If you need a lawyer to help you with an overpayment issue, you are going to have a hard time finding help. Overpayment cases arise when Social Security discovers that they have paid you too much – sometimes for years – and now they want their money back.

In most cases, you will receive a letter that says something like this:

We are writing to give you new information about the disability/retirement/survivors benefits which you receive on this Social Security record. We have determined that you were overpaid in the amount of $30,000. Please refund this overpayment within 30 days.

An explanation of the overpayment will be included. And, to show that they have some compassion, they do include an envelope. If you do not send them the full amount due they will withhold your monthly benefit check for as many months as it takes to recover the overpayment.

Obviously if your Social Security money is your only source of income, this can be a huge problem.

An overpayment can happen for several reasons.

• Perhaps you were found disabled then returned to work under the Ticket to Work or a trial work period program. Social Security may have continued to pay you disability benefits even after you returned to work.
• You could be an SSI recipient whose income and resources exceeded the stingy limits of that program.
• You could be a disabled widow who was receiving benefits under a deceased spouse’s earnings record and now you have remarried.
• The mistake could have been on SSA’s end – they may have advised you that you were eligible for a particular type of benefit but later concluded that you were not so eligible.

Whatever the reason, it is probably a safe bet that you don’t have $10,000, $20,000 or whatever the overpayment number is claimed. What can you do?

If you contend that the overpayment was not your fault and that you cannot afford to repay the overpaid sum, you can fill out form SSA-632 and hope for the best. You can also use this form to request a long term payout.

Unfortunately, Social Security often denies these waiver requests and cuts you off. You then have the burden of trying to convince SSA to restart benefits. You can request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, but that can take 2 years or longer and if you want representation, be prepared to pay a hefty retainer against hourly billing.

Take a look at this article from the Roanoke (Virginia) Times. It describes the case of a 74 year old widow named Sue Farrar who works part time and who was mistakenly overpaid $31,000 by Social Security. The mistake was the fault of the Social Security payment office.

Despite sending letters to her elected representatives and multiple attempts to call the phone number in the overpayment letter, Mrs. Farrar got no response.  Even an unannounced in person visit to her local Social Security office resulted in a brief conversation with an individual “through a little window in the wall” and a denial of her request for waiver.

Like other overpaid claimants Mrs. Farrar could not find a lawyer to help her. Why? Most lawyers who handle Social Security matters work on disability cases under a contingency fee (no fee unless you win) contract. Overpayment cases would require a retainer of several thousand dollars and hourly billing.

In my practice I have handled only one overpayment case – in that case a relative of the client paid my (discounted) fee. Because of the time involved, I usually ask for $3,000 to $4,000 retainer against billing. Obviously most people do not have this kind of money.

When Mrs. Farrar’s waiver request was denied, she filed an appeal and asked for a hearing, Due to the backlog, her hearing would not be held for about 2 years. In the meantime, SSA advised her that they would withhold her monthly benefit in total.

While this was going on, Mrs. Farrar contacted Dan Casey a columnist for the Roanoke Times. He contacted Social Security’s regional commissioner on behalf of Mrs. Farrar and was able to negotiate a long term payout that resulted in the restoration of monthly benefits less $100 to cover the overpayment.

Unfortunately cases like those of Mrs. Farrar are rare. She and her husband were able to at least partially negotiate the SSA administrative process to get to a point where she actually filed an appeal without legal help. Then she found a sympathetic newspaper reporter who was willing to take up her cause and cut through some red tape.

This is clearly an example of how the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” SSA has had enough bad press and the involvement of a newspaper reporter obviously helped.

Overpayment cases rarely result in happy endings but I wanted you to see an example of how a positive result can be achieved.