A Maryland senior has blasted the Social Security Administration (SSA) for slashing her monthly retirement benefits. The senior citizen said the SSA slashed her retirement benefits by $233. She claims the issue stems from a decades-old error on her deceased brother’s account.
The retiree, Everlon Moulton, received a Social Security overpayment notice in November 2023. She discovered that the SSA was trying to get back extra money it supposedly paid out to her brother, Robert A. Samuels Jr., in the early 2000s.
“They caught their mistake and tried to collect the money,” Moulton, who lost her brother in 2016, said. “But he had passed.” Unfortunately, Moulton then discovered she was on the hook for her brother’s $6,899 overpayment, which she considered unfair.
“It’s not my fault. I don’t work for Social Security,” she said. “This is my money I earned. I worked for 37 years in Baltimore City Schools, and this is my money.” According to reports, before passing away, Moulton’s brother received around $600 a month in supplemental security income (SSI).
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Notably, this provides critical funds for people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources. However, almost two decades later, the SSA wrote to Moulton. They informed her that her brother had “received more than he should have” in monthly SSI payments.
As a result, the federal agency claimed he owed them $6,899. This debt fell onto Moulton because she acted as her brother’s official payee before his death. In the letter, the agency cited a law passed by Congress. The law allows them to collect SSI overpayments by withholding the representative payee’s Social Security benefits.
“We plan to do so by withholding $233 from your Social Security benefits each month,” the agency wrote to Moulton. “Until we collect the $6,899 that you owe.” However, the proposed $233 monthly deduction from Moulton’s retirement benefits is no small matter. The senior citizen relies on that money to pay essential bills.
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Afterward, Moulton filled out an SSA form requesting the agency reconsider its decision. After several calls to customer service and hearing about her case, the agency decided to review it. SSA also said it would pause the overpayment collection.
“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.” While Moulton’s experience is unfortunate, it is not a rare occurrence.
The SSA reportedly sends overpayment notices to about one million Americans every year. According to KFF Health News, SSA has admitted in the past that many overpayments resulted from errors by the government rather than the people.
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“This is sad because it’s happening to other people, and they need to let you know,” Moulton said. “Who holds them [the SSA] responsible? Somebody needs to.” In the fiscal year 2023 (October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), the SSA reported more than $4.9 billion in recovered overpayments.
However, it says it ended the year with $23 billion of overpayments still uncollected. While the agency has announced plans to simplify overpayment issues for beneficiaries, there is still a long way to go.
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