An Arizona newspaper that hides its name on its website wrote:
Gaye Kelley spent 50 years in the workforce, doing many jobs: teacher, flight attendant and, eventually, Salt River Project customer-service representative for 30 years. When the Mesa resident retired in 2011, she had accrued a full two years of vacation pay and sick days from SRP. She looked forward to retirement. But instead of fully enjoying it, Kelley was forced to do battle with a big government agency, the Social Security Administration. “It is a frustrating bureaucracy is what it is,” she said. When Kelley retired in April 2011, she started receiving Social Security benefit checks totaling $1,352 a month. But the following year, she began receiving notices that she owed the agency $10,857 in overpayment of benefits. Social Security demanded the money back immediately. Kelley was flabbergasted.
An overpayment is when you receive more money from SSA than the amount you should have been paid. The amount of the overpayment is the difference between the amount you received and the amount due. According to Social Security, causes for an overpayment include many of the following circumstances: your living situation changes, your marital status changes, you have more resources than the allowable limit, you are no longer disabled and continue to receive benefits, you do not report a change to SSA (on time or at all) as required, or SSA incorrectly figures your benefits because of incorrect or incomplete information.
SSA will generally send you a notice explaining the overpayment and ask for a full refund within 30 days. If you are currently getting checks and do not make a full refund, the notice will propose to withhold the overpayment at the rate of the lesser of 10 percent of your total monthly income; state the month the proposed withholding will start; fully explain your appeal rights; explain how you can ask us to have the overpayment reviewed and waived, so you may not have to pay it back; and explain how you can appeal their decision.
If you believe you were not overpaid, you may request reconsideration. If you ask for an appeal within 10 days of the date on the notice, any payment SSA is currently making will continue until SSA makes a decision. You can ask for a waiver at any time. Generally, for SSA to grant you a waiver, you must show that it was not your fault that you were overpaid and you cannot pay back the overpayment because you need the money to meet your ordinary living expenses. SSA will request you submit bills to show that monthly expenses use up all of your income and that it would be a hardship for you to repay. If SSA grants your waiver, you will not have to repay all or part of the overpayment.
