The CBS news program “60 Minutes” ran a story this past Sunday that was critical of the Social Security Administration and the way the agency handles overpayments—money sent to Social Security beneficiaries that they were not due. I’m going to address that issue in today’s column. But before I do, I’ve got to put things in perspective.
If you watched the news story, you could come away thinking something like this: “Those dumb bureaucrats. They can’t do anything right. They are sending millions of dollars in incorrect payments to people every year!” But here is the dose of perspective you need to understand. Social Security is a $1.3 trillion per year program. And those millions of dollars in overpayments make up just one-half of one percent of the program’s annual payout. Or to turn that around, 99.5 percent of the time, people are being paid correctly. So, overpayments are a problem. But nowhere near as big a problem as sensational news stories would have you believe.
