Social Security Administration January 3, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

To implement part of the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (SSPA), we are revising our rules on the recovery of overpayments incurred under one of our programs from benefits payable to the overpaid individual under other programs we administer. Provisions of the SSPA expand the authority for cross-program recovery of overpayments made in our various programs. Implementation of these regulatory revisions when they become effective will yield significant program savings. Although we are issuing these rules as final rules, we are also requesting comments on certain material changes from the proposed rules we previously published concerning expanded cross-program recovery. These changes would allow us to use cross-program recovery if: an individual is no longer receiving benefits under a particular program but is making regular monthly installments to refund an overpayment previously received under that program; or an individual is receiving monthly payments under a particular program and we are recovering a previous overpayment made under that program by adjusting the amount of those monthly benefits. We will not implement these changes before we consider comments which we receive by the date provided below and publish a document in the Federal Register. If we determine that any further changes in these sections are warranted, we will publish revised rules. See ``Additional Changes'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for further discussion.