WHIO-TV wins national Goldsmith Award for exposing Social Security overpayments

Tonight, the News Center 7 I-Team was honored with a prestigious national award for our investigative stories that exposed how Social Security overpayments cost millions of Americans their monthly benefits.

At an annual awards ceremony held in Boston Wednesday night, the Harvard Kennedy School honored our reporting along with our sister stations and the non-profit KFF Health News with a Goldsmith Awards Special Citation.

It recognizes journalism that examines how government works, including how and why it can fail and how those problems can be solved. News Center 7 exposed how the Social Security Administration has been overpaying billions of dollars each year to vulnerable Americans – then demanding they pay the money back years later and even when it was the government’s mistake.

News Center 7 found more than two million people each year are hit with overpayments and that the agency often lowers or stops their money checks to recover the debts.

Our reporting led to a Congressional hearing and tougher oversight and the Social Security Administration recently announced significant changes to limit clawbacks. The agency also restored benefits for several of the people we featured in our stories.

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