Covid relief payment jeopardized Social Security

Written by David Hilzenrath and Jody Fleischer

As the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has provided an economic lifeline to many Americans.

But some recipients claim the coronavirus relief payments have threatened their Social Security benefits and caused financial hardship.

The government is demanding they pay back even more money, including thousands of dollars in benefits for the poor and disabled handed out by the Social Security Administration.

“The government single-handedly gave them this money. They shouldn’t have to give it back,” said Jen Burdick, an attorney with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, who has helped many people contest requests for repayment. he says.

Joe Vaughn, a 63-year-old disabled New Mexico resident, received $3,200 in federal coronavirus relief. She then received a letter from the Social Security Administration dated August 25, 2023, stating that she owed the government $14,026.

“They’re going to send me to the grave very early,” Vaughn said.

The COVID-19 repossessing lawsuit claims the Social Security Administration has overpaid beneficiaries, many of whom are extremely vulnerable, and is trying to protect them from the trauma caused by asking them to get their money back. It shows.

And collection activities demonstrate the limitations and dysfunctions that have come to define government agencies.

Social Security Administration spokeswoman Nicole Tiggemann declined to comment for this article or arrange an interview with the agency’s acting director, Kiroro Kijakazi.

In the wake of recent research According to KFF Health News and Cox Media Group, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate called for action Regarding the Social Security Administration issue. The agency announced that We are reviewing Unique and house panels are A public hearing is scheduled to be held. October 18th.

Mr. Vaughn and the other recipients did not request the coronavirus funds. The checks, known as economic impact or stimulus checks, were automatically deposited into mailboxes and bank accounts in three installments in 2020 and 2021. depending on the recipient’s incomeThat comes to a total of $3,200 per person.

This payment will reduce some beneficiaries’ bank balances to the personal asset limits of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program for people who are blind, disabled, or over 65 and have little or no income or assets. It exceeded $2,000. This cap has not been adjusted for inflation for decades and could potentially discourage people from working or saving more than a dangerously small amount of money.

In some cases, the Social Security Administration belatedly noticed the increase in bank balances and concluded that the beneficiary was no longer eligible for SSI, according to those affected. The agency then set out to reclaim his years of SSI benefits, which he says he never should have received.

The agency stopped sending monthly benefit checks, even though beneficiaries challenged the action.

The ripple effects could also disrupt healthcare. Darcy Milburn of the disability advocacy group The Ark said that in most states, receiving SSI qualifies you for Medicaid, so suspending SSI benefits could jeopardize coverage of public health insurance programs. He said that there is a sex.

Vaughn, who sustained a disabling injury while working as a cook at a truck stop, said he relies on the $557 he receives each month from SSI. She hasn’t been since August, she said.

Her only income left is her monthly Social Security retirement payment of $377.

“I’m scared of being homeless,” she said by phone. “I don’t want to be on the street.”

To make matters worse, she said in an email: “If I don’t get the money back, I’ll just say I have my will ready.”

Acts that violate the agency’s own policies

COVID-19 relief payments are not supposed to trigger Social Security revocation.

Early in the pandemic, the Social Security Administration announced it would exclude 12 months of payments when evaluating people’s SSI eligibility. It later announced that it would ban them indefinitely.

But what government agencies say and what they do, and what they are actually capable of, are often very different, say those who study the agency.

“It’s not clear that SSA knows where the funds in beneficiaries’ accounts are coming from,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy. Focus on budget and policy priorities.

“As far as we know, SSA does not have any tools to implement permanent exemptions from resource limits,” Romig said.

It’s unclear how many people received Social Security revocation notices due to coronavirus relief payments.

Additionally, beneficiaries may not be aware that their stimulus payments may be the source of the alleged overpayments. As a result, they may not be equipped to challenge clawbacks.

“Many people are getting caught up in inaccurate or inappropriate overpayment notices because of their stimulus money,” said Burdick, a legal aid attorney in Philadelphia. She estimated that her office alone has seen about 100 such cases.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked the Social Security Administration in September 2021 to report how many people had their SSI payments reduced or cut off due to stimulus payments. Asked. In its written response, The agency did not say.

At the time, Wyden said the agency’s decision to indefinitely exclude stimulus payments from asset limits “may have come too late for many struggling families.”

The Citizens with Disabilities Consortium, an umbrella group for advocacy groups, had already warned of this issue in May 2021. In a letter to the Finance Committee, the group said it was concerned that some people “may have their benefits reduced as they recover.” An overpayment that should never have been assessed. ”

Vaughan said she saved up her coronavirus stimulus fund to leave herself with money to fall back on.

When the Social Security Administration told her she had been over the asset limit for more than two years, the agency did not mention stimulus payments. But Vaughn looked at her bank records and concluded she was to blame for the coronavirus payments.

lost in the system

Dave Gruhn of North Carolina said that in the case of his 43-year-old disabled daughter Julia, the cause of the overpayment notice was clear.

The reason her assets exceeded the limit is because the same government deposited a $3,200 stimulus payment directly into her bank account and is now demanding repayments of nearly twice that amount, Gruene said. Told.

How does he know?

Groene said the only money that went into Julia’s account were SSI payments and COVID-19 relief payments.

In April 2023, two years after Julia’s last stimulus payment, authorities notified Gruene that he had been overpaying her since September 2020.

First, it said she owed $7,374.72. She later revised it to $6,253.38.

Gruene said Julia was blind and “completely disabled” due to cerebral palsy and mental illness. Her family was saving her stimulus money to buy her a new wheelchair, she said.

In that communication, the agency pointed to Julia’s checking account balance as the basis for discovering she was over the $2,000 asset limit. The agency noted that it does not take into account the value of a home, a single vehicle, or “burial payments of up to $1,500.” But he did not warn Grunet that the COVID-19 stimulus payments should not count toward the cap, per his own policy. He figured it out himself.

Gruene said he immediately filed an appeal online.

In July, at the direction of an agency representative, he drove 45 minutes to a Social Security office in Raleigh and delivered a stack of bank statements and an appeal form.

Mr. Groene, 64, who is retired from a career in real estate, records numerous unsuccessful telephone follow-up efforts. He remained on hold for 15 minutes before the call hung up. He remained on hold for 46 minutes before the call was disconnected.

He said he eventually contacted one person and was told that the agency had not received any records of the appeal he filed online or the documents he had handed over.

Meanwhile, Social Security stopped paying Julia’s monthly benefits. The last payment, $609.34, arrived six months ago, he said.

Late last month, the county government sent Julia a notice saying the county was reviewing her Medicaid eligibility because the Social Security Administration had stopped her SSI test.

“And without Medicaid, that would be a big problem,” Gruene said. “I’m really pissed off right now.”

“There’s a lot of anxiety.”

In early 2021, about a year after the first Economic Impact Payments, known as EIPs, were distributed, the Social Security Administration announced thatemergency message”

It provided instructions to staff on how to process payments and included information that may be helpful to SSI beneficiaries.

The report develops and excludes EIP from “resources,” or assets, only if the individual claims to have received and retained amounts that could affect eligibility.

He also instructed the staff to accept the beneficiaries’ words at face value. “I accept the person’s claim,” he said.

Martin Helmer, 77, of Denver, said it took a toll on him to speak out when the Social Security Administration made a mistake involving his son’s benefits.

He said he felt he was treated as guilty until proven innocent.

“I was very nervous,” Helmer said. “Especially when you see how stubborn they are about everything.”

Helmer manages the benefits of her 40-year-old son, Quinn, who suffers from mental illness. In July, the Social Security Administration sent a letter alleging in part that Quinn had received more than $17,000 in benefits since May 2021 that he was not eligible for.

His benefits will now be reduced, officials said.

Helmer concluded that the main issue is the coronavirus stimulus payments. Aside from Social Security benefits, that was all that went into Mr. Quinn’s account.

Helmer, a former auditor and IRS employee, spent several days studying the agency’s manual. He challenged his agency’s actions and won.

He worries about how others will fare and how his son will fare without him.

“I think people with disabilities and their caregivers probably have less energy than the average person to deal with something like this, even though they already deal with so much,” he said.

Madison Carter of WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina, contributed to this report.