WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration made $6.5 billion in overpayments in 2009, including $4 billion under a supplemental income program for the very poor, a government investigator said Tuesday.

In all, about 10 percent of the payments made by the agency's Supplemental Security Income program were improper, said Patrick P. O'Carroll Jr., the inspector general for Social Security. The program has strict limits on income and assets, and most of the overpayments went to people who did not report all their resources, O'Carroll said.

Error rates were much smaller for retirement, survivor and disability benefits, which make up the overwhelming majority of Social Security payments, O'Carroll told a congressional panel.

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