117. What if you are overpaid?
If you get more benefits than you are eligible for, DTA can recover the overpayment. An overpayment can happen because of a DTA mistake, your mistake, or because you got benefits while you were waiting for a hearing and lost the hearing. 106 C.M.R. § 706.220. If DTA thinks the overpayment happened because of your mistake or because you committed fraud, it may refer your case to the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI). 106 C.M.R. § 706.240.
DTA can also try to recover cash benefits you “knowingly” used to buy alcohol, tobacco products, lottery tickets, or other prohibited items. See Question 83. 106 C.M.R. § 706.250(D).
DTA has different policies for collecting overpayments if the overpayment happened because
- DTA made a mistake (called “Agency Error”),
- You made a mistake (called “Unintentional Program Violation”), or
- You purposely gave incorrect information or didn’t provide information to get more benefits (called “Intentional Program Violation). Questions 118, 119, 120, and 121 cover Intentional Program Violations in more detail.
| Will DTA Collect the Overpayment? | |||
| How far back will DTA go? | What is DTA's threshold for recovery? | Will DTA compromise or suspend recovery? | |
| Agency Error | Recovery period begins no earlier than the 12 months before DTA discovered the overpayment | No recovery if the claim is less than $600 | Claim reduced by 50% for active TAFDC households |
| Unintentional Program Violation | Recovery period begins no earlier than the 12 months before DTA discovered the overpayment | No recovery if the claim is less than $125 | No |
| Client Misrepresentation (Intentional Program Violation-IPV) | Recovery period begins no earlier than the 6 years before DTA discovered the overpayment | No recovery if the claim is less than $125 | No |
Date of discovery of overpayment
Source of overpayment information
The date of discovery is the date the overpayment is verified or the date the household fails to respond to or verify an overpayment inquiry. DTA Operations Memo 2014-35 (May 15, 2015).
- DTA considers information it gets from a match with the original source of the information to be verified when DTA receives it. Examples are unemployment benefits reported by the Division of Unemployment Assistance and Social Security benefits reported by the Social Security Administration. In these cases the day DTA receives the match is the date the overpayment is considered verified.
- DTA does not consider wage information it gets from the Department of Revenue to be “verified” when DTA receives it. Such information is considered verified when the household provides paystubs or when the household fails to respond to a notice to verify wage information.
Advocacy Reminders
- An overpayment is a payment made in error. When does the overpayment begin if you don't report on time? DTA says there was an overpayment in the month you did not report. But since you have 10 or 20 days to report, a change for TAFDC, see Question 109, the benefit that was paid before you had to report was not paid as a result of DTA error or recipient error, see 106 C.M.R. §§ 706.200, 706.220(C), and therefore should not be considered an overpayment.
- Calculating the amount of an overpayment is complicated and DTA makes mistakes. Try to get a legal services advocate to help you figure out whether DTA’s claim is correct before you agree to pay it and before you sign a hearing waiver. See Appendix D for a list of legal services programs that may be able to help you.
- DTA has the option to “compromise” a claim by reducing the overpayment amount in some circumstances, lowering the amount you have to repay. For help, contact your local legal services office, Appendix D.