The Social Security Administration spent $222 million on technology projects that it later cancelled or put on hold, according to a September 2026 audit by the agency’s own Office of the Inspector General. Among the shelved work is the Debt Management Product, the system meant to track and manage the money Social Security says beneficiaries owe it, which had absorbed $71.8 million when auditors counted.
The $222 million is the sum of two groups of investments the auditors reviewed for the period from 2017 to March 2025: $81 million spent on 25 cancelled investments and $141 million spent on 31 that were placed on hold. The report, number 142402, is addressed to Commissioner Frank Bisignano and carries the signature of Michelle L. Anderson, Assistant Inspector General for Audit, acting as First Assistant.
Fifty-six projects, two categories of spending
The inspector general’s office posted report 142402, titled Discontinued Information Technology Investments, on September 29. Its two objectives were to test whether Social Security’s policies for ending technology projects meet federal requirements, and whether the agency followed those requirements when it discontinued four sampled investments.
The headline figure counts money already spent. Of the 56 investments in the two groups, 25 were cancelled outright and 31 were placed on hold. The $81 million and $141 million together make $222 million.
The largest single items in the audit’s sample were the Debt Management Product at $71.8 million, a Business Intelligence Tool Migration at $37.6 million, a project called rCIRP at $34.4 million and eServices at $7.9 million. Two of those four were on hold, the Debt Management Product and rCIRP, and two were cancelled, the business intelligence migration and eServices.
The Debt Management Product: started in 2016, on hold in 2026
The Debt Management Product has the most direct link to beneficiaries. In an earlier audit, report 142313 from September 2024, the inspector general’s office described the goal this way: when complete, the system would enable the agency to collect, store, monitor and report program debt activity, including waiver determinations, with confidence, accuracy and timeliness. That description places the product in the work of managing overpayments, including decisions on waiving repayment.
That earlier audit recorded a budget that grew from $53 million in fiscal 2018, with completion planned for fiscal 2023, to $85 million, with a new target of September 2026. Spending had passed $69 million by September 2023. The new report puts the total above $71.8 million as of December 18, 2025, with work that began in fiscal 2016. In the auditors’ words, the product “was active when we selected our sample, but SSA placed on hold in FY 2026.”
The audit does not say why the agency paused the product, and it does not describe any effect on beneficiaries. The audit leaves open what the pause means for beneficiaries who owe the agency money.
What the inspector general found about shutting projects down
The central finding concerns process, not any one project. Anderson’s office concluded that “SSA’s policies, procedures, and processes did not fully comply with Federal requirements for discontinuing IT investments.” The agency lacked a formal process for terminating projects, even though it had set up a capital planning framework for managing them. It had not held TechStat reviews, the structured sessions used to examine troubled technology projects, since 2017, and it removed the TechStat requirement from its policy in May 2024.
The report makes nine recommendations. They include measuring cost, schedule and performance with earned value management or an equivalent, ranking the risk of each investment, bringing TechStat reviews back, and establishing a formal process for terminating projects under federal rules. Further recommendations would require post-implementation reviews of all cancelled and on-hold projects and return-on-investment analysis for every investment. Social Security agreed with all nine, and the report asks Commissioner Bisignano for a corrective action plan within 60 days.
Money spent, money owed
The $222 million went to technology spending, and nothing in the audit ties it to any change in monthly benefit payments. The link to beneficiaries runs through the Debt Management Product, the system meant to manage the money the agency says beneficiaries owe it, which is among the items on the shelf.
The audit sets out what was spent and what was agreed, and it leaves open the question of when a working replacement might arrive. The signed findings of Michelle L. Anderson’s office, addressed to Commissioner Bisignano, put the total at $222 million.
Responding to an overpayment notice while the agency’s systems lag
The Social Security Check Protection Kit is written for beneficiaries who receive an overpayment notice or a late or missing payment and want the response steps organized before replying. It addresses one practical problem, which is what to do in the first days after a notice arrives.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes an overpayment response worksheet and a guide to the three SSA forms that stop or pause collection, SSA-561, SSA-632 and SSA-634.
Get the overpayment response worksheet and the three SSA collection forms in one kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
