Woman fearing homelessness because of Social Security clawbacks: ‘I’m scared to death’

PHOENIX (KPHO/Gray News) - An Arizona woman says she tried to make the most of her first Christmas without her husband last year.

Bonnie Nelson said she made banana bread for her friends and neighbors to bring some joy in an otherwise stressful holiday season.

According to Nelson, she received a letter from the Social Security Administration alerting her that her husband had been overpaid by $34,048.40 from January 2021 through August 2022.

“I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I’m scared to death.”

Nelson said her husband was on disability at the time because of his back and heart.

“He said, ‘We can’t make it. I have to go to work,’” she said.

And Social Security wants the money back, according to Nelson.

“Where is their checks and balances system?” Nelson said. “There isn’t any. They should stop it before it gets started.”

The Social Security Administration said Nelson could request a waiver because of financial hardship.

Nelson said she has submitted a waiver. But since her husband Philip’s death, Social Security has withheld the money she would have received from his record, approximately $1,900 per month.

“My brother paid my bills last month because I have no money,” Nelson said. “I only get $779 a month. I have rent to pay, I have a car payment, and I have insurance, just like everybody else. What am I supposed to do? Live on the streets?”

The Social Security Administration reportedly recovered $4.7 billion in overpayments in 2022, but some still owe $21.6 billion due to overpayments.

“The great majority of overpayments and clawback issues occur for the SSI claimants who are both poor and disabled,” said David Camp, the interim CEO of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives.

According to Camp, there are several ways overpayments can occur.

“They’re caused typically by the difficulty in understanding forms and reporting information to Social Security. These are complicated programs,” he said. “We badly need Social Security to have responsiveness that is modern.”

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego introduced a bipartisan bill limiting the SSA’s overpayment lookback period to 10 years in late December.

“We should not be punishing individual U.S. citizens for a mishap or mistake the U.S. government made. And to financially punish them, to potentially ruin these families on very fixed incomes, it’s not what government should be doing,” Gallego said.

Arizona’s Family reports that a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration said a technician would be reaching out to Nelson to see how SSA could help but that the agency could not answer questions about Nelson’s case because of confidentiality.

“Yeah, they overpaid, but work with me. Let me pay it back a little bit at a time,” Nelson said.

Camp added, “I’ve represented many claimants seeking a waiver and it can stretch on for years, all the while, benefits can be stopped, collection activity is occurring, and that causes an SSI claimant, who is already living on an amount that is poverty level, to lose housing.”

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