I have seen several news stories recently that were 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 had read any of these news reports, you likely would 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 a dose of perspective you need to understand. Social Security is a $1.6 trillion per year program. And those millions of dollars in overpayments make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the program’s annual payout. Or to turn that around, more than 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.
