We would like to share information that has been brought was shared by the National Association of Benefits and Work Incentive Specialists (NABWIS) in their January 2026 Newsletter regarding Social Security reporting overpayment balances to credit bureaus, causing a negative impact on a person’s credit score. See below for more information and for resources if you have been impacted by this reporting.
From NABWIS January 2026 Newsletter:
NABWIS has received reports of Social Security reporting overpayments to the credit bureaus. While Social Security has legal authority to report overpayments to the credit bureaus, there are limits on when they can make those reports. For example, they are not allowed to report overpayments when the beneficiary still gets benefits from Social Security, when the beneficiary has appealed or requested a waiver, and in other situations.
Social Security has been breaking these rules. People have reported credit score drops of 100-200 points from these overpayment reports. You can do 2 things to help in these cases:
- If someone gets a notice from Social Security saying that they plan to report an overpayment, they can appeal. They can provide evidence that they still get benefits, filed an appeal, and/or requested a waiver. Social Security should not report the overpayment if the person appeals within 60 days of the date they received the notice.
- Each of the three credit bureaus has a process to dispute debts that were wrongly reported. They should remove the credit report until the dispute is resolved. You can check their websites for details:
https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-dispute
https://www.experian.com/help/dispute-credit
