Social Security could pursue about $106 million of the roughly $240 million that 17,979 deceased beneficiaries still owed in overpayments, if staff followed the agency’s own order of recovery, its inspector general says. The audit covers people who died between December 2022 and December 2024. Social Security agreed to both of its recommendations.
The report, dated August 5, 2026 and addressed to Commissioner Frank Bisignano, found that employees did not follow recovery policy in 59 of 125 sampled cases. The money sits in three places: estates, relatives who draw benefits on the same work record, and the one-time death payment. The review was limited to wage earners and their spouses or widows and widowers who owed at least $2,000.
What it means for a family after a death
When someone on Social Security dies owing money, the debt does not simply vanish. In plain terms, a spouse or child who lived in the home and draws benefits on the same record can be asked to repay, and the estate can be pursued for larger balances. By the agency’s order, it can come out of the $255 death payment first, then out of other survivors on the same record who lived in the household, then out of the estate. The $240 million is everything outstanding on those 17,979 accounts, while the $106 million is the smaller slice the inspector general thinks Social Security could pursue. That estimate refers to 8,486 of the 17,979 deceased beneficiaries, a range of 7,119 to 9,872.
The audit does not say what appeal or waiver rights survivors have. It describes only aggregate findings and gives no individual case. Families that receive a recovery letter can call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 and ask how the balance was figured. The audit found that 15 of the 40 skipped estates turned out to have no estate to collect from.
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The order Social Security is supposed to follow
The audit lays out five steps. Social Security first withholds any underpayment owed to the person who died. It then holds back the lump-sum death payment, which is a one-time $255 benefit that can go to a spouse or, if there is no spouse, to some children.
Next come adjustments against what the report calls contingently liable beneficiaries who lived in the same household. Those are people entitled to benefits on the same earnings record who were there when the overpayment happened or helped cause it. The estate step applies to balances of $3,000 or more, and it begins no earlier than 60 days and no later than two years after the death. Contingently liable beneficiaries in a separate household come last.
Where the audit says recovery fell short
In the inspector general’s report, Social Security followed policy in 66 of the 125 sampled cases, or 53 percent. In the other 59, about $1 million in balances was affected. In 40 cases the agency did not go after the estate, leaving $751,395 untouched. Pending actions had piled up in a backlog, the audit says. By May 2026, 23 of those cases had alerts or pending development, 15 had no estate to recover from and two had been resolved through other corrections. Separately, Social Security tried to recover from 39 more estates, worth $559,539, and did not succeed.
In 15 cases the agency did not process recovery against contingently liable individuals, leaving $320,624 uncollected. By May 2026, $163,305 had been transferred on five of those overpayments, and 10 remained uncorrected. In four more cases, Social Security paid $1,020 in death payments when it should have kept them to offset the debt. That equals four full $255 payments. The report could not determine why this happened.
The month-of-death payment, and what Social Security agreed to fix
Social Security cannot pay benefits for the month of death, according to its 2026 retirement and survivors publication. Because benefits are paid a month behind, the check that arrives the month after a death covers the month of death and has to go back. For direct deposit, the publication tells the family to notify the bank so it can return the money.
The audit looked at a different problem, balances already on the books when the person died. It was limited to wage earners and their spouses or widows and widowers who owed at least $2,000.
The inspector general made two recommendations. Social Security should pursue the 10 overpayments still open against contingently liable individuals, and it should build controls so employees try to recover from estates, from those individuals and from death payments. The agency agreed to both. They target the weak spots the sample exposed: 40 skipped estates, 15 skipped household survivors and four death payments paid out when they should have been held.
The audit was done between April 2025 and June 2026, and the office asked for a corrective action plan within 60 days. Social Security has not said how many families would get letters or when.
Did a relative leave a Social Security balance behind?
The first weeks after a death are when a payment for the month of death can be spent by mistake, and the audit shows that balances left behind can be pursued from the death payment, household survivors and the estate.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit is a 75-page guide with a first-week checklist for when a spouse dies, including not spending the payment for the month of death. Its overpayment part and the SSA-561, SSA-632 and SSA-634 forms give a family a clear next step before a recovery letter arrives.
Get the first-week checklist guide for a spouse’s Social Security overpayment →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
