Social Security improperly paid an estimated 89,000 student beneficiaries about $211 million between January 2022 and December 2024, according to an audit the agency’s Office of the Inspector General released on September 23. The same audit estimated that about 63,000 other students received roughly $342 million in payments the agency could not support with the school paperwork it requires. The money went to 18- and 19-year-olds who still draw a benefit on a parent’s record while they finish high school. The inspector general reached those totals by examining only 100 cases, and Social Security has agreed to carry out the fixes the audit recommends.
Student benefits are a quiet corner of the program. A child of a retired, disabled or deceased worker draws a monthly benefit that normally ends at 18. It can continue for an unmarried 18- or 19-year-old who attends elementary or secondary school full time, meaning grade 12 or below. Social Security says those payments usually run until graduation or until two months after the 19th birthday, whichever comes first. Every month of that extension rests on a school record, and the audit is about what happens when that record is wrong, late or missing.
The families in question are those with a high school senior or younger student drawing a benefit through a parent’s Social Security record. For them, the audit sets no new deadline and announces no repayment demand. Its recommendations are aimed at the agency: review eight attendance cases and six early-termination cases that remain open, and find out why changes in school attendance and graduation dates go unreported. What the findings make clear is which paperwork decides the payment, namely the student’s attendance statement and the school’s certification of it.
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How the audit counted 521,393 students
The inspector general’s office started with 521,393 beneficiaries who were entitled to student benefits for at least one month from January 2022 through December 2024. Auditors drew a random sample of 100 and contacted each student’s school to confirm attendance and graduation dates. Of the 100, 71 were paid correctly, 17 were paid wrongly and 12 had no completed school form in their electronic file. The 17 wrong payments totaled $49,447 in the sample, and the 12 undocumented cases covered $93,466. The full audit report scales those sample results up to the whole group.
Scaling a sample produces a range, and the audit states it. At a 90 percent confidence level, improper payments run from 58,040 beneficiaries and $92.9 million at the low end to 127,225 beneficiaries and $329.7 million at the high end. The $211 million figure and the roughly 89,000 count are the midpoints, listed as 88,637 beneficiaries. The unsupported payments carry a wider range, from 36,876 beneficiaries and $142.7 million up to 97,583 beneficiaries and $541.7 million, around a midpoint of 62,568 students and $342 million. The Oversight.gov listing shows questioned costs of $160,835,689 and funds for better use of $50,453,671, the audit’s own labels for money it questions and money that could be saved if the problems are fixed.
Students who stopped attending before the paperwork said
The first group of errors began with the student’s own reporting. Nine of the 100 sampled students had given school information that did not match what the school told auditors. Six stopped attending earlier than reported, and Social Security overpaid them $28,981 in total. Three graduated later than reported, and the agency underpaid them $4,441. Projected across all 521,393 students, the audit put this problem at about 47,000 beneficiaries and roughly $127 million in improper payments.
One example shows how a single date can drive a large overpayment. A beneficiary told Social Security on Form SSA-1372 that graduation would come in June 2023. A school official told auditors the student had stopped attending in January 2023. The result was a $9,330 overpayment. The audit says it could not determine why beneficiaries and school officials did not provide accurate or current attendance information, so it offers no single explanation for the gap between the form and the school’s records.
Errors made inside Social Security’s own files
A second set of errors came from the agency’s handling of end dates. Eight sampled students were affected. In three cases, employees miscalculated a termination date based on the school’s academic periods, and the students were overpaid $10,428 in total. In one case, the agency did not act on a school notice of early graduation, and the overpayment was $449. In four others, Social Security entered an earlier end date than it should have, and the students were underpaid $5,148. Across the full group, the audit estimated about 42,000 beneficiaries were improperly paid roughly $85 million this way.
The audit found errors in both directions. In one case a record showed a June 2022 graduation when the student’s form indicated June 2023, so benefits that should have continued for seven months, July 2022 through January 2023, were not paid, a $1,946 underpayment. The audit adds that neither its own staff nor Social Security’s subject-matter experts could determine why employees did not follow policy on ending benefits at the correct time and on keeping the required documentation.
The missing school forms behind the $342 million
The third finding is the largest in dollars. For 12 of the 100 sampled students, the electronic file held no completed Form SSA-1372, the advance notice of termination of child’s benefits that carries the student’s statement about school attendance and a school official’s certification. Without it, Social Security could not verify the attendance requirement for $93,466 in payments. Projected to the full group, about 63,000 students received roughly $342 million in unsupported payments. The audit’s category is unsupported, not wrongful: the file lacked proof that the attendance rule was met.
The agency has heard this before. A December 2014 audit estimated that Social Security overpaid about 106,000 student beneficiaries roughly $225 million and lacked evidence supporting $968 million in payments to 246,000 more. According to the new audit, the agency’s earlier fixes, which included notifying organizations and reminding employees of record-retention requirements, proved insufficient.
Keeping a student’s benefit on track
Social Security’s own guidance for families is specific. The agency sends an expiration warning notice three months before a student’s 18th birthday, according to its September 1 student reporting notice for students, parents and educators. The student completes and signs the attendance statement, a school official certifies it, and the certified pages go to the local Social Security office. The agency says benefits generally continue until graduation or up to two months after turning 19, whichever comes first.
The official Form SSA-1372 asks the school official to confirm that the information entered is correct according to the school’s records, that the course of study lasts at least 13 weeks, and whether the school runs on a yearly, quarterly or semester basis. The official also confirms receiving the pages used to report changes in the student’s attendance and writes the expected graduation date on them. A student who leaves school early or finishes late is the situation those reporting pages exist to capture.
The audit’s findings rest on the same two parties, a student and a school, reporting changes in attendance or graduation dates, and its third recommendation asks Social Security to identify why those changes go unreported and to act on the causes. The report is addressed to Commissioner Frank Bisignano from Michelle L. Anderson, the assistant inspector general for audit, and the commissioner was asked to provide a corrective action plan within 60 days. As of June 2026, one of the nine attendance cases and two of the eight termination cases had been corrected, with eight and six still pending.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
