Audit Finds Weaknesses in Monitoring Court-Ordered Restitutions

A new audit report from the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Court-ordered Restitutions for Individuals Convicted of Social Security Fraud (042302), identified deficiencies in how SSA employees recorded and monitored court‑ordered restitutions tied to Social Security fraud cases.

Courts may order individuals convicted of Social Security fraud to serve a period of incarceration or probation and/or repay SSA for illegally obtained funds. Such orders for repayment are known as court-ordered restitution. SSA employees must monitor the collection of restitutions until the full overpayments have been repaid or otherwise resolved.

The audit, Court-ordered Restitutions for Individuals Convicted of Social Security Fraud (042302), randomly sampled and reviewed 66 restitutions from a population of 1,506 restitutions ordered in Fiscal Years 2018 through 2023. The audit found SSA employees properly recorded and monitored the collection of 43 cases, collecting approximately $2.1 million.

However, auditors determined employees did not properly record, and/or may not have monitored the collection of, 23 restitutions—roughly 35 percent of the cases reviewed—leaving approximately $1.1 million in outstanding balances uncollected as of January 2025. Based on the audit sample, OIG estimated SSA employees did not properly record or may not have monitored approximately $18.6 million in restitutions.

The report also found SSA employees failed to send appropriate overpayment notices to 18 individuals ordered to make restitution payments. In addition, auditors revisited 10 restitution cases identified as errors in a prior audit completed in September 2019 and found four cases with outstanding balances totaling approximately $126,000 where SSA employees did not properly record, or may have not monitored their collection.

According to the report, insufficient documentation within SSA systems prevented auditors from determining why employees did not take required monitoring actions in many cases.

“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.  “Strengthening internal controls and accountability measures is essential to protecting public trust and ensuring fraud‑related overpayments are repaid.”

The audit emphasized that SSA employees must record restitution information on beneficiary records and complete all required monitoring activities to maximize recovery of overpaid funds. The report warned that, without stronger controls, the Agency risks losing millions of dollars tied to fraud-related overpayments.

The OIG issued three recommendations aimed at improving how SSA records and monitors court-ordered restitution collections.  The Agency agreed to implement OIG’s recommendations.

Read the full report here.

Download a PDF of the press release here.