More than a 12 months after the federal authorities first reduce off her incapacity advantages, Denise Woods drives nightly to strip malls, truck stops, and parking heaps round Savannah, Georgia, searching for a protected place to sleep in her Chevy.
Woods, 51, stated she had rented a three-bedroom home she shared along with her grownup son and grandson till March 2022, when the federal government terminated her incapacity funds with out discover.
According to letters despatched by the Social Security Administration, the company decided it had been overpaying Woods and demanded she ship again practically $58,000.
Woods couldn’t provide you with the cash. So, till February 2026, the company is withholding the $2,048 in incapacity she would have obtained every month.
“I still don’t know how it happened,” stated Woods, who has requested a waiver and is in search of a listening to. “No one will give me answers. It takes weeks or months to get a caseworker on the phone. They have made my life unbearable.”
Kilolo Kijakazi, performing commissioner of the Social Security Administration, instructed a congressional subcommittee in October that her company notifies recipients after they have obtained overpayments and works to “help those who want to establish repayment plans or who seek waiver of the debt.”
But reduction from overpayments goes to solely a comparatively small variety of individuals. And many others face dire penalties: Some change into homeless, are evicted from rental housing, or see their mortgages fall into foreclosures.
The SSA has a painful legacy of excluding Black individuals from advantages. Today the company’s personal revealed analysis reveals its overpayments most frequently hit Black and Hispanic individuals, the poorest of the poor, these with the least training, and people whose medical circumstances are unlikely to enhance.
Woods is one in all hundreds of thousands who’ve been focused within the Social Security Administration’s try to claw again billions of {dollars} it says was wrongly despatched to beneficiaries. Years can cross earlier than the company catches a mistake, and even the little bit further it would ship every month can add up.
In reclaiming it, the federal government is imposing money owed that may attain tens of hundreds of {dollars} towards these least in a position to pay.
‘Wreaking havoc in people’s lives’
KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reporters interviewed individuals who have obtained overpayment notices and nonprofit attorneys who advocate for them and reviewed SSA publications, coverage papers, and congressional testimony.
A 64-year-old Florida man stated he may now not afford hire after his Social Security retirement funds had been garnished final 12 months as a result of he allegedly had been overpaid $35,176 in incapacity advantages. He stated he now lives in a tent within the woods. A 24-year-old Pennsylvania lady residing along with her mom and youthful siblings in public housing misplaced the possibility to purchase her own residence due to an alleged $6,063 overpayment that accrued when she was a baby.
“Social Security overpayments are wreaking havoc in people’s lives,” stated Jen Burdick, an legal professional with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, which represents purchasers who’ve obtained overpayment notices. “They are asking the poorest among us to account for every dollar they get. Under their rules, some people can save up money for a funeral burial but not enough to get housing.”
Woods has lupus and congestive coronary heart failure and struggles to stroll, however she began working part-time after her advantages had been rescinded. She stated she makes $14 an hour transporting railroad crew members in her 2015 Chevy Equinox between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, when she will be able to get assignments and her well being permits it.
The SUV prices $386 a month — a big portion of her earnings — however with out it, Woods stated, she wouldn’t have a job or a spot to sleep.
“My life is just survival now,” Woods stated. “Sometimes I feel like I am just waiting to die.”
The Social Security Administration has stated it’s required by regulation to try to recuperate overpayments. Notices ask beneficiaries to repay the cash immediately. Authorities can even recoup cash by decreasing or halting month-to-month advantages and garnishing wages and federal tax refunds.
Agency officers describe an orderly course of wherein they clarify to beneficiaries the explanation for the overpayment and supply the possibility to attraction the choice and have the fees waived if they can not afford it. One approach to qualify for a waiver is that if “paying us back would mean you could not pay your bills for food, clothing, housing, medical care or other necessary expenses,” in line with a letter despatched to 1 recipient.
Those most impacted by Social Security’s selections, together with individuals with disabilities and widows receiving survivors’ advantages, paint a unique image. They speak about having their advantages terminated with out clarification or warning, an appeals course of that may drag on for years, and an incapability to get solutions from the SSA to even fundamental questions.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a bunch that pushes for the safety and growth of this system, recalled how demanding it was when a colleague’s mom obtained an overpayment discover.
“After weeks of nonstop phone calls, he was able to get the matter resolved, but not before it put his mother in the hospital,” Altman stated. “One can just imagine how much worse it would be for someone for whom English is not their native language, who lacks a high school education, and who is unassisted by such a knowledgeable and caring advocate.”
Problems surrounding the Social Security Administration are aggravated by congressional actions, together with funding shortages that introduced company staffing to a 25-year low by the tip of fiscal 12 months 2022. Even so, advocates for individuals with disabilities say the company does far lower than it may to assist individuals who have been overpaid, usually by way of no fault of their very own.
They stated challenges confronted by beneficiaries underscore how overpayments disproportionately affect Black individuals and different minority teams at the same time as President Joe Biden and Social Security leaders promise to repair racial inequity in authorities applications.
Most overpayments are linked to the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides cash to individuals with little or no earnings who’re disabled, blind, or not less than 65. The majority of SSI recipients are Black, Hispanic, or Asian individuals.
“Congress has turned a blind eye to this,” stated David Weaver, a former affiliate commissioner for analysis, demonstration, and employment assist on the SSA. Politicians “just want to save money. It is misplaced priorities. It is completely inexcusable.”
The Social Security Administration didn’t make its leaders out there for an interview. Spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann declined to reply questions in regards to the instances of Woods and different beneficiaries, citing privateness legal guidelines.
In a written assertion, Tiggemann acknowledged that receiving an overpayment discover will be “unsettling,” however stated the company helps beneficiaries navigate the method and informs them of their rights in the event that they consider they weren’t at fault or can’t repay the debt.
“Even if they do not want to appeal or request a waiver, the notice says to contact us if the planned withholding would cause hardship,” Tiggemann stated. “We have flexible repayment options — including repayment of as low as $10 per month. Each person’s situation is unique, and we handle overpayments on a case-by-case basis.”
Critics say preventing an overpayment discover just isn’t that easy.
Beneficiaries — many challenged by bodily, psychological, or mental disabilities — usually are overwhelmed by advanced paperwork or unable to seek out monetary paperwork which may be years outdated.
The Social Security Administration has the authority to waive overpayments if officers decide recovering them would violate “equity and good conscience,” or the disputed quantity falls under sure thresholds. The company’s steerage additionally says gathering an overpayment “defeats the purpose” when the “individual needs substantially all of their current income to meet their current ordinary and necessary living expenses.”
Advocates for individuals with disabilities contend most overpayments come up from delays in processing paperwork and errors by the Social Security Administration or recipients making harmless errors. The company can waive overpayments when the beneficiary is discovered not at fault.
But in fiscal 12 months 2023, the Social Security Administration collected about $4.9 billion in overpayments with an extra $23 billion but uncollected, in line with an company report. Just $267 million was waived, the report stated.
David Camp, the interim chief govt officer of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, which advocates for enhancements in federal incapacity applications, stated the Social Security Administration is a “broken structure.”
The company typically tries to claw again overpayments from individuals falsely accused of failing to offer required paperwork, Camp stated.
“Dropping off forms at their field offices is not a guarantee” paperwork shall be processed, he stated. “Mail is slow, or it doesn’t get opened. We see it so many times you are left with the idea that has to do with the structure.”
Left destitute
Advocacy teams and others stated they don’t know the way many individuals change into homeless after their advantages are terminated, however they are saying anecdotal accounts are widespread.
A examine discovered that greater than 800,000 incapacity candidates from 2007 to 2017 skilled homelessness. Advocates say it solely is smart that overpayments could lead on extra individuals to change into homeless, since practically 40% of individuals receiving incapacity advantages expertise meals insecurity and can’t sustain with their hire and utility payments, in line with analysis.
Ronald Harrell sleeps within the woods close to Wildwood, Florida, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. He stated he shelters in a tent, cooks his meals on a small grill, and showers at a buddy’s home.
Harrell, 64, stated he rented a room in a home for $125 per week till final 12 months, when the Social Security Administration reduce off his retirement advantages.
A letter the SSA despatched him, dated Feb. 6, 2023, says his advantages are being withheld due to overpayment of $35,176 that accrued when Harrell obtained incapacity funds. The letter acknowledges he has requested the company to decrease his funds.
“I don’t know how they are doing this to me,” Harrell stated. “I did everything by the law.”
Harrell stated he as soon as labored as an HVAC technician, however nerve injury left him unable to work someday round 2002.
He stated he collected incapacity advantages till about 2009, when rehabilitation allowed him to return to the workforce, and he stated he reported the data to the federal authorities. Harrell stated he utilized for early Social Security retirement advantages final 12 months when his well being once more declined.
“I started working when I was 16,” Harrell stated. “I never thought my life would be like this.”
Kijakazi, the performing Social Security commissioner, and others have stated overpayments stem not less than partly from low staffing and finances cuts.
From 2010 to 2023, the company’s customer support finances dropped by 17%, after inflation, in line with a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a assume tank that conducts analysis on authorities applications.
At the identical time, the report says, the variety of Social Security beneficiaries grew by practically 12 million individuals, or 22%.
Jonathan Stein, a former legal professional with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia who has participated in workgroups and conferences with federal officers about entry to Social Security funds for susceptible populations, stated finances cuts can’t totally account for the company’s penchant for denying purposes and terminating advantages.
Officials suspended Supplemental Security Income advantages for about 136,540 individuals in 2019 for “failure to furnish report,” which implies they didn’t meet deadlines or paperwork necessities, Stein stated, regardless of understanding lots of these individuals had been unable to contact the company as a result of they’re homeless or have been evicted and misplaced entry to telephones and computer systems.
That’s greater than double the quantity in 2010, he stated.
“They have an implicit bias for denying benefits,” Stein stated. “It is a very skewed view of integrity. It reinforces a culture of suspicion and prosecution of applicants.”
The 24-year-old Pennsylvania lady who obtained Supplemental Security Income as a baby due to a studying incapacity described her ordeal on the situation that her identify not be revealed. A letter from the Social Security Administration says she obtained an overpayment discover for greater than $6,000.
“It was frustrating,” the lady stated. “You are dealing with nasty people on the phone. I couldn’t get any answers.”
In November 2022, she contacted a nonprofit regulation agency, which helped her file an attraction. One 12 months later, she obtained one other letter from Social Security saying the overpayment had been waived as a result of it was not her fault. The letter additionally stated officers wouldn’t search compensation as a result of she couldn’t afford fundamental wants equivalent to meals and housing with out the month-to-month advantages.
The lady had already paid a worth.
She lived in public housing and the Philadelphia Housing Authority had provided her an opportunity to meet a long-held aim of proudly owning a home. But when the overpayment appeared on her credit score report, she stated, she couldn’t get hold of a mortgage.
“I was excited about getting my own home,” she stated. “That’s what everybody wants. Losing it is not a good feeling.”
____
David Hilzenrath of KFF Health News, Jodie Fleischer of Cox Media Group, and Ben Becker of MotionNewsJax in Jacksonville, Florida, contributed to this report.
___
(KFF Health News, previously generally known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working applications of KFF — the impartial supply for well being coverage analysis, polling and journalism.)
©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”