dees_ssiforum
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL
SHORT VERSION:
Out of the blue, first week of 2/2017, SSI writes me they are withholding $73.50 from monthly payment. “As we told you before, we are withholding part of your check to get back money you were overpaid...Starting March, 2017, we will start withholding $73.50. ...This is 10% of your SSI money. If you want us to withhold more or less, please call...”
SSI never sent me any notice stating that I was overpaid, when I was overpaid, or how much I was overpaid. I called them, and was told by 3 different representatives they see no notices sent to me in my records re overpayment. They researched with my claim rep, and claim rep said they did an audit of my claim, and found out the original claim rep forgot to withhold the attorney fees from the back-pay checks they sent me. They said I could file forms for a waiver or reduction in withholding amount.
TIMELINE: Approved SSI: 4/2014
First Check & Back-Pay Check: end of 5/2014.
Second Back-Pay Check: 11/2014
Third Back-Pay Check 5/2015
First Tell Me about withholding: 2/2017
SSI phone representative told me they paid my disability representative 8/2016.
I had no idea they hadnÂ’t paid my disability representative, or hadnÂ’t deducted the money from my back pay checks. I just spent this month trying to organize and re-reading the SSI letters since my first award. (very unwell and disorganized, I just did what they told me to back then). I remember the SSI lady telling me they would automatically deduct my disability representativeÂ’s fee, I wouldnÂ’t have to worry about it. So, when checks came in, I used them to pay back debt.
Question 1: Does anyone know, does SSI ever waive the “overpayment”, really? Especially for attorney fees? Under these circumstances? Both my attorney/disability rep and the SSI phone rep said I could “give it a try, since it doesn’t seem to be my fault, as far as she can see” but, “she doesn’t know, she’s not the one who makes those decisions”. I don’t want to be or appear ungrateful, and I don’t want to annoy my claim rep with unneccessary work, I understood the attorney was to be paid from my back-pay, but I thought they already were. But $3,xxx.00 is an awful lot for me now…
Question 2: Also, $73.50 is not 10% of what I get. All along I’ve been getting about $55 less than that. I never really understood why, never questioned it, (I was just glad to finally be getting something), just thought it was part of their “calculations”, which I did not understand. I have not tried to research it on my own until just recently, which is how I found this site. I just found out I “am not paying a full half” of the allowable household expenses. I didn’t know this is what they were deducting for. I wish I knew now, because that's a lot of money over 3 years...
Also, the SSI rep told me that I am coming up for a review...she said I came up for review in 11/2016...but she doesnÂ’t know when it will be yet. I did recently get a letter asking me about my recent doctor visits which I filled outÂ…
What is the best way for me to proceed? Should I request a waiver, or just a reduction? How do they determine if they will waive it, if they ever do waive overpayments for attorney fees?
If I ask for a waiver, will they be harder with my review? Especially if they do waive it? Will someone get in trouble?
If I ask for a reduction, what is the lowest amount I can pay back per month?
And if I contribute more, will they stop taking the $55 dollars off the total $735 each month?
I am so confused, overwhelmed, all help is appreciated. Thank you.
There are also other issues I am concerned about now, that may crop up in the future. I first had a different attorney on my case, then I went to a second one. They tell me (when I finally thought to ask) the first one wasn’t paid anything, and that he is “closed out”. Can that become another problem later?
SHORT VERSION:
Out of the blue, first week of 2/2017, SSI writes me they are withholding $73.50 from monthly payment. “As we told you before, we are withholding part of your check to get back money you were overpaid...Starting March, 2017, we will start withholding $73.50. ...This is 10% of your SSI money. If you want us to withhold more or less, please call...”
SSI never sent me any notice stating that I was overpaid, when I was overpaid, or how much I was overpaid. I called them, and was told by 3 different representatives they see no notices sent to me in my records re overpayment. They researched with my claim rep, and claim rep said they did an audit of my claim, and found out the original claim rep forgot to withhold the attorney fees from the back-pay checks they sent me. They said I could file forms for a waiver or reduction in withholding amount.
TIMELINE: Approved SSI: 4/2014
First Check & Back-Pay Check: end of 5/2014.
Second Back-Pay Check: 11/2014
Third Back-Pay Check 5/2015
First Tell Me about withholding: 2/2017
SSI phone representative told me they paid my disability representative 8/2016.
I had no idea they hadnÂ’t paid my disability representative, or hadnÂ’t deducted the money from my back pay checks. I just spent this month trying to organize and re-reading the SSI letters since my first award. (very unwell and disorganized, I just did what they told me to back then). I remember the SSI lady telling me they would automatically deduct my disability representativeÂ’s fee, I wouldnÂ’t have to worry about it. So, when checks came in, I used them to pay back debt.
Question 1: Does anyone know, does SSI ever waive the “overpayment”, really? Especially for attorney fees? Under these circumstances? Both my attorney/disability rep and the SSI phone rep said I could “give it a try, since it doesn’t seem to be my fault, as far as she can see” but, “she doesn’t know, she’s not the one who makes those decisions”. I don’t want to be or appear ungrateful, and I don’t want to annoy my claim rep with unneccessary work, I understood the attorney was to be paid from my back-pay, but I thought they already were. But $3,xxx.00 is an awful lot for me now…
Question 2: Also, $73.50 is not 10% of what I get. All along I’ve been getting about $55 less than that. I never really understood why, never questioned it, (I was just glad to finally be getting something), just thought it was part of their “calculations”, which I did not understand. I have not tried to research it on my own until just recently, which is how I found this site. I just found out I “am not paying a full half” of the allowable household expenses. I didn’t know this is what they were deducting for. I wish I knew now, because that's a lot of money over 3 years...
Also, the SSI rep told me that I am coming up for a review...she said I came up for review in 11/2016...but she doesnÂ’t know when it will be yet. I did recently get a letter asking me about my recent doctor visits which I filled outÂ…
What is the best way for me to proceed? Should I request a waiver, or just a reduction? How do they determine if they will waive it, if they ever do waive overpayments for attorney fees?
If I ask for a waiver, will they be harder with my review? Especially if they do waive it? Will someone get in trouble?
If I ask for a reduction, what is the lowest amount I can pay back per month?
And if I contribute more, will they stop taking the $55 dollars off the total $735 each month?
I am so confused, overwhelmed, all help is appreciated. Thank you.
There are also other issues I am concerned about now, that may crop up in the future. I first had a different attorney on my case, then I went to a second one. They tell me (when I finally thought to ask) the first one wasn’t paid anything, and that he is “closed out”. Can that become another problem later?
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