SSI

COVID-19 relief payments weren’t supposed to cost people their Social Security benefits, but some recipients say they did. Senators want to know why.

Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi was pressed by a House subcommittee to explain why so many poor, disabled or retired people are suddenly hit with demands that can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

Some Social Security beneficiaries say the government is clawing back benefits after they received stimulus payments that were supposed to be exempt from asset limits.

In the wake of an investigation by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group, the SSA acting commissioner said a special team will review “overpayment policies and procedures” and report directly back to her.

Lawmakers are faulting the SAA for issuing billions in payments that beneficiaries weren’t entitled to receive — and then demanding the money back — as reported by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group.

Beneficiaries in five states described what happened when they received demands to return overpayments that reached up to tens of thousands of dollars or more.

With little or no income, disability applicants are seeking Social Security early retirement benefits even though it could cost them tens of thousands of dollars in future income, lawyers say.

A Florida man found mentally incapable of caring for himself spent most of the $400,000 he won on a lottery scratch-off ticket and now may lose the…