The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA, P.L. 104-134) provided for the establishment of the Treasury Offset Program (TOP).

TOP is a centralized, government-wide delinquent debt matching and payment offset program administered by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury). This program enables Treasury to collect delinquent debts owed to the Social Security Administration (SSA) by offsetting federal payments due to a debtor. TOP credits SSA with the amount collected and SSA automatically updates its records with the most recent TOP-related information.

TOP's delinquent debt matching and payment offset system results in a type of collection called an “Administrative Offset.” To collect SSA's debts, TOP performs the following types of Administrative Offsets:

1. a. 

   Tax Refund Offset (TRO) - TOP reduces or withholds federal income tax refunds to recover delinquent Title II and Title XVI debts. The TRO program continues to operate under its own regulations and has its own policy (for the Title II TRO policy, see GN 02201.030 and for the Title XVI TRO policy, seeSI 02220.012 ).

2. b. 

   Other Administrative Offset - TOP reduces or withholds other payments, which include federal employee travel advances and travel reimbursements, State payments, OPM retirement, salary, and social security benefits to collect “unrecoverable” Title II and Title XVI debts. The use of other Administrative Offset is covered under regulations separate from TRO, and has its own policy (for Title II procedures, seeGN 02201.031 and for Title XVI procedures, seeSI 02220.013 ).

SSA's External Collection Operation (ECO) is a system that selects and maintains debts that we send to the Treasury (Fiscal Service) Offset Program (TOP). ECO selects debtors from the Recovery of Overpayments, Accounting and Reporting (ROAR) master file for Title II and the Supplemental Security Income Record (SSR) for Title XVI who meet the criteria for TRO, TOP, Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG), credit bureau referral, or other Administrative Offset. For additional information regarding ECO, see SM 00610.040.

1. a. 

   After selecting the debtors, ECO sends each individual a notice about the planned action(s). The notice informs the debtor that:

• •

  He or she owes a debt for a particular amount;

• •

  SSA plans to refer the debt to Treasury for TRO or TOP or will send information about the debt to credit bureaus after 60 days have expired from the date on the notice;

• •

  SSA will not take this action if, before the end of that 60-day period,

  • –

    the debtor pays the debt in full,

  • –

    makes regular installment payments under an agreement with SSA,

  • –

    requests a waiver,

  • –

    furnishes evidence showing that he or she does not owe all or part of the stated amount, and SSA does not have the right to collect the debt.

• •

  He or she may review and copy SSA's records about the debt.

b. ECO identifies and automatically selects and sends the following types of pre-offset notices listed in SM 00610.040C.2.:

NOTE: ECO notices sent November 2015 or later are stored in the Online Notice Retrieval System (ORS). For ECO notices sent prior to November 2015, view the ECO master query. For additional information on the ECO master query, see MS 01114.007.

NOTE: Effective May 12, 2017, SSA no longer refers Title II, Title VIII, or Title XVI debts that have a delinquency date of May 19, 2002 or earlier. There is no manual action necessary to prevent TOP selection because the selection is automated. Rather, our automated ECO system no longer selects these debts for external collection. Debts with a delinquency date after May 19, 2002 remain eligible for TOP referral.

SSA certifies debtors to Treasury if they continue to meet all requirements for TOP after the 60-day due process period. Once certified, debtors are eligible for offset.

SSA provides weekly automated updates to Treasury regarding any changes in the status of the debt and the debtor. The updates include events such as decreases in debt amounts and requests for waiver. The ECO Master Query attached to the MBR and SSR identifies pertinent information about the debt and debtor (for description of the ECO Master Query, see MS 01114.007 ).

If the TIN and name of the debtor matches the TIN and name on the payment, TOP automatically determines if an offset is allowed. If offset is allowed, TOP determines the amount of the offset and sends a notice of offset to the debtor.

Treasury notifies the debtor of the offset on or before the date the payment is normally due. This notice tells the debtor that Treasury offset the payment (in whole or in part) to repay a delinquent debt owed to SSA. Treasury's notice also provides the following information:

1. a. 

   SSA's claim account number on which the offset occurred;

2. b. 

   SSA's contact point and address; and

3. c. 

   SSA's telephone number, which is either the national 800 number or the phone number of the Debt Management Section handling the debt.

Treasury also notifies SSA of the offset. This is an automated notification update to the ROAR system for Title II.

Treasury updates and maintains the delinquent debtor database to show the most current debt balance and other important information.

NOTE: Due to confidentiality concerns, Treasury does not divulge the source of the collection to the creditor agency.