{"id":2170,"date":"2023-12-20T10:26:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T10:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2023-12-20T10:27:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T10:27:08","slug":"i-am-just-waiting-to-die-social-security-clawbacks-drive-some-into-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2170","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Am Just Waiting to Die\u2019: Social Security Clawbacks Drive Some Into Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than a year after the federal government first cut off her disability benefits, Denise Woods drives nightly to strip malls, truck stops, and parking lots around Savannah, Georgia, looking for a safe place to sleep in her Chevy.<\/p>\n

Woods, 51, said she had rented a three-bedroom house she shared with her adult son and grandson until March 2022, when the government terminated her disability payments without notice.<\/p>\n

According to letters sent by the Social Security Administration, the agency determined it had been overpaying Woods and demanded she send back nearly $58,000.<\/p>\n

Woods couldn\u2019t come up with the money. So, until February 2026, the agency is withholding the $2,048 in disability she would have received each month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t know how it happened,\u201d said Woods, who has requested a waiver and is seeking a hearing. \u201cNo one will give me answers. It takes weeks or months to get a caseworker on the phone. They have made my life unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, told a congressional subcommittee<\/a> in October that her agency notifies recipients when they have received overpayments and works to \u201chelp those who want to establish repayment plans or who seek waiver of the debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

But relief from overpayments goes to only a relatively small number of people. And many others face dire consequences: Some become homeless, are evicted from rental housing, or see their mortgages fall into foreclosure.<\/p>\n

The SSA has a painful legacy<\/a> of excluding Black people from benefits<\/a>. Today the agency\u2019s own published research shows<\/a> its overpayments most often hit Black and Hispanic people, the poorest of the poor, those with the least education, and those whose medical conditions are unlikely to improve.<\/p>\n

Woods is one of millions who have been targeted in the Social Security Administration\u2019s attempt to claw back billions of dollars<\/a> it says was wrongly sent to beneficiaries. Years can pass before the agency catches a mistake, and even the little bit extra it might send each month can add up.<\/p>\n

In reclaiming it, the government is imposing debts that can reach tens of thousands of dollars against those least able to pay.<\/p>\n

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