A senior citizen from Maryland has raised concerns about the Social Security Administration (SSA) reducing her monthly retirement benefits by $233 due to a mistake dating back several decades on her deceased brother’s account. In November 2023, Everlon Moulton received an unsettling overpayment notice from Social Security. To her surprise, the SSA was attempting to recover additional funds that were allegedly paid to her brother, Robert A. Samuels Jr., in the early 2000s.
“They caught their mistake and tried to collect the money, but he had passed,” Moulton told told 2ABC WMAR News. Prior to his passing in 2006, Moulton’s brother was receiving approximately $600 per month in Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a crucial source of financial support for individuals with disabilities and elderly individuals with limited income or assets.
Nearly twenty years later, the Social Security Administration (SSA) contacted Moulton, stating that her brother had been overpaid in monthly SSI benefits and now owed the agency $6,899. This financial obligation was transferred to Moulton as she was serving as her brother’s authorized payee before his death.
“Congress passed a law that permits us to collect SSI overpayments by withholding from the representative payee’s Social Security benefits,” the agency wrote in a letter to Moulton, obtained by WMAR News. “We plan to do so by withholding $233 from your Social Security benefits each month until we collect the $6,899 that you owe.”
The reduction of $233 from Moulton’s monthly retirement benefits is significant as she depends on this income to cover essential expenses.
To address this issue, the elderly resident of Baltimore completed an SSA form asking for a review of the agency’s decision.
Following numerous calls to customer service and a hearing concerning her situation, she was informed that the collection of the overpayment would be halted while her case underwent further evaluation.
“I’ll tell them that when they discover they’ve made a mistake… eat it! Because, it’s not fair,” said Moulton. “This is not ‘your’ money you’re playing with; it’s our money.”
Moulton’s unfortunate situation is a common occurrence. The Social Security Administration (SSA) sends overpayment notifications to approximately one million individuals annually.
As reported by KFF Health News, the agency has acknowledged that many overpayments stem from government errors rather than the recipients themselves, who are frequently elderly, impoverished, or disabled.
“This is sad because it’s happening to other people and they need to let you know,” Moulton said of the expansive overpayment issue. “Who holds them [the SSA] responsible? Somebody needs to.”
During the fiscal year 2023 (from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), the Social Security Administration (SSA) disclosed that it recovered over $4.9 billion in overpayments. However, the agency closed the year with $23 billion in outstanding overpayments that remained uncollected.
The process of recouping overpayments poses a significant challenge for financially vulnerable individuals, including retirees like Moulton, disabled workers, their dependents, and survivors of deceased workers who rely on Social Security benefits.
While the SSA has introduced measures to streamline the resolution of overpayment issues for beneficiaries, such as extending repayment options, easing the burden of proving fault, and simplifying the waiver request process, individuals like Moulton may still need to invest considerable time and effort to have their cases reviewed and addressed.
