NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. — The Social Security Administration says 1 million people received a notice during the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years that they were overpaid.
The agency is required by law to collect overpayments, but people across the nation say this has put them in impossible positions.
Dave Wilder in Newaygo County says he and his wife, Rose, only felt "sheer panic" when they received a notice that he had to pay back $84,000 to Social Security—money the agency said they were not supposed to pay him during the pandemic.
"He didn't eat for almost two days," Rose said. "He was so depressed and scared. We're both scared, like what do you do when all of a sudden your income is ripped out from under you?"
After receiving the initial notice, Dave said he received a letter saying his social security payments would be cut off as well.
Dave has been on disability since 2012. While working part-time, he said he always worked within the limits and filed everything correctly when asked.
He is now on regular social security but was told he was paid $84,000 when he should have been paid zero as his income was too high, even though the payments were issued.
"The lady told me straight out that during COVID, they weren't allowed to send any notifications out for anything or to change anything," Dave said. "Well, that doesn't make any sense to me. If I was making too much money, why did they keep paying me every month? If it finds that some months I was over, and I have to pay that back, I'm fine with that."
They've said after speaking with workers from the agency, Dave has received his social security check for November and was notified that he'll be paid in December.
However, they don't know yet what will happen after.
"Now it's, I don't know, it's day by day now, whether I'll still be hanging on by my fingernails when I turn 70 and have to keep working longer yet to try to get my finances in order," Dave said.
He said a feeling of uncertainty has taken over at a time when they were looking forward to finally feeling secure.
"We don't know what it's going to be like in two months from right now. We have no idea right at the moment," Rose said. "We have zero income, as far as just from my little bit of Social Security and his part-time job. That's what we'll have."
Dave has been given forms to fill out to state that it would be a financial hardship to pay back this amount and lose his Social Security.
The two said they're frustrated and that the Social Security Administration needs to stop having them pay for the agency's mistakes.
"They laid out the ground rules, and I followed the rules, and then still got penalized for it," Dave said.
The Social Security Administration said in a statement issued in October that:
"Each person’s situation is unique, and the agency handles overpayments on a case-by-case basis. In particular, if a person doesn’t agree that they’ve been overpaid, or believes the amount is incorrect, they can appeal. If they believe they shouldn’t have to pay the money back, they can request that the agency waive collection of the overpayment. There’s no time limit for filing a waiver."
Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, also said her agency is evaluating its overpayment policies.
“Despite our high accuracy rates, I am putting together a team to review our overpayment policies and procedures to further improve how we serve our customers," Kijakazi said.
71 million Americans receive Social Security payments every year, with $1.4 trillion being paid annually.
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