Elderly Woman With Disabled Son Ordered To Pay Back $63,000 to the SSA

Its is personal responsibility to make sure you are receiving payments, compensation, etc. that are correct.
If SS underpaid her for years she would have a right to ask and receive that money back.
That said, I feel for her and think they should accept a payment schedule not the entire amount at once.
 

It's very easy to jump to conclusions when all the facts are not on the table, and media doesn't always include all the facts. I think it's intentional at times, but I can't prove this. This particular issue lacked a lot of clarity. I spent a lot of time trying to formulate my own opinion about this $63 K issue, and at this point I'm not even trying. I'm in a watch and listen mode only.
 
Ok. I was wrong. She can work with pretty strict rules while drawing disability. The time frames and rules are well defined by the agency. Work and earnings must be reported. She was smart if she was a nurse…and no doubt was educated as to what the work limits were…which was probably why she did not report. She probably assumed she would not get caught.
 

Muskrat said:
Ok. I was wrong. She can work with pretty strict rules while drawing disability. The time frames and rules are well defined by the agency. Work and earnings must be reported. She was smart if she was a nurse…and no doubt was educated as to what the work limits were…which was probably why she did not report. She probably assumed she would not get caught.
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This was my conclusion, too. No idea if something like pension was being drawn as well. Taking it on a media blitz and using terms like "disabled elderly widow" and "terrified" and "poor disabled senior" is going for a sympathy vote. I *really* hope there's not a gofundme!
 
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How does someone not notice being overpaid by that much? If it was over a period of 5 years that would mean she was being overpaid by about a grand a month. Leading up to my retirement I had calculated to a gnats ass how much my monthly social security and pension payments would be. If I had started getting checks that were a thousand dollars more than what I expected them to be I would have picked up the phone and called someone and asked them to recheck their numbers.
 
@Trade …I believe she is being hit with the full amount of benefits paid. She had taken social security disability instead of social security. I assume the amount being higher for disability. Then she did not follow the rules for reporting monies earned while taking disability. This has triggered the government to claw back what they consider monies paid.
 
Naturally said:
I don't understand how the money her son was receiving for disability counts as her income. Because she was maybe claiming him as a dependent or something ?? That should have been money for his survival, not counted as her income. If it was anyone's income, shouldn't it have been her son's income ??

In 2021 she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease that forced her to retire from a 30-year nursing career. And shouldn't the medical care she now requires be covered by medicare ?? I think she's past retirement age ??

Just not a lot of facts in the video. As @MACKTEXAS mentioned, hopefully an attorney will take her case pro bono and get it sorted. She should at least speak with an attorney. More first consults are free and she will have a better idea where she stands.
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Re what I bolded: Me either Naturally. :unsure: If she's not past retirement age, she sure looks like she is.
CallMeKate said:
It wasn't her son's payments in question, but the income she was receiving for being his caregiver. That's the income that is causing the issue, not the son's money. She was "working" and being paid for caring for him, and thus shouldn't have been receiving the payments she was getting. (*Medicaid Care Waiver for son was counted as income for her.)

From news report: "Her adult son with disabilities gets a waiver for his care through Medicaid. The SSA treats the waiver as her income and said she should have never qualified for social security disability in the first place."
Woman told she needs to pay back $63,000 to Social Security Administration by Friday
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I think their system is screwed up plus no matter how you slice it, they screwed up! This woman may have been as confused as I am right now and I'm usually up on these kinds of things. The link you posted (thank you) about the difference between SSI and SSDI and who qualifies for what further confused me. Didn't she qualify, having worked 30 years and having to get infusions for her condition qualify her?

And what does the Medicaid waiver actually signify? Why did her son get it?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Re what I bolded: Me either Naturally. :unsure: If she's not past retirement age, she sure looks like she is.

I think their system is screwed up plus no matter how you slice it, they screwed up! This woman may have been as confused as I am right now and I'm usually up on these kinds of things. The link you posted (thank you) about the difference between SSI and SSDI and who qualifies for what further confused me. Didn't she qualify, having worked 30 years and having to get infusions for her condition qualify her?

And what does the Medicaid waiver actually signify? Why did her son get it?
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She is 59. Not sure why she didn't qualify for insurance after leaving the VA, which along with other questions... remain unanswered. The SSA reviews SSDI on a regular basis, so the timeline would indicate the review in early 2024 caught the mistake.
 

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