Hello Larry,

Please help me!

SSA is telling me they (over)paid me my lawyer's fee when they deposited my back pay (years ago!) and now want me to pay it back. I have no reason to believe I was overpaid - in fact, I strongly suspect I was underpaid. When the back pay deposits were made to my account, I asked my attorney to tell me the correct amount I should expect - I never heard back from him. SSA also never gave me any accounting of how much I was entitled to. I've explained all this to my lawyer in a letter, but it seems he is mad at me or something, as if I had done something wrong, and doesn't want to represent me in this matter.

Questions:

1) How can I find out what I should have been paid, so I can compare it to what I was paid?

2) How can I find a lawyer to handle this for me, and a good one, with a successful track record of helping people keep their supposed overpay?

3) What are some strategies I can use? Is getting into a mortgage and having no cash left and needing my monthly payments to pay the mortgage and food, etc. the only way? Is that even a sure way, especially if I do it after receiving notice of the overpay? What are some other ways?

4) Would contacting my Senator or Congressman help?

5) If I have to go into a Social Security office for some reason, must I use the one closest to me, or can I go to any SSA office? (I've already had too many traumatic dealings with the one closest to me).

Thank you in advance!

Hello again Larry,

Sorry, forgot a few things:

To clarify, this is a DAC / CDB disability case - Disabled Adult Child, aka Childhood Disability Benefit.

Back pay (and supposed over pay, i.e., attorney's fee) was deposited in 2 lump sums to my account in early 2015 and early 2016.

I'm up against a deadline to appeal - if I can't find a representative in time, I guess I'll have to go into an SSA office myself and request Reconsideration or Waiver, or both - which would be optimal, in order to buy time to find an attorney to fight the inevitable denial from SSA, and maybe buy a home and put all my money into a down payment?

I'm thinking to file for Reconsideration only at this time, because the Waiver form asks very invasive questions about my personal finances (greedy SSA will just think "Aha - he can pay!"). I figure I should first exhaust all the appeals for the Reconsideration, and only then file for a Waiver... does this sound like a good strategy?

Which forms should I use? I found Waiver form SSA-632-BK (04-2019) and Reconsideration form SSA-561-U2 (12-2016), but the latter form says it's only for Supplemental Security Income or Veterans Benefits Reconsideration - neither of which I receive - is there another form I should find somewhere?

Would it help to move to another city or state, away from these people I've been dealing with up til now? Where would I have the best chance of a good outcome, or at least finding an excellent and sympathetic attorney? The area I'm in is a very "red" or conservative part of California, if that makes a difference...

Is there a resource similar to Lexis/Nexis but for SSA case law, so I can do my own research on cases similar to mine, and see the outcomes?

Again, I'm quite sure I've been UNDER paid, not over paid.... how can I make sure I was paid the right amount? Obviously if I really owe my (former) attorney money, I'd gladly pay it - but I'm pretty sure SSA underpaid both the attorney AND me!

Thank you so much for any help you can provide - I feel so alone and vulnerable right now. I know I'm screwed if I can't find a good attorney to fight for me.

Hi,

That's a lot to unpack, so I'll just try to answer your questions in order.

1) Social Security should be able to tell you your correct benefit rates from the time you started drawing until now.

2) I'm don't know how you could find a reliable attorney to handle your case. Most attorneys that advertise themselves as specializing in Social Security cases only handle disability claims. You'll probably need to try searching on the internet or phone directory.

3) If you file for waiver, Social Security will look at the assets you had on hand at the time you were notified of the overpayment, so putting your assets into some other type of investment at this point probably wouldn't help you meet the financial hardship requirement for waiver.

4) Contacting your congressional representative's or senator's office may or may not help, but I don't see how it could hurt.

5) You should be allowed to conduct most Social Security business at any office, but regardless of where you file a request for waiver the office servicing your address would have jurisdiction for making the determination on whether or not you qualify. Reconsideration determinations are not made at the district office level, though. If you file for reconsideration the determination will be made by someone at one of Social Security payment centers.

Form SSA-632 is the correct form to file for a waiver request and form SSA-561 is the correct form to file for reconsideration. Links to both can be found on the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-632.html. Reconsideration requests must normally be filed within 60 days of the date of the notice of the determination that you're appealing. There no set deadline for when you can file a waiver request, but there are too many variables involved for me to opine on if and when it would be best for you to file for waiver.

Moving to another Social Security office's servicing area seems like a drastic step, and it probably wouldn't make any difference in your outcome. Waiver requests are handled at the district office level, though, so I suppose it could at least theoretically make a difference if you go that route.

If you want to try doing your own research into the Social Security law, the following website has links to the Social Security Act and Regulations as well as the employee operations manual (POMS): https://www.ssa.gov/regulations/.

Best, Jerry