it is fully vetted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have an experience with Social Security overpayments you\u2019d like to share? <a href=\"https:\/\/kaiserfamilyfoundation.wufoo.com\/forms\/wkx8dbe1s83qed\/\">Click here<\/a> to contact our reporting team.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"meta-authors meta\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"author-name\">David Hilzenrath: <\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidHilzenrath\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t@DavidHilzenrath<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"author-name\">Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group: <\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/jodieTVnews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t@jodieTVnews<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"block--category-tag-list \">\n<div class=\"category-tag-list__content-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"block--category-tag-list__title\">\n\t\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a class=\"category-tag-list__contact-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/contact-us\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tContact Us\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<a class=\"category-tag-list__tip-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/tips\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tSubmit a Story Tip\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of the Social Security Administration has sent a letter of apology to members of Congress about testimony in which she understated the extent of the agency\u2019s overpayments to beneficiaries. \u201cI want to apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding during the October hearing,\u201d acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi wrote in a letter dated Dec. 11. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2160,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}