A new audit by the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has uncovered significant deficiencies in how SSA employees record and monitor court-ordered restitutions for individuals convicted of Social Security fraud, potentially leaving millions of dollars uncollected.
The audit, titled "Court-ordered Restitutions for Individuals Convicted of Social Security Fraud," reviewed 66 restitution cases from Fiscal Years 2018 through 2023. It found that while 43 cases, totaling approximately $2.1 million, were properly handled, 23 cases—about 35 percent of the sample—were not properly recorded or monitored, leaving an estimated $1.1 million uncollected. The OIG estimates that approximately $18.6 million in restitutions may not have been properly recorded or monitored agency-wide. Additionally, the report noted failures to send overpayment notices to 18 individuals and identified persistent issues from a prior 2019 audit.
“Taxpayers deserve confidence that funds lost through fraud are aggressively pursued and properly recovered,” said Michelle L. Anderson, Assistant Inspector General for Audit as First Assistant. The report highlighted insufficient documentation as a barrier to determining why monitoring actions were not taken. The OIG issued three recommendations to improve restitution collection, which the SSA has agreed to implement, acknowledging the risk of losing millions without stronger controls.