This bill sets a time limit on when the Social Security Administration can collect money it paid by mistake. If the overpayment happened 10 or more years before the agency discovers the error, the government can’t take the money back or lower your future checks to recover it. This applies to both Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. A plain-language summary from the Library of Congress says the same: the agency may not collect overpayments that are 10 or more years old, either by direct collection or by adjusting future payments.

In short, this is meant to prevent surprise debts from long-ago mistakes on your benefits.

• Who is affected: People who get Social Security or SSI benefits.
• What changes: The agency can’t collect overpayments that are 10+ years old once the error is found, including by reducing future checks .
• How the 10 years is counted: From the date the agency discovers the overpayment, looking back to when it happened.