[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 20, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 20CFR255.16]

[Page 487]
 
                      TITLE 20--EMPLOYEES' BENEFITS
 
                  CHAPTER II--RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD
 
PART 255_RECOVERY OF OVERPAYMENTS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 255.16  Administrative relief from recovery.

    (a) Where the Board seeks to recover an overpayment from someone 
other than the overpaid individual, as provided for in Sec. 255.4 of 
this part, and where waiver of recovery, as provided for in Sec. 255.10 
of this part, is not available because the overpaid individual was at 
fault as defined in Sec. 255.11 of this part, the Board may forego 
recovery of the overpayment where the individual from whom recovery is 
sought was not at fault in causing the overpayment and where recovery is 
contrary to the purpose of the Railroad Retirement Act as defined in 
Sec. 255.12 of this part.
    (b) Application of administrative relief from recovery with respect 
to a given person from whom recovery may be made shall have no effect on 
the authority of the Board to recover the overpayment from anyone else 
from whom recovery may be sought.
    (c) This section may be illustrated by the following examples:

    Example (1): An employee, through his own fault, causes an 
overpayment in his annuity. The employee dies before the overpayment can 
be recovered from him and he leaves no estate. A widow's annuity is 
payable on the employee's compensation record. The widow was not at 
fault in causing the overpayment. The Board may recover the remainder of 
the overpayment by setoff against the widow's annuity. However, it may 
forego recovery under this section if such recovery would be contrary to 
the purpose of the Railroad Retirement Act as defined in Sec. 255.12 of 
this part. Since this is not a waiver of the overpayment, the Board is 
free to recover the overpayment from the widow at a later date, for 
example, if an accrual of benefits should become payable, or if it 
determines that such recovery would not be against the purpose of the 
Railroad Retirement Act.
    Example (2): A representative payee for a retarded child, through 
her own fault, causes an overpayment in the child's annuity. The 
overpaid amounts were used for the benefit of the child. The 
representative payee dies before the overpayment can be recovered from 
her and she leaves no estate. The Board may not waive the remainder of 
the overpayment with respect to the child since for purposes of waiver 
the representative payee is considered the overpaid individual (see 
Sec. 255.17 of this part) and the overpaid individual was at fault. 
However, if the child was not at fault in causing the overpayment and 
recovery would be contrary to the purpose of the Railroad Retirement Act 
as defined in Sec. 255.12 of this part, then the Board may forego 
recovery of the overpayment from the child's annuity under this section.