Broadcast reporting Award
ENTRY WINNERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jodie Fleischer, Josh Wade, David Hilzenrath, Staff of Cox Media Group and KFF Health News
ENTRY EXPLANATION
“Social Security should be to help people, not to destroy them.”
No sentiment conveys the essence of “Social Security’s Secret” better than the one above – from a 70-year-old woman who cares for her disabled niece and depends on Social Security to survive. They live on a fixed income and received a demand letter to repay $60,000 – from the very government agency tasked with supporting them.
They were suffering without a voice until our investigation revealed a systemic crisis within the Social Security Administration and ultimately led to significant policy changes.
We exposed how millions of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable people have been ordered to repay billions of dollars in benefits – money the agency sent them, then later said they shouldn’t have received.
It’s information the agency sought to hide by dodging questions, denying a FOIA request, and presenting misleading testimony to Congress, which we later revealed, prompting the head of the agency to apologize.
We showed how the SSA reduced or suspended checks to recoup alleged debts which were often created by the agency’s own miscalculations and were years or decades old.
Our investigative and narrative storytelling featured the immense toll on the people Social Security was designed to help, including some who were forced into homelessness. We conveyed personal stories within our communities, giving a face to what otherwise might have been another forgettable story on a failed government system.
Our reporting triggered a rare spirit of unity from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and prompted numerous calls for accountability. The SSA announced an internal policy review. The House Social Security subcommittee convened a hearing and cited our reporting.
Two months later, we obtained an internal SSA document which showed 2 million Americans are hit with overpayments each year – twice as many as the acting commissioner had told Congress.
“Social Security’s Secret” was written, produced, and aired in 2024 to chronicle our year of collaborative reporting, which included more than 150 news stories. The special offers in-depth storytelling and a transparent look at how it originated, how we exposed the true number of people impacted, and the systemic challenges that persist to this day.
In March, the SSA announced reforms to stop what the new commissioner called the “clawback cruelty” of withholding 100% of benefits to recoup an overpayment. The agency also made notices easier to understand, shifted the burden of proof, and gave beneficiaries more time to repay debts.
“Sometimes it takes a crisis, sometimes it takes an organization like yours lifting up a shortcoming for us to look at our data differently,” said Commissioner Martin O’Malley. “We couldn’t allow this injustice to continue.”
The National Press Foundation recently honored “Social Security’s Secret” with the 2024 Feddie Award for outstanding reporting about the impact of federal laws and regulations on local communities.
Our earlier reporting was honored as a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Public Service, with the inaugural Goldsmith Special Citation for Government Reporting, a National Headliner Award, and honors from the Association of Health Care Journalists, SABEW, SPJ DC Dateline Awards for Investigative Journalism, and the Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award honoring journalism aimed at protecting the public from abuses by those who would betray the public trust.
The Social Security Administration has since restored benefits for many of the people we featured.
