Some people who asked Social Security to explain an overpayment were still waiting more than 900 days later, according to a September 2026 audit by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. Eleven of 125 sampled explanation requests were still unresolved in June 2026, each pending for more than 900 days. Overall, only 46 of the 125 requests were handled correctly.
The audit, report 152407 on oversight.gov, looked at fiscal year 2023 overpayments that carried an explanation request. Its other finding, about the notices SSA sends to people who are told they were overpaid, is a separate problem with a separate group. This story is about what happens after someone writes back and asks what the debt is for.
What the inspector general found about explanation requests
The inspector general’s report started with 559 overpayments in fiscal year 2023 that had an explanation request indicator, then sampled 125. Of those, 46 (37 percent) were processed correctly and 79 (63 percent) were not, producing 86 errors. The auditors projected more than 11,000 overpayments with such an indicator and more than 7,000 handled incorrectly.
The biggest error type was improper use of the indicator, found in 56 of the 125 cases. In 45 of those, SSA staff used it to pause collection while waiting for forms, processing a claimed repayment or correcting records. In 11, it was applied after the person had already agreed to have benefits withheld. Policy does not allow the indicator to suspend collection for those reasons, the report says.
Eight cases involved a deficient explanation notice. Six omitted required information, and two simply reissued the original overpayment notice, improperly including appeal rights. Another 22 cases lacked documentation, because staff bypassed the Debt Management System remark screen by typing a single character, and some requests never recorded why the person wanted an explanation.
Anyone who asked SSA to explain an overpayment and heard nothing back is the reader this finding describes. The practical question is whether waiting is safe, and the audit does not say it is: the explanation request is a separate step from a waiver or an appeal, and the response deadline on the overpayment letter keeps running while the request sits.
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Why 11 requests sat for more than 900 days
The 11 oldest sampled requests, 9 percent of the sample, were all still pending as of June 2026. The auditors could not determine why they were unresolved. SSA has no standard timeframe for answering an explanation request, so the long waits did not violate agency policy.
The report adds that recovery stays suspended while a request is pending. That cuts two ways for a person in this position: SSA is not collecting, but the debt is also not resolved, and an unanswered request leaves no decision to appeal. A 2025 inspector general report had already recommended a timeframe, which SSA agreed to implement, so the audit made no new recommendation on it.
The audit sample is a slice of fiscal year 2023 cases, not a national average wait. Most sampled requests were not among the 11, and the report does not say how long a typical request takes. What it shows is that a request can sit with no clock on it at all.
What SSA’s own overpayment page tells people to do
SSA’s overpayment page tells anyone who gets a letter saying they were paid too much to repay within 30 days. Repayment can be made on Pay.gov, through a bank’s online bill pay, or by phone at 1-855-807-8807, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. Anyone who no longer receives benefits and cannot repay in full can call to set up a payment plan or ask about a settlement.
For people still receiving benefits, SSA says those who want smaller monthly withholding than the letter proposes can sign in to a my Social Security account and submit Form SSA-634, the Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate. SSA then mails a decision. That form changes the repayment rate; it does not question whether the debt is right.
SSA also says that a request for a waiver or an appeal made before the 30 days pass means it will not begin collecting until a decision is made. The agency’s waiver page explains that a waiver is for people who cannot afford to repay and believe the error was not their fault or that repayment is unfair. The request goes in on Form SSA-632-BK, online, by fax or mail to a local office, or at an appointment.
Neither SSA page describes how to request an explanation or what a reconsideration deadline is. The audit says notices are supposed to carry Form SSA-3105 and the reconsideration and waiver language, so the letter in hand is the place the appeal deadline is written down. Someone waiting on an explanation should look for that deadline on the notice rather than assume the clock stopped.
Fixes for stalled explanation requests
The inspector general made six recommendations, three on notices and three on explanation requests. Those three would require controls so employees use the explanation request indicator appropriately, require employees to complete the Debt Management System remark screen according to policy, and clarify what staff must record about what the beneficiary needs explained. SSA agreed to all six.
SSA must submit a corrective action plan within 60 days of the September 1 memo. Until those controls are in place, the audit’s findings describe how requests were being handled: in 63 percent of the sample, not by the book. For a person with an unanswered request, the safest reading is that the written response deadline governs, not the silence.
Still waiting on an explanation?
The deadline on an overpayment letter does not move because a request for an explanation is sitting in a queue. Waiting past the date in the notice is how a debt that might have been waived or reduced ends up withheld in full.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes an overpayment response letter and waiver and reconsideration request steps, along with the three SSA forms that stop or pause collection: SSA-561, SSA-632 and SSA-634. The kit is written for people deciding what to send and when.
Its overpayment response worksheet lays out the decision between a waiver and an appeal inside SSA’s response windows, so the choice is written down before the date on the letter arrives.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
