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Hopefully this is the right subforum; I figured either here or the legal section of the Ask/Tell megathread. I am a permanently disabled individual age 29. I lost a leg to cancer when I was 12 and have been on and off collecting Social Security Disability since then. Some years I've worked full-time and made enough not to collect, often I'm hopping between lovely temp jobs and needing it to supplement. I definitely can't do any work that involves climbing, running, heavy lifting, etc. The amputation is very high up the leg above the knee so I'm pretty limited, though I can definitely walk and stand as much as I need to. Now over the past 3 years or so I've had to move very frequently. Once it was because a landlord didn't tell me he had plans to sell my property after 6 months and immediately after that a different landlord tried to hide that his property had a severe bed bug infestation that forced me to move out within the first month. I got no money back for this, including my first month's rent or security deposit. Legally I had no recourse because I couldn't PROVE he knew about them, and I lost most of my belongings. I mention the moving around a lot because I just received in the mail from Social Security that I need to provide them earnings information from 2017 until now. I guess they tried sending this to me multiple times and this one was dated September something. I assume they just kept sending it to old addresses that I wasn't at long enough to receive the paperwork. The problem is that I'm 99% certain I'll lose all my benefits once I report this information. Two of the jobs from 2017 were very low paying so no worries about making too much money then, but my current job I believe the math adds up so that I make like $100 too much a month to qualify. When I started this job it probably wasn't the case because my annual raise recently lifted me up just barely. They already have annual information from tax filing, so they know what I brought in gross over the course of 2017-2018 but they want weekly and/or monthly reports that break it down more. SS benefits effectively double my income by the way. (I get about $1100 in benefits/month) I work part time for 22-28 hours a week and make about as much a month from that as I get in benefits. So yeah, I'm still pretty drat poor with benefits included. Without them, I'm probably moving ASAP due to rent costs. I have a couple questions I guess: 1. If I just ignore the letter, what happens? My assumption is that a few to several months will go by and suddenly I'll stop receiving payments or maybe I'll get a letter first before that happens. Either way, looking at tax information they'll decide I make too much. The in-depth might at least show them how certain weeks/months I make more or less than others. 2. Will they just outright cancel ALL benefits or subtract from what I'm getting? It would make sense to me that they'd just subtract whatever amount I'm making OVER the income limit, but something tells me it's all or nothing. I ask here because I don't want to talk about being somewhat shady with an actual SS representative. Plus they've been kind of dicks before at my local office about things. Like once I had more than $2000 in my account for a few months and they billed me because I guess that was a criteria? I was unemployed and living in my dad's basement but since I managed to BARELY save 2k that meant I wasn't qualified for benefits. I acknowledge that I'm scamming a bit. I've figured for a year or so now that I probably make a bit over the limit. But as far as I figured, enough rich fucks game the system so gently caress it I'll take some measly supplemental income. I think time's up now though and I'm probably going to have to make some big changes soon either in living situation or job.
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Jan 2, 2020 23:56
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| # ? May 5, 2024 14:34 |
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What you need to do is make an appointment to talk to a lawyer in person who specializes in this kind of issue. -signed, a lawyer who does not specialize in this kind of issue. Sorry, I wish I could be more help, but the advice is good. People here really can't answer your question, and to get a good answer you are going to need to give a lot of personal information that you definitely don't want to post on the internet.
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Jan 3, 2020 02:20
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as someone who used to work as a technician for social security but not directly with disability reviews...Grimdude posted:1. If I just ignore the letter, what happens? My assumption is that a few to several months will go by and suddenly I'll stop receiving payments or maybe I'll get a letter first before that happens. Either way, looking at tax information they'll decide I make too much. The in-depth might at least show them how certain weeks/months I make more or less than others. my guess is that without a response they would eventually either suspend your benefit or terminate it (harder to reinstate). if they have tax info they would probably make assumptions based on that. if they do it retroactively, you would be overpaid. if you don't pay the overpayment, they can take it from any tax refund you're due, or garnish your wages. they would give you warning (due process) at least before making any changes to your benefit. idk if there are any worse potential ramifications like fraud if you knew you were making over the limit and didn't report it. they do assess earnings on a monthly basis to see if there are any months they can pay you for. and you get a trial work period where you still get payments no matter what, and then an extended period of eligibility for payments during months you are below the limit. Grimdude posted:I ask here because I don't want to talk about being somewhat shady with an actual SS representative. Plus they've been kind of dicks before at my local office about things. Like once I had more than $2000 in my account for a few months and they billed me because I guess that was a criteria? I was unemployed and living in my dad's basement but since I managed to BARELY save 2k that meant I wasn't qualified for benefits. running into an asset limit like that is for SSI benefits, not regular disability benefits. and yeah it's a real lovely rule but that's the law sadly. the only good news I have is that if you go in and give them all the true info and end up overpaid, you can negotiate a low repayment rate. I used to see people paying back $10/mo on tens of thousands of dollars of debt all the time.
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Jan 3, 2020 22:34
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Thanks. And yeah you're right about repayment being negotiable. Last time they just asked what I could afford from time to time. Some months it was like 100 others only 25. I'll just turn in the info this week. Maybe pick up more hours at work if and when they stop payments.
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Jan 6, 2020 23:27
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