What an SSI Overpayment Notice Means and How to Appeal or Ask for a Waiver

What does an SSI overpayment notice have to tell you?

This page covers overpayments of SSI, the needs-based program. An overpayment of Social Security Disability Insurance follows different rules and is not covered here.

Under 20 CFR 416.558, Social Security must send written notice of the correct and incorrect amounts for each month and tell you about your right to ask for a waiver. Its operations manual, POMS SI 02201.025, adds your right to ask for reconsideration and lists what every first SSI overpayment notice must include:

• The cause of the overpayment, the amount and the months it happened.
• A list of what you were paid and what you should have been paid for each month of incorrect payment.
• A request for a refund of the full amount.
• If you still receive SSI, a proposed adjustment at the 10 percent rate if you do not repay in full, and the month and year it starts, at least 60 days, plus 5 days for mailing, in the future.
• Your right to ask for a waiver and your right to ask for reconsideration of the fact or the amount of the overpayment, and how to do each.
• That installment payments, recovery from Social Security benefits when you no longer get SSI, and a different withholding rate may be available.

If a representative payee receives your SSI, Social Security's notice manual, NL 00803.150, says the payee gets a copy of the notice with a message explaining that the payee may also be asked to repay and how to ask for a waiver; on a notice prepared by hand, that message is Form SSA-L8176-U2, SSI Notice of Overpayment (for Representative Payee), a cover sheet sent with the payee's copy.

Check the month-by-month list first. Changes in income, resources or living arrangements are among the causes Social Security lists, and the month-by-month list shows which months Social Security says were paid wrongly and by how much. Our guide to SSI income limits explains how income changes the monthly amount.

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Two different requests: dispute the overpayment or ask to keep it

Reconsideration and waiver answer different questions, and you can ask for both.

Reconsideration says the overpayment is wrong: it did not happen, or the amount is off. You ask on Form SSA-561, the Request for Reconsideration, generally within 60 days after you receive the notice. Under POMS SI 02220.017, recovery stops while the reconsideration is decided only if your request is filed within 60 days of the date on the notice, so count from that date; a later request is reviewed for good cause. Recovery does not stop for later levels of appeal.

A waiver accepts that you were overpaid but asks Social Security not to collect it. Under 20 CFR 416.550, a waiver may be granted when you were without fault in causing the overpayment and collecting it would defeat the purpose of SSI, be against equity and good conscience, or impede efficient administration because the amount is small. You ask on Form SSA-632, the Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery, or with another written request, and for an original overpayment of $2,000 or less, Social Security's manual also accepts a request by phone. The manual says you can ask for a waiver at any time.

Social Security's waiver manual, GN 02250.150, gives examples of when collecting would be against equity and good conscience: you relied on wrong information from an official source, or you changed your position for the worse, or gave up a valuable right, because you relied on a notice that you would be paid or on the payments themselves. If you were not at fault but have already spent the money and cannot afford to repay, the agency looks instead at whether collecting would defeat the purpose of SSI. A waiver is not available if you were at fault in causing the overpayment, and when the overpayment came from fraud or similar fault, Social Security's waiver basics section, GN 02250.001, says the request is dismissed rather than decided.

The two can overlap. For an original SSI overpayment of $2,000 or less, Social Security's manual says a reconsideration request on Form SSA-561 is also handled as a waiver request.

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What stops Social Security from collecting while you ask

A waiver request generally stops recovery. Under POMS SI 02260.001, a waiver request stops recovery or adjustment starting with the month Social Security receives it, and recovery does not resume until the waiver decision is made. If Social Security cannot decide the request within 10 days, the manual tells staff to stop recovery and refund what was collected for the month of the request and any later month. Money collected for months before the request is not refunded.

Before denying a waiver, Social Security must offer you a review of your file and a personal conference, and the decision comes after that conference; if you decline it, or miss a second one that was scheduled, it decides on the written record. Its personal conference instructions, POMS GN 02270.003, revised in November 2024, say it cannot take any recovery action until you have had the opportunity for that conference, and 20 CFR 416.557 sets out the conference rules. Bring records of your income and expenses and of what you reported to Social Security and when, since the waiver turns on fault and, for the defeat-the-purpose ground, on your ability to repay.

A timely reconsideration request also stops recovery while it is decided, as noted above. Keep a record of every amount withheld from your payments, along with the dates of your requests, so you can match them against the refund the manual calls for.

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Repayment options if you owe the overpayment

If the overpayment stands and no waiver is granted, the notice sets out the ways to repay. You can refund the full amount. If you still receive SSI, Social Security proposes withholding, starting on the date in the notice, at the rate set by 20 CFR 416.571: 10 percent of your total monthly income, meaning your SSI and any state supplement plus your other countable income, but never more than your payment for the month. You can ask for a different rate. The 10 percent limit does not apply if the overpayment came from fraud, willful misrepresentation or concealment by you or your spouse, meaning an intentional delay or failure in reporting, or in two other cases the rule names: resource-disposal agreements and misused burial funds. If you no longer receive SSI, the notice explains whether installment payments or recovery from Social Security benefits you receive applies.

A lower rate is a separate request from a waiver. Social Security's form page says that if you agree you were overpaid but cannot afford the rate in the letter, you should file Form SSA-634, Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate, and the rule says the rate must leave you the income you need for ordinary living expenses. When you ask for a lower rate, include your monthly income and expenses so the request can be decided on your actual budget.

If you also have a disability claim or appeal pending, an overpayment notice does not decide it. Our page on SSI claims covers how we help with SSI cases, and the disability denial letter page explains the separate notice that decides a disability application.

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