Lawmakers want Social Security Administration to back off

A Senate Democrat and House Republican are teaming up to try and stop the Social Security Administration from taking taxpayer refunds to pay off overpayments made long ago.

{mosads}Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said current law gives the federal government far too much latitude to collect on old debts, and have introduced legislation to roll back that authority for good. 

“It is just plain wrong to hold Americans responsible for decades-old mistakes made by the Social Security Administration or members of their family,” Boxer said in a statement.

“It’s a simple matter of fairness,” Buchanan added. “Children should not be punished for the government’s failure to correctly determine their benefits.” 

Both Boxer and Buchanan sought legislation on the same issue in the last Congress. Their interest came after The Washington Post reported last year on the case of a Maryland woman who had her tax refund seized to pay off an overpayment made to an unknown family member more than 35 years earlier. 

The government has that ability, Boxer and Buchanan said Wednesday, because of the 2008 farm bill, which allowed the Social Security Administration to seek repayments past a 10-year window.

Carolyn Colvin, the acting head of the SSA, stopped the practice of seizing refunds last year. But Boxer and Buchanan said they were concerned that the government was still reaching out to taxpayers to claw back overpayments, and said that a legislative solution was the best way to solve the problem.