I applied for survivors benefits at age 66 and was told that benefits start in January of the year I urned 66 (2017). Wrong, apparently I was supposed to wait until my 66th birthday, July 31st. Because of this incorrect information I was notified that there had been an $8,000 overpayment. SS has been taking out $50/mo to pay back the overpayment they caused by giving me incorrect info. I switched to my retirement this year when I turned 70. I have now begun receiving bills from SS saying I must pay $864 and an overpayment shown tied to survivor’s benefits as well as the $50 per month they are taking out to pay down $2500 tied to my retirement. I have spoken to SS each time I receive these notices demanding the $864 and so far no one has any idea what this money is, why I am being charged this amount, or how this happened. In September the woman I spoke to told me that you cannot carry a debt on an account that is not active - ok, so why this amount and why wasn’t it moved to my retirement account? Yesterday I was told by the gentleman I spoke to that he could not “see” any history on my account and I needed to call my local office. I just hung up after being on hold for 45 minutes. I tried to use the fraud line to report fraud by the social security office but that didn’t go over well and I was disconnected. Any suggestions?? Thank you.

Hi. It's impossible for me to give you an analysis of your situation without access to your Social Security records. When you switched from survivor benefits to retirement benefits, that shouldn't have created any additional overpayment unless Social Security mistakenly paid you both benefits for a month or more.

If you don't believe that the overpayment amount of which you've been notified is correct, you can file an appeal. Or, if you acknowledge that the overpayment is correct but you weren't at fault in causing the overpayment, and you're either financially unable to repay the overpayment or recovery of the overpayment would be against equity and good conscience, then you can potentially get the overpayment waived (i.e. forgiven). For more information on both options, refer to the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-632.html.

Something else you can consider doing if you continue to have problems with Social Security is to contact the offices of your U.S. representative or one of your U.S. senators to ask them to contact Social Security on your behalf. Oftentimes, inquiries made by a member of Congress can help to expedite resolution of a constituent's problems with Social Security.

Best, Jerry