You Could Lose Your Social Security Benefits to the Trump Administration’s Mistake

For 39% of men and 44% of older women, Social Security provides at least half of their monthly income, according to the Social Security Administration. And, over 10% of both men and women rely on Social Security for at least 90% of their money. That’s a huge number of people who need retirement benefits to be deposited on schedule.

Unfortunately, there are some circumstances where these critical benefits could shrink dramatically.

In fact, a mistake by the Administration could lead to a situation where you lose a big portion of your benefits. Here’s how this could happen, along with some details on what to do if it affects you. 

How could a Trump Administration mistake lead to a Social Security loss?

One of the most common ways retirees lose Social Security benefits is if they experience an overpayment and are subject to clawbacks. While this may sound technical, it’s actually pretty simple.

Here’s how this could happen:

• The Social Security Administration makes an error in how much income you are entitled to and sends you benefits for the wrong amount. You may not even realize that you are getting more money than you should be.  In some cases, you could also cause an overpayment by failing to report things like a change in your family or work situation. 
• Eventually, the error comes to light, and the Social Security Administration realizes there was an overpayment. They send you an overpayment notice and ask you to pay back the money within 30 days. 
• If you don’t repay the money the  Social Security asked for, you could be subject to clawbacks. Essentially, this means part of your Social Security checks will be withheld until you have paid back the extra money you were accidentally sent.

The traditional rule was that 100% of your Social Security benefits could be withheld if you were subject to clawbacks. The Biden Administration made a change to this rule, limiting the amount that could be withdrawn for repayment to 10%. The Trump Administration reversed this, pledging to go back to the original 100%.

However, amidst a lot of public outcry, the Trump Administration reversed course. It didn’t go all the way down to the 10% max set by the Biden Administration, though. Instead, under the Administration’s current rules, while only 10% of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits can be withheld, up to 50% of retirement benefits can, according to the AARP.

So, if you bring home around the average benefit of $2,071, you could end up losing over $1,000 of your monthly benefit, all because of an overpayment error that you may have been totally unaware of. 

What can you do if you’re facing the potential loss of your Social Security benefit?

If you are worried that you are going to lose your Social Security benefits because you got an overpayment letter and you need to make sure you keep this money coming into your household, you have a few options.

One option is to request a waiver if the error wasn’t your fault and if you can’t afford to pay the Social Security Administration back. Or, if you think that the Social Security Administration made an error in determining that you were overpaid, you also have the option to file an appeal.

You should be proactive in exploring these options to make sure you are getting the benefits that you deserve and not losing your Social Security due to mistakes made by the Social Security Administration, especially if you rely on this income as a critical source of your retirement funds.