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The Social Security Administration has failed to heed recommendations to stop improper payments, according to its own watchdog division.

In a new report, the SSA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) chided the government agency for failing to implement proposals to help address tens of billions of dollars in improper payments, which are either underpayments — when a beneficiary is paid underpayment—or overpayment—when a beneficiary is paid too much.

From fiscal years 2015 to 2022, SSA is estimated to have made nearly $72 billion in improper payments, most of which were overpayments. By the end of fiscal year 2023, SSA had an uncollected excess payment balance of $23 billion.

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“SSA must be a responsible steward of the funds entrusted to its care, minimizing the risk of making improper payments and recovering overpayments when they occur,” the report states. “SSA did not implement many of our recommendations, and other actions did not fully address our findings.”

The report details that SSA has yet to implement several recommendations related to its processes for recovering overpayments and issuing underpayments. When first asked by the OIG to address the issue in 2018, the SSA responded with plans to implement a “comprehensive debt management product,” but that was halted in 2024 due to a lack of funding.

Newsweek has reached out to the SSA by email for comment.

“Improper payments have been a long-standing challenge for SSA. While the agency has taken steps to address this challenge, more needs to be done, and the OIG’s recommendations can guide the agency as it determines those corrective actions,” Michelle L. Anderson, Deputy Inspector General for Audit and Acting Inspector General, a stated in a statement.

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“Without better access to data, increased automation, systems modernization, and policy or legislative changes, improper payments will continue to be a major challenge for SSA going forward.”

Another recent OIG report found that the government agency made more than $1.1 billion in incorrect payments to a sample of 528,000 benefit recipients in February 2024. The average processing time for an improper payment was 698 days.

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In an effort to ease the burden of overpayments on beneficiaries— many of whom were improperly paid through no fault of their own — the government agency announced it will begin collecting 10 percent of a person’s total monthly Social Security benefit to recover an overpayment, rather than 100% like it did before.

“Social Security takes a hugely important step toward our goal of making sure our overpayment policies are fair, equitable, and don’t unduly harm anyone,” said Commissioner Martin O’Malley. “It is unthinkable that someone would be facing homelessness or being unable to pay their bills because Social Security withheld their entire payment to recover an overpayment.”

In an earlier statement to Newsweeksaid an SSA spokesman: “Social Security is required by law to adjust benefits or recover debts when we determine that someone has received payments they are not entitled to and an overpayment occurs. We must uphold our responsibilities to taxpayers to be good stewards of trust funds.”