Kilolo Kijakzai apologized to Congress for understating the extent of the agency's overpayment problem at a hearing, as the Senate voted yesterday to confirm former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley as the new commissioner.

The SSA has demanded money back for overpayments from more than 2 million people a year — twice as many people as acting commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi disclosed at an October congressional hearing.

The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Social Security, plans to meet with the agency every month to address SSA's attempt to claw back $21.6 billion in overpayments sent to beneficiaries in error.

Members of a Senate panel that oversees Social Security sent a letter to the agency's acting commissioner, urging her to do more to prevent overpayments and "limit harm to vulnerable beneficiaries" when trying to recover money.

In the new report released last week, the agency reveals it recovered $4.9 billion in overpayments but still has a $23 billion uncollected overpayment balance, despite repeated attempts to contact beneficiaries.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Pres. Biden's choice to head the Social Security Administration, calls the agency's $21 billion overpayment problem an "outrage" at his confirmation hearing last week.

The stimulus checks landed automatically in beneficiaries' mailboxes or bank accounts in 2020 and 2021, but now, the SSA has been sending notices in an attempt to claw back $21.6 billion in "overpayments."

Acting commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi testified at a congressional hearing on Wednesday at which House members faulted SSA for issuing billions of dollars of overpayments, then demanding that beneficiaries pay the funds back.