Subchapter Preview:

BASIC (08-06)

A. Policy – General

A title VIII overpayment results when the total Special Veterans Benefit (SVB) a person receives for a period exceeds the total SVB payable for that period. Under section 808(a) of the Social Security Act, title VIII overpayments are recovered by refund, by decreasing a beneficiary’s monthly SVB payment, or by recovery through the withholding of benefits payable under title II or title XVI. If none of these methods yields full recovery of the SVB overpayment, SSA may seek recovery via reduction of a tax refund due the SVB beneficiary as authorized under section 3720A of 31 U.S.C. and section 1008 of 42 U.S.C.

B. Policy – Recovery from Title II/Title XVI Benefits

An SVB overpayment may be recovered from any title II and/or title XVI benefit payable to the SVB beneficiary. See VB 02005.120A.3.

NOTE: A person cannot qualify for an SVB payment as a result of a decrease in title II benefits to recover an SVB overpayment.

C. Policy – SVB Beneficiary Deceased

Under section 808(a)(1)(A) of the Act, a beneficiary’s estate is required to refund any SVB paid to the deceased beneficiary in excess of the SVB amounts payable. SVB payments made after the month of the beneficiary’s death are not considered to be overpayments, except when a representative payee negotiates an SVB payment certified after the death of the beneficiary.

D. Process

The overpayment process generally consists of the following five steps:

• Identifying an overpayment—see VB 02005.105 through VB 02005.108;

• Determining liability for the overpayment—see VB 02005.110;

• Documenting the overpayment—see VB 02005.112;

• Notifying liable parties of the overpayment—see VB 02005.115; and,

• Resolving the overpayment—see VB 02005.120

NOTE: VB 02020.000 and VB 02005.115, and MSOM BUSSR 002.001 and MSOM BUSSR 004.001 explain the use of MSSICS and the SSR to reflect these steps in processing SVB overpayments. For instructions for recovering SSI overpayments from SVB, see VB 04001.001B.2.