[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 506]

 

                      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.