Improper Social Security Payments Reach $1.1 Billion, Agency Backlog Hits All-Time High

The backlog of payment actions at the Social Security Administration (SSA) is now at a “record-breaking” level, resulting in the agency making over a billion dollars in improper payments to beneficiaries, according to the SSA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The SSA’s backlog of pending actions hit an “all-time high” of 5.2 million as of February, the OIG said in an Aug. 8 press release, citing an analysis published in June. Pending actions at the agency’s claims processing centers that remain unresolved for a long period of time have resulted in “larger improper payments, including growing underpayments or increasing overpayments to beneficiaries.”...