The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that it plans to fully recover all overpayments to beneficiaries. The SSA previously abandoned the policy last year following public outrage over beneficiaries losing their monthly payments. However, the agency has reinstated the policy to recover overpaid benefits.

“People who are overpaid after March 27 will automatically be placed in full recovery at a rate of 100% of the Social Security payment,” the SSA said in a statement, per WFTV.

However, the withholding rate for overpayments issued before March 27 remains at 10%, the SSA announced. The rate for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) overpayments also remains at 10%.

A recent investigation by WFTV revealed that the overpayments were largely caused by government accounting mistakes. According to another report from the SSA’s inspector general, about 73,000 overpayments in 2022 resulted from a lack of “effective controls over benefit-computation accuracy.”

The SSA faced massive backlash last year when beneficiaries received bills demanding repayment of overpaid funds within 30 days, CBS News reported. Some recipients said they received bills for thousands of dollars. At the time, the agency warned that beneficiaries could lose their entire Social Security payment if they failed to repay the amount owed.

According to Newsweek, the SSA expects to save about $7 billion over the next decade as it cracks down on overpayments. SSA Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek said it is the agency’s “duty to restore the overpayment repayment policy to full withholding.”

“We have the significant responsibility to be good stewards of the trust funds for the American people,” Dudek said in the agency’s latest statement, per CBS News.

At least 70 million people, including retirees and beneficiaries with disabilities, rely on Social Security benefits.