Nearly 64 million people in the United States get help from Social Security, making it one of the most important services in the country.
It is an important source of income for many seniors, especially those who are 65 years or older. As the number of people who depend on these payments rises, so do worries about how long the system will last.
The program is likely to have a lot of money problems in the coming years. One big problem is that Social Security will have to start giving out more money in payments than it gets in payroll taxes, which are its main source of income.
People all over the United States are worried about this situation because it threatens the long-term security of the program.
The problem is made worse by complaints of how the program handles its money. A former worker for the Social Security Administration has revealed major mistakes in the way payouts were made, which cost the agency millions of dollars.
These new details show that SSA is not managing its resources well enough, which hurts its ability to pay its debts.
The Problem of Improper Social Security Payments
The problem is getting worse because the Social Security Administration (SSA) is making more and more mistakes when they pay people.
An ex-SSA worker named Avram Sacks has been a vocal opponent of the over payments, which he says are caused by simple mistakes or even fraud in some cases.
A report from 2024 from the Office of Inspector General says that the government made nearly $72 billion in mistakes in payments between 2015 and 2022. Most of these were over payments.
SSA has the right to get these funds back, but the process is hard to understand. At the end of the 2023 tax year, SSA still owed more than $23 million in back pay. Yahoo says that all of these issues are important to remember about Social Security payouts these days.
Does Social Security need more oversight?
The Social Security Trustees report says that the program may not have enough money by 2035, which would mean that payments would be cut by 25%.
Millions of retirees who depend on the program for their income would be hurt by this cut. At the moment, a big chunk of people over 65 depend on Social Security to cover at least half of their pay.
So that things do not get worse, SSA has started to look over its over payment processes and is working on new ways to get wage data that will help stop these mistakes.
Stopping over payments will not fully fix the program’s money problems, but it is a big step toward protecting the benefits of millions of retirees.
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