The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a federal district court judge has ordered the Social Security Administration to repay over $500 million improperly withheld from over 80,000 disability and retirement recipients from 2007 through 2009.

According to lawyers who filed a class action suit, SSA ordered its staff to withhold benefits from anyone who was named in an arrest warrant for a federal or state felony.   The problem: many of the affected claimants were not aware of any warrants, in many cases the charges were dropped, and in other cases, SSA erred in identifying the individuals affected.

SSA should have limited its program of withholding benefits to those on the run who are attempting to avoid prosecution or punishment.