Find out if you or your loved ones will be impacted
Your Social Security Check Might Be a Lot Lower Very Soon—Here’s Why
Published on Jul. 25, 2025
Even with cost-of-living increases, Social Security barely covers basic living expenses in most places. But regardless of how far your money goes where you live, retirees count on these benefits and expect a certain amount every month. Changes to that number—especially when it’s suddenly lower—can be devastating for seniors who need money to make ends meet.
According to an April announcement from the Social Security Administration (SSA), those lowered Social Security checks will soon be a reality for millions of people. Yikes!
So what’s going on, and will you or your loved ones be affected? We have the answer to that and more. Read on to find out the details—and learn whether you can appeal these potentially steep cuts to your retirement money.
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Whose Social Security benefits are being cut?
It’s not that anyone’s Social Security benefits are being cut, although it may feel that way when your check is smaller. The issue is that some retirees received overpayments, and the government wants its money back.
The SSA pays out a lot of benefits, and mistakes and miscalculations are sometimes made. It could be due to an administrative error or recipients who failed to report changes in their income or living situation. The agency reports that approximately 1% of recipients received improper payments, which isn’t a huge portion of the population, but it’s still a lot of people and a lot of money.
In an August 2024 statement, the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General said that between 2015 and 2022, $72 billion was overpaid. As of September 2023, the SSA had collected all but $23 billion of those overpayments.
Do you have to pay back the funds you’ve mistakenly received?
Yes. And not only do you have to pay them back, but the money will be deducted directly from your checks, ensuring the SSA receives timely repayment. Ouch.
Your first impulse is likely to be to see if you can get out of this, so here’s what you need to know: The SSA is allowing recipients 90 days to seek a waiver or lower repayment rate. Per the SSA’s webpage on overpayments, you may seek a waiver “if the overpayment wasn’t your fault” or if “paying it back would cause you financial hardship or would be unfair for some other reason.” For those who qualify, repayment amounts can be as low as $10 per month.
If you believe you didn’t receive an overpayment, you can appeal. However, the agency’s website advises against waiting until the last minute to request an appeal. Once that money comes out of your check, you won’t be able to get it back quickly, if you can even get it back at all.
How much could you lose per check?
You could lose up to 50% per check until the overpayment is paid back. Yes, you read that right—50%.
The SSA previously had a maximum withholding amount of 10% per check, but that changed on March 27, 2025, when the agency announced that future overpayments would be refunded back to the SSA at 100%. Thankfully, that’s not kicking in just yet, and regardless, the SSA would notify people more quickly, so the repayments wouldn’t go into effect after a longer period of having received overpayments.
For now, for overpayments prior to March 27, 2025, the withholding could be up to 50%, but some repayments may default to the 10% rate if they meet certain guidelines. For Supplement Security Income (SSI) repayments, the amount remains at 10%.
How can you tell if you’re impacted?
If you’re impacted due to overpayments, you should have received an overpayment notice from the SSA. This likely would have been around the end of April, when the official emergency message was posted on the SSA’s website.
Is there also a place you can look on the SSA site?
Unfortunately, there is no place on the SSA website to check if you owe money back to them. However, you can rest assured that if you owe money to the SSA, they’ll find you.
If you’ve recently moved, had your mail forwarded or have another reason to suspect some of your mail was lost, you can call the office to double-check. You can reach the SSA at 800-772-1213. They recommend calling early in the day (between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.) or later in the day. Phone lines are less busy from Wednesday to Friday and toward the end of the month.
When will these changes go into effect?
The earliest recipients had repayments taken out of their checks on July 23, 2025. Not all notices went out right on April 25, so if you received your notice later, you can expect the SSA to begin withholding your Social Security benefits or SSI payments approximately 90 days after they notified you about the overpayment.
Is anyone getting a Social Security boost instead?
Now for some good news! Due to the retroactive Social Security Fairness Act, some people are getting a Social Security check increase. In January 2025, before leaving office, President Biden signed a bill boosting Social Security benefits for millions of public-sector workers.
For two decades, nearly 3 million public-sector workers—police officers, firefighters, postal workers and public school teachers—received reduced Social Security payments because they also received pension income. Biden said that wasn’t fair, so he changed the policy.
Certain public employees, their spouses and survivors started seeing an additional $360 per check starting last February. Additionally, more than 2.5 million Americans have received or will soon receive lump-sum retroactive payments averaging $6,710. According to a July 7 press release, the SSA has already processed more than $3.1 million in payments to those entitled to the retroactive payment adjustments.
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Sources:
- Social Security Administration: “Emergency Message”
- Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General: “IG Reports: Nearly $72 Billion Improperly Paid; Recommended Improvements Go Unimplemented”
- Social Security Administration: “Overpayments”
- Social Security Administration: “Social Security to Reinstate Overpayment Recovery Rate”
- Social Security Administration: “Social Security Achieves Key Milestones in Customer Service Transformation”
- Social Security Administration: “Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) update”
