Knuckles

ORDER DISMISSING COMPLAINT

This lawsuit presents the question of whether recipients of social security payments in the form of retirement, survivors or disability benefits are entitled to prior notice and evidentiary hearings before their benefits are suspended by the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in order to recoup overpayments. The Secretary is required by 42 U.S.C. § 404 (a)(1) to seek immediate repayment from overpaid persons, or to decrease payments to which the beneficiary would otherwise be entitled until the entire overpayment has been recovered. Section 404(b), however, limits the applicability of subsection (a) as follows:

The Social Security Administration has adopted regulations implementing § 404 which set forth specific procedures which a beneficiary must follow if he wishes to contest the determination of an overpayment. These regulations do not provide any beneficiary with an opportunity for an oral evidentiary hearing prior to suspension of benefits. Nor do they provide recipients of retirement benefits with prior notice of a suspension when the finding of an overpayment is based upon the recipient’s statements in his annual…