WASHINGTON — For a year and a half, 11 Investigates has been reporting on the millions of Americans facing Social Security overpayments, by no fault of their own. We’ve heard from countless local families that say they can’t afford to pay back the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars the agency wants to recoup.
Now, with a new administration and the head of the agency resigning, there is even more uncertainty about the future of the agency.
>> Local families told they owe thousands they don’t have after Social Security overpayments
Billy Ross has been receiving Social Security disability payments for 24 years, but now the federal agency says he owes them $36,000 - an amount he says he’ll never be able to pay back.
“Why wait 20 years to do this?” Ross said. “How can someone who’s been disabled for 20 years mysteriously became able?”
>> Changes to how Social Security Administration handles overpayments
Billy Ross is living with HIV and cancer. He had been receiving social security disability payments since 2000; so, when a letter came in the mail saying a medical review determined he no longer qualified, he was stunned and confused.
“I don’t know what I have to do - go to my deathbed?” Ross tells Channel 11. “Is that what I have to do to get a check?”
Ross says it didn’t end there. He was told the federal agency overpaid him $36,000 and they were going to collect it all back by withholding money from his monthly check. He appealed and says they lowered the amount to $21,000 - something he still can’t afford.
“It’s a nightmare,” Ross said. “It’s a nightmare.”
>> Lawmakers calling for congressional hearings after 11 Investigates social security overpayments
Now his monthly checks are reduced to $887, am amount he says he can’t live off of.
“Now you’re taking my money away! Shame on you, shame on you. You are incompetent.”
Martin O’Malley was named the Chief of the Social Security Administration last December. He inherited an underfunded agency, facing a nearly 50-year low in staffing, according to KFF Health News.
O’Malley helped put an end to the cruel policy of withholding 100-percent of checks from beneficiaries who were mistakenly overpaid. Many of whom are elderly, living in poverty or with a disability.
Now the future of the agency is up in the air again, with O’Malley resigning to seek the top spot in the democratic party as committee chairman.
Ross says this time of year makes having less money even more difficult. He says his family keeps Christmas small, but it’s the principle of not being able to do something for someone else.
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