20 CFR § 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 § 255.4 of this part, and where waiver of recovery, as provided for in § 255.10 of this part, is not available because the overpaid individual was at fault as defined in § 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 § 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 § 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 § 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 § 255.12 of this part, then the Board may forego recovery of the overpayment from the child's annuity under this section.